How did the #intensity of #wildfires change throughout the past in one of the coldest regions in the world? 🔥❄️📉
To answer this question, we used #BPCAs from sediment samples from #Yakutia, #Siberia. Find our results, now published open access, here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818126000299
@wildfirescience @paleofire @ecology @academicchatter #paleofire #siberia #paleoecology #newresearch
New publication! 🔥
Led by Ziru Hao and Kai Li from Zhejiang Normal University, this study in Quaternary Science Reviews reconstructs #wildfire activity over the past c. 35,000 years at Erhai Lake, #Yunnan, #China, discussing links to spring insolation & Asian Summer #Monsoon:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379125006006
New paper for the palaeofire fans!
Presenting the SahulCHAR collection, containing 687 sedimentary charcoal records from across Australia, New Guinea, and Aotearoa/New Zealand 🔥
Read it open access here: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2681-2025
This is the product of my final postdoc role - thank you to the many generous researchers who contributed their data!
New preprint out! 🔥 Using combined paleo-ecological and modeling methods, we uncover regional Holocene #wildfire dynamics in eastern #Siberia. Notably, our findings suggest potential human impacts as early as 5000 years ago - contrasting a common view of historically unmanaged forests 🌲
So far, any historical human impacts on fire regimes or traditional land use practices with relevance for wildfire were poorly acknowledged in international literature for eastern Siberia - despite clear indications from Indigenous communities, and former visitors leaving us with clear hints: For example, Georg W. Steller describes in the early 1700s his observation of common burning in forests near the Lena River. And in 1913, Fridtjof Nansen writes in his expedition notes about a long-standing habit of the Natives to burn old grasses near the Amur River. There is more to this 🔍
According to our study, fuel availability seems to be a key factor here. We discuss by example of the #Sakha how people may have reduced wildfire severity around their settlements since c. 800 years ago.
Find the preprint here:
https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.14.643308
Photo taken in #Yakutia, August 2021.
Severe wildfire seasons in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) raise questions regarding long-term fire dynamics and their drivers. However, data on long-term fire history remains scarce across eastern Siberia. We present the first composite of reconstructed wildfire dynamics in Yakutia throughout the Holocene, based on eight newly contributed records of macroscopic charcoal in lake sediments in combination with published data. Increased biomass burning occurred in the Early Holocene, c. 10,000 years BP, before shifting to lower levels at c. 6000 years BP. Independent simulations of climate-driven burned area in an individual-based forest model reproduce this reconstructed Holocene trend ( r s = 0.85), but the correlation on centennial timescales turns negative in the Late Holocene ( r s = -0.70). This mismatch suggests that climate alone cannot explain Late Holocene wildfire dynamics. We propose that a human dimension needs to be considered. By example of the settlement of the pastoralist Sakha people c. 800 years BP, we show that implementing reduced fuel availability from Indigenous land management in the forest model leads to improved centennial-scale correlations ( r s = 0.96). This study highlights the need for a better understanding of the poorly reported human dimension of past fire dynamics in eastern Siberia. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
How was past #wildfire activity in eastern #Siberia and how did it relate to climate/vegetation/human activity? 🔥
Now out in E&G Quaternary Science Journal: a thesis abstract summarizing main findings from my dissertation. Big thanks to the German Quaternary Association (DEUQUA)!
https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-74-101-2025
@wildfirescience @paleofire @ecology #paleofire #sakha #yakutia
Last chance to submit your abstract to come along to #EGU25 - if you have a burning interest in how fires and landscapes interact, consider our session - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/session/51797
Happy to see this great new study on future #boreal tree cover changes! 🌲
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2404391121
#Paleoecology offers a complementary perspective: We previously found that open woodlands in E-Siberia during the Early Holocene coincided with higher #wildfire activity, proposing a potential future "open woodland-fire feedback" 🔥
Reconstructing past wildfires and vegetation coverage furthermore led us to hypothesize that present-day, dense larch forests may still mediate the full extent of climate-driven fire regime intensification in this region. You can find our #paleofire study from #Siberia here:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.962906
@paleofire @wildfirescience @ecology #charcoal #pollen #FireEcology
Making #paleofire data #FAIR: Read our new report, published today in the new #PAGES Magazine, on integrating the Global Paleofire Database into the #Neotoma Paleoecology Database! This step will have benefits for data curators and users, but a lot of work is still ahead 🔥
I'm very pleased to be co-convening this proposed session at #EGU25 with @Geo_Juv and others - "CL1.2.12
Using proxy data, observations, and modeling to understand vegetation-wildfire-climate interactions during the past, present, and future." We look forward to your submissions, and catching up in Vienna!
Will you join the annual meeting of the German Society for #Geomorphology (#DGGM) in #Leipzig? If yes, let's have a chat!
I'll be there to present paleo-ecological evidence for impacts of #indigenous land use practices on #wildfires in eastern Siberia - and I'm happy to see that mine won't be the only #paleofire contribution! 🔥
Dr. Ramesh Glückler
Dr Emma Rehn
Dr Micha Campbell