Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:35:53.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quantifying the source area of macroscopic charcoal with a particle dispersal model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew Edward Peters  and
Philip Edward Higuera
Matthew Edward Peters
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1360, USA
Philip Edward Higuera*
Affiliation:
College of Forest Resources, Box 352100, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1360, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:philip.higuera@montana.edu (P.E. Higuera).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To aid interpreting the source area of charcoal in lake-sediment records, we compare charcoal deposition from an experimental fire to predictions from a particle dispersal model. This provides both a theoretical framework for understanding how lake sediments reflect fire history and a foundation for simulating sediment-charcoal records. The dispersal model captures the two-dimensional patterns in the empirical data (predicted vs. observed r2 = 0.67, p < 0.001). We further develop the model to calculate the potential charcoal source area (PCSA) for several classes of fires. Results suggest that (1) variations in airborne charcoal deposition can be explained largely by the size of PCSAs relative to fire sizes and (2) macroscopic charcoal travels many kilometers, longer than suggested by dispersal data from experimental fires but consistent with dispersal data from uncontrolled fires.

Keywords

Charcoal analysisCharcoal dispersalCharcoal source areaDispersal modelExperimental burnFire history
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , March 2007 , pp. 304 - 310
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1 Current address: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Current address: Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.

References

Carcaillet, C., Bergeron, Y., Richard, P.J.H., Frechette, B., Gauthier, S., and Prairie, Y.T. Change of fire frequency in the eastern Canadian boreal forests during the Holocene: does vegetation composition or climate trigger the fire regime?. Journal of Ecology 89, (2001). 930–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carcaillet, C., Bouvier, M., Frechette, B., Larouche, A.C., and Richard, P.J.H. Comparison of pollen-slide and sieving methods in lacustrine charcoal analyses for local and regional fire history. Holocene 11, (2001). 467–476.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, A.C., (1953). “Aspects of Travel and Deposition of Aerosol and Vapor Clouds”. UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment Report, AERE-HP/R 1261, Harwell, Berkshire, United Kingdom., 33 pp.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S. Particle motion and the theory of charcoal analysis: source area, transport, deposition, and sampling. Quaternary Research 30, (1988). 67–80.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S. Stratigraphic charcoal analysis on petrographic thin sections: application to fire history in northwestern Minnesota. Quaternary Research 30, (1988). 81–91.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., and Royall, P.D. Particle-size evidence for source areas of charcoal accumulation in late Holocene sediments of eastern North American lakes. Quaternary Research 43, (1995). 80–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, J.S., and Royall, P.D. Local and regional sediment charcoal evidence for fire regimes in presettlement north-eastern North America. Journal of Ecology 84, (1996). 365–382.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., Lynch, J.A., Stocks, B.J., and Goldammer, J.G. Relationships between charcoal particles in air and sediments in west-central Siberia. Holocene 8, (1998). 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cwynar, L.S. Recent history of fire and vegetation from laminated sediment of Greenleaf Lake Algonquin Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany 56, (1978). 10–21.Google Scholar
Gardner, J.J., and Whitlock, C. Charcoal accumulation following a recent fire in the Cascade Range, northwestern USA, and its relevance for fire-history studies. Holocene 11, (2001). 541–549.Google Scholar
Green, D.G. Fire and stability in the postglacial forests of southwest Nova Scotia. Journal of Biogeography 9, (1982). 29–40.Google Scholar
Hallett, D.J., Lepofsky, D.S., Mathewes, R.W., and Lertzman, K.P. 11,000 years of fire history and climate in the mountain hemlock rain forests of southwestern British Columbia based on sedimentary charcoal. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33, (2003). 292–312.Google Scholar
Higuera, P.E., (2006). “Late Glacial and Holocene Fire History in the Southcentral Brooks Range, Alaska: Direct and Indirect Impacts of Climatic Change on Fire Regimes. . Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, .Google Scholar
Higuera, P.E., Sprugel, D.G., and Brubaker, L.B. Reconstructing fire regimes with charcoal from small-hollow sediments: a calibration with tree-ring records of fire. Holocene 15, (2005). 238–251.Google Scholar
Iversen, J. Land occupation in Denmark's Stone Age. A pollen-analytical study of the influence of farmer culture in the vegetational development. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse: II. Raekke 66, (1941). 68 Google Scholar
Kasischke, E.S., Williams, D., and Barry, D. Analysis of the patterns of large fires in the boreal forest region of Alaska. International Journal of Wildland Fire 11, (2002). 131–144.Google Scholar
Lynch, J.A., Clark, J.S., Bigelow, N.H., Edwards, M.E., and Finney, B.P. Geographic and temporal variations in fire history in boreal ecosystems of Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, (2002). FFR8-1–FFR8-17.Google Scholar
Lynch, J.A., Clark, J.S., and Stocks, B.J. Charcoal production, dispersal and deposition from the Fort Providence experimental fire: interpreting fire regimes from charcoal records in boreal forests. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34, (2004). 1642–1656.Google Scholar
Lynch, J.A., Hollis, J.L., and Hu, F.S. Climatic and landscape controls of the boreal forest fire regime: Holocene records from Alaska. Journal of Ecology 92, (2004). 447–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, G.M., Larsen, C.P.S., Szeicz, J.M., and Moser, K.A. The reconstruction of boreal forest fire history from lake sediments: a comparison of charcoal, pollen, sedimentological, and geochemical indices. Quaternary Science Reviews 10, (1991). 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohlson, M., and Tryterud, E. Interpretation of the charcoal record in forest soils: forest fires and their production and deposition of macroscopic charcoal. Holocene 10, (2000). 519–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, W.A., Edwards, K.J., and Maguire, D.J. Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire. Quaternary Science Reviews 6, (1987). 3–23.Google Scholar
Pisaric, M.F.J. Long-distance transport of terrestrial plant material by convection resulting from forest fires. Journal of Paleolimnology 28, (2002). 349–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prentice, I.C. Pollen representation, source area, and basin size: toward a unified theory of pollen analysis. Quaternary Research 23, (1985). 76–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stocks, B.J., Alexander, M.E., and Lanoville, R.A. Overview of the International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment (ICFME). Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34, (2004). 1543–1547.Google Scholar
Sugita, S. A model of pollen source area for an entire lake surface. Quaternary Research 39, (1993). 239–244.Google Scholar
Sugita, S. Pollen representation of vegetation in Quaternary sediments: theory and method in patchy vegetation. Journal of Ecology 82, (1994). 881–897.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutton, O.G. The problem of diffusion in the lower atmosphere. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 73, (1947). 257–281.Google Scholar
Sutton, O.G. The theoretical distribution of airborne pollution from factory chimneys. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 73, (1947). 426–436.Google Scholar
Swain, A.M. A history of fire and vegetation in northeastern Minnesota as recorded in lake sediments. Quaternary Research 3, (1973). 383–396.Google Scholar
Taylor, S.W., Wotton, B.M., Alexander, M.E., and Dalrymple, G.N. Variation in wind and crown fire behavior in a northern jack pine-black spruce forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34, (2004). 1561–1576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinner, W., Conedera, M., Ammann, B., Gaggeler, H.W., Gedye, S., Jones, R., and Sagesser, B. Pollen and charcoal in lake sediments compared with historically documented forest fires in southern Switzerland since AD 1920. Holocene 8, (1998). 31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinner, W., Hofstetter, S., Zeugin, F., Conedera, M., Wohlgemuth, T., Zimmermann, L., and Zweifel, R. Long-distance transport of macroscopic charcoal by an intensive crown fire in the Swiss Alps—Implications for fire history reconstruction. Holocene 16, (2006). 287–292.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Anderson, R.S. Fire history reconstructions based on sediment records from lakes and wetlands. Veblen, T.T., Baker, W.L., Montenegro, G., and Swetnam, T. “Fire and Climatic Change in Temperate Ecosystems of the Western Americas”. (2003). Springer, New York. 3–31.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Millspaugh, S.H. Testing the assumptions of fire-history studies: an examination of modern charcoal accumulation in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Holocene 6, (1996). 7–15.Google Scholar