Tracking recorded fires using charcoal morphology from the sedimentary sequence of Prosser Lake, British Columbia (Canada)

Abstract

Quantitative analyses of variations in morphological features of charcoal were undertaken in a 210Pb-dated sediment core from Prosser Lake (British Columbia, Canada). Seven morphological types of charcoal were defined by particle shape, major–minor axis ratio, apparent porosity and progradation to unburned material. The distribution of morphotypes and total charcoal abundances were assessed as a proxy for fire events recorded between 1919 and 2000 and to subsequent mechanisms of transportation–sedimentation to lake sediments. Charcoal morphotypes showed distinct relationships to recorded area burned by fires. Fragile charcoal fragments with highly irregular porosity (termed Type M) displayed the strongest correlation to burned area (r2 = 0.51; P = 0.0001) and did not produce any false-positive signal for fires recorded within a radius of 20 km around the lake. We infer that high porosity and low density Type M fragments are aerially transported and directly deposited on the lake, and that the fragility of Type M charcoal prevents significant quantities from being secondarily transported and incorporated into the sedimentary record. We propose that charcoal morphology is an important but underutilized technique that can yield important insights into fire type, proximity and transportation–sedimentation processes.

Impact of forest fires generated black carbon deposition fluxes in Great Hinggan Mountains (China)

“…Local fire intensity can influence soil carbon pools and can convert organic matter in surface soils to BC or can even consume BC in strong fires (Cordeiro et al, ; Czimczik, Schmidt, & Schulze, ; Hobley, Brereton, & Wilson, ). Most BC produced by local fire is deposited into the surrounding soil or sediment surfaces and can thus be used to reconstruct the fire history around sedimentary cores (Enache & Cumming, ). Peatlands, with slow rates of decomposition under anaerobic conditions and continuous inputs by deposition (Martini, Cortizas, & Chesworth, ), can provide ideal archives of BC for reconstructing BC deposition history.…”

Holocene fire regimes, vegetation and biogeochemistry of an ecotone site in the Great Lakes Region of North America

“…Three recent advances in charcoal‐based reconstructions of fire regimes, including classification strategies for charcoal morphotypes (e.g. Enache & Cumming , ; Jensen et al. ), statistical decomposition and peak detection techniques (Higuera et al.…”

“…Three recent advances in charcoal-based reconstructions of fire regimes, including classification strategies for charcoal morphotypes (e.g. Enache & Cumming 2006Jensen et al 2007), statistical decomposition and peak detection techniques (Higuera et al 2009), and statistical quantification of fire regimes (Morris et al 2013) provide useful information about long-term wildfire dynamics. Using these approaches, the Comstock Lake charcoal record provides a detailed reconstruction of wildfire at this site.…”

Reconstruction of the fire history in the Siedlungskammer Burgweinting (Bavaria, Germany) in relation to settlement and environmental history

“…The samples were completely counted, but not identified. All particles with the characteristic attributes (black, completely opaque, angular, with a silvery lustre in incident light) were counted as charcoal fragments (Swain 1978;Patterson et al 1987;Clark 1988;Rhodes 1998;Enache & Cumming 2006). For the comparison of the results, the absolute counts were converted to parts per gram (ppg).…”