Terrestrial plant microfossils in palaeoenvironmental studies, pollen, microcharcoal and phytolith. Towards a comprehensive understanding of vegetation, fire and climate changes over the past one million years

Daniau, Anne-Laure; Desprat, Stéphanie; Aleman, Julie C.; Brémond, Laurent; Davis, Basil; Fletcher, William J.; Marlon, Jennifer R.; Marquer, Laurent; Montade, Vincent; Morales‐Molino, César; Naughton, Filipa; Rius, Damien; Urrego, Dunia H.

doi:10.1016/j.revmic.2019.02.001

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 470 publications

(515 reference statements)

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“…Charcoal, commonly used as a proxy to indicate past fire activity, is a carbonaceous material produced by incomplete combustion of biomass with temperatures between 280°C and 500°C (Whitlock & Larsen, 2002). Microcharcoal abundance in marine sediments reflects general fire occurrence on a regional scale, representing fire frequency, intensity, and extent (Beaufort et al, 2003;Daniau et al, 2010Daniau et al, , 2019. Combining sedimentary charcoal record with combustion-derived molecular markers, such as levoglucosan (a monosaccharide anhydrate compound) and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is a promising new way of reconstructing fire intensity (Argiriadis et al, 2018;Battistel et al, 2017;Dietze et al, 2019;Miller et al, 2017;Schreuder et al, 2019;Schüpbach et al, 2015;Shanahan et al, 2016;Sikes et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Ruan

Mohtadi

Dupont

et al. 2020

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Fire causes dramatic energy and matter exchanges between biosphere and atmosphere on a regional to global scale. Predicting fires, however, is hindered by the complex interplay of fire, climate, and vegetation. Paleo-fire records provide critical information beyond instrumental records that cover only the past few decades and may be used to assess the role of fire in large-scale and long-term environmental changes. Here we present a 22,000-year multiproxy record of fire regime from a sediment core retrieved offshore South Java, Indonesia. We use microcharcoal in combination with two molecular markers of burning, levoglucosan and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, to reconstruct fire occurrence as well as fire intensity in the past. We show that fire occurrence and intensity were high during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; around 21,000 years ago) and low during the Heinrich Stadial 1 and the early Holocene. Both fire regime and vegetation in tropical regions with high annual rainfall were primarily controlled by rainfall seasonality. However, fire additionally stabilized the savannah (rainforest)-dominated ecosystem during the LGM (early Holocene) but caused transitions between the two vegetation types during the deglaciation and the late Holocene. Changes in fire regime are often not resolved in paleo-records (Archibald et al., 2018; Han et al., 2016). Charcoal, commonly used as a proxy to indicate past fire activity, is a carbonaceous material produced by incomplete combustion of biomass with temperatures between 280°C and 500°C (Whitlock & Larsen, 2002). Microcharcoal abundance in marine sediments reflects general fire occurrence on a

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Ruan

Mohtadi

Dupont

et al. 2020

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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“…In the ocean, fine particles become an integral part of the marine snow, reaching the sea floor within a few days or weeks 35,36 . In addition, the latitudinal pollen distribution in marine surface sediments represents faithfully the vegetation distribution on the adjacent continent 32,35,[37][38][39] . Although microcharcoal and pollen share similar fluvial behaviour during fluvial transport, they however behave slightly differently during aerial dispersal due to differing physicalmechanical characteristics 40 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Microscopic charcoals in ocean sediments off Africa track past fire intensity from the continent

Haliuc

Daniau

Mouillot

et al. 2023

Commun Earth Environ

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Fires in Africa account for more than half of global fire-carbon emissions but the long-term evolution of fire activity and its link to global climate change remains elusive. Paleofire records provide descriptive information about fire changes through time, going beyond the range of satellite observations, although fire regime characteristics are challenging to reconstruct. To address this conceptual gap, we report here the abundance and morphometric data for a large set of microscopic charcoal samples (n = 128) recovered from surface ocean sediments offshore Africa. We show that in subtropical Southern Africa, large and intense fires prevailing in open savanna-grassland ecosystems produce a high abundance of small and elongated microcharcoal particles. In contrast, in the forest ecosystems of equatorial and tropical regions of western and central Africa, low-intensity fires dominate, producing low amounts of squared microcharcoal particles. Microcharcoal concentration and morphotype in marine sediment records off Africa are thus indicative of fire regime characteristics. Applied to down-core marine charcoal records, these findings reveal that at orbital time-scale intense and large, open grassland-savanna fires occurred during wet periods in the sub-tropical areas. A strong contribution of fire carbon emissions during periods of precession and summer insolation maxima in the geological record is thus expected.

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“…The series of procedures needed to obtain an individual fossil pollen record are outlined by e.g. Birks and Birks (1980), Daniau et al (2019), Faegri and Iversen (1964) and Faegri et al (1989). In brief, a sediment record is obtained by various extraction methods such as 'coring' (Box 1) lake sediments or mires, excavating a soil section or collecting sediments from cave walls and archaeological sites, among many others.…”

Section: Obtaining a Fossil Pollen Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

A guide to the processing and standardization of global palaeoecological data for large‐scale syntheses using fossil pollen

Flantua

Mottl

Felde

et al. 2023

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim Palaeoecological data are crucial for comprehending large‐scale biodiversity patterns and the natural and anthropogenic drivers that influence them over time. Over the last decade, the availability of open‐access research databases of palaeoecological proxies has substantially increased. These databases open the door to research questions needing advanced numerical analyses and modelling based on big‐data compilations. However, compiling and analysing palaeoecological data pose unique challenges that require a guide for producing standardized and reproducible compilations. Innovation We present a step‐by‐step guide of how to process fossil pollen data into a standardized dataset compilation ready for macroecological and palaeoecological analyses. We describe successive criteria that will enhance the quality of the compilations. Though these criteria are project and research question‐dependent, we discuss the most important assumptions that should be considered and adjusted accordingly. Our guide is accompanied by an R‐workflow—called FOSSILPOL—and corresponding R‐package—called R‐Fossilpol—that provide a detailed protocol ready for interdisciplinary users. We illustrate the workflow by sourcing and processing Scandinavian fossil pollen datasets and show the reproducibility of continental‐scale data processing. Main Conclusions The study of biodiversity and macroecological patterns through time and space requires large‐scale syntheses of palaeoecological datasets. The data preparation for such syntheses must be transparent and reproducible. With our FOSSILPOL workflow and R‐package, we provide a protocol for optimal handling of large compilations of fossil pollen datasets and workflow reproducibility. Our workflow is also relevant for the compilation and synthesis of other palaeoecological proxies and as such offers a guide for synthetic and cross‐disciplinary analyses with macroecological, biogeographical and palaeoecological perspectives. However, we emphasize that expertise and informed decisions based on palaeoecological knowledge remain crucial for high‐quality data syntheses and should be strongly embedded in studies that rely on the increasing amount of open‐access palaeoecological data.

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Terrestrial plant microfossils in palaeoenvironmental studies, pollen, microcharcoal and phytolith. Towards a comprehensive understanding of vegetation, fire and climate changes over the past one million years

Cited by 18 publications

References 470 publications

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Microscopic charcoals in ocean sediments off Africa track past fire intensity from the continent

A guide to the processing and standardization of global palaeoecological data for large‐scale syntheses using fossil pollen

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