Linking sediment‐charcoal records and ecological modeling to understand causes of fire‐regime change in boreal forests
Abstract
Interactions between vegetation and fire have the potential to overshadow direct effects of climate change on fire regimes in boreal forests of North America. We develop methods to compare sediment‐charcoal records with fire regimes simulated by an ecological model, ALFRESCO (Alaskan Frame‐based Ecosystem Code) and apply these methods to evaluate potential causes of a mid‐Holocene fire‐regime shift in boreal forests of the south‐central Brooks Range, Alaska, USA. Fire‐return intervals (FRIs, number of years between fires) are estimated over the past 7000 calibrated 14 C years (7–0 kyr BP [before present]) from short‐term variations in charcoal accumulation rates (CHARs) at three lakes, and an index of area burned is inferred from long‐term CHARs at these sites. ALFRESCO simulations of FRIs and annual area burned are based on prescribed vegetation and climate for 7–5 kyr BP and 5–0 kyr BP, inferred from pollen and stomata records and qualitative paleoclimate proxies. Two sets of experiments examine potential causes of increased burning between 7–5 and 5–0 kyr BP. (1) Static‐vegetation scenarios: white spruce dominates with static mean temperature and total precipitation of the growing season for 7–0 kyr BP or with decreased temperature and/or increased precipitation for 5–0 kyr BP. (2) Changed‐vegetation scenarios: black spruce dominates 5–0 kyr BP, with static temperature and precipitation or decreased temperature and/or increased precipitation. Median FRIs decreased between 7–5 and 5–0 kyr BP in empirical data and changed‐vegetation scenarios but remained relatively constant in static‐vegetation scenarios. Median empirical and simulated FRIs are not statistically different for 7–5 kyr BP and for two changed‐vegetation scenarios (temperature decrease, precipitation increase) for 5–0 kyr BP. In these scenarios, cooler temperatures or increased precipitation dampened the effect of increased landscape flammability resulting from the increase in black spruce. CHAR records and all changed‐vegetation scenarios indicate long‐term increases in area burned between 7–5 and 5–0 kyr BP. The similarity of CHAR and ALFRESCO results demonstrates the compatibility of these independent data sets for investigating ecological mechanisms causing past fire‐regime changes. The finding that vegetation flammability was a major driver of Holocene fire regimes is consistent with other investigations that suggest that landscape fuel characteristics will mediate the direct effects of future climate change on boreal fire regimes.
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Human impacts, novel climates, and evolving vegetation can alter the type of fire that occurs in a location.
“It is also clear that HIs, novel climates, and evolving vegetation can alter the type of fire that occurs in a location (15, 17, 27, 46–48).”
From Defining pyromes and global syndromes of fire regimes (2013) · cites this paper as [27]
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Flagged first, then by citations
- Authors
- Brubaker, L. B., Higuera, P. E., Rupp, T. S., Olson, M. A., Anderson, P. M., & Hu, F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brubaker, Linda B.
- Venue
- Ecology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-07
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1788-1801
- ISSN
- 0012-9658 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-9170
- OpenAlex
- W2080901608
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 5.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Ecology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Keywords
- regime change, boreal forest, fire return interval, vegetation flammability, black spruce, Picea glauca, Holocene, Brooks Range, paleoclimate, climate change and fire, burned area, vegetation-climate interactions, paleoecology, lake sediments, fuel properties
- MeSH terms
- Alaska, Arctic Regions, Charcoal, Fires, Models, Biological, Paleontology, Time Factors, Trees, Ecosystem, Geologic Sediments
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