Articles | Volume 13, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3225-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3225-2016
Research article
 | 
03 Jun 2016
Research article |  | 03 Jun 2016

Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment-charcoal records to improve data–model comparisons

Jennifer R. Marlon, Ryan Kelly, Anne-Laure Daniau, Boris Vannière, Mitchell J. Power, Patrick Bartlein, Philip Higuera, Olivier Blarquez, Simon Brewer, Tim Brücher, Angelica Feurdean, Graciela Gil Romera, Virginia Iglesias, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Brian Magi, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, and Tonishtan Zhihai

Abstract. The location, timing, spatial extent, and frequency of wildfires are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, producing substantial impacts on ecosystems, people, and potentially climate. Paleofire records based on charcoal accumulation in sediments enable modern changes in biomass burning to be considered in their long-term context. Paleofire records also provide insights into the causes and impacts of past wildfires and emissions when analyzed in conjunction with other paleoenvironmental data and with fire models. Here we present new 1000-year and 22 000-year trends and gridded biomass burning reconstructions based on the Global Charcoal Database version 3 (GCDv3), which includes 736 charcoal records (57 more than in version 2). The new gridded reconstructions reveal the spatial patterns underlying the temporal trends in the data, allowing insights into likely controls on biomass burning at regional to global scales. In the most recent few decades, biomass burning has sharply increased in both hemispheres but especially in the north, where charcoal fluxes are now higher than at any other time during the past 22 000 years. We also discuss methodological issues relevant to data–model comparisons and identify areas for future research. Spatially gridded versions of the global data set from GCDv3 are provided to facilitate comparison with and validation of global fire simulations.

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Short summary
We reconstruct spatiotemporal variations in biomass burning since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using the Global Charcoal Database version 3 (including 736 records) and a method to grid the data. LGM to late Holocene burning broadly tracks global and regional climate changes over that interval. Human activities increase fire in the 1800s and then reduce it for most of the 20th century. Burning is now rapidly increasing, particularly in western North America and southeastern Australia.
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