Elsevier

Quaternary Science Reviews

Volume 193, 1 August 2018, Pages 312-322
Quaternary Science Reviews

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of palaeofire reconstructions based on various archives and proxies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.06.010Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Boreal wildfire reconstructions from soil, peat and lake charcoal and from tree rings were compared.

  • Multi-millennial fire histories are well reconstructed with lake charcoal.

  • The Charcoal Size Distribution method best reconstructs local fire history from lake charcoal.

  • Peat and soil charcoal are useful to identify individual local fires.

  • Tree ring analyses are the best choice to reconstruct recent fires.

Abstract

We present a comparative analysis of fire reconstructions from tree rings and from wood charcoal preserved in forest soils, peat and lake sediments. Our objective is to highlight the benefits and limits of different archives and proxies to reconstruct fire histories. We propose guidelines to optimize proxy and archive choice in terms of spatial and temporal scales of interest. Comparisons were performed for two sites in the boreal forest of northeastern North America. Compared to others archives, tree-ring analysis remains the best choice to reconstruct recent fires (<1000 years). For longer periods (from several centuries to millennia), lake charcoal can be used to reconstruct regional or local fire histories depending on the method used, but the focus should be on historical trends rather than on the identification of individual fire events. Charcoal preserved in peat and soils can be used to identify individual fire, but sometimes cover shorter time periods than lake archives.

Introduction

In the next decades, wildfire activity is projected to increase under global warming in many parts of the world, leading to unprecedented ecological and socioeconomic consequences (Bond et al., 2005; Granström, 2001; Kelly et al., 2016; Stevens-Rumann et al., 2018; Stocks et al., 1998). A better understanding of long-term (centennial to millennial) ecosystem dynamics is necessary to better predict the impacts of global change and to adapt forest management accordingly (Clark et al., 1998; Gavin et al., 2007; Kelly et al., 2013; Robin et al., 2013; Sanborn et al., 2006; Tolonen, 1985). Palaeoecological studies aimed at reconstructing past wildfire histories are commonly used to complement modern fire statistics by providing an understanding of variability over time and space (Clark et al., 1998; Robin et al., 2013; Sanborn et al., 2006; Tolonen, 1985).

Different proxies are available to reconstruct fire histories, each presenting advantages and shortcomings depending on the information sought (Waito et al., 2015). Thus, all proxies and methods are not necessarily appropriate for all palaeofire reconstructions, depending on the targeted time- and spatial-scale. Microscopic (<160 μm) and macroscopic (>160 μm) charcoal particles deposited and preserved in forest soil, peat and lake sediments can be used to reconstruct regional (outside the watershed) and local (inside the watershed) fire history, as well as fire scars on trees (Falk et al., 2011; Gardner and Whitlock, 2001; Gavin et al., 2007; Oris et al., 2014a; Tolonen, 1985; Whitlock and Larsen, 2002; Whitlock and Millspaugh, 1996). Tree rings offer inexpensive and high resolution (annual) fire reconstructions, but usually record only a few centuries of fire history in most environments (Agee, 1998, 1993; Dieterich and Swetnam, 1984). Furthermore, in areas characterized by high-severity fires, only the date of the last fire can be inferred from the age of the oldest trees, i.e. time of post-fire stand regeneration (Drobyshev et al., 2017; Waito et al., 2015; Wallenius et al., 2015).

Proxies based on charcoal preserved in different archives (soil, peat, lake sediments) are more expensive due to the cost of 14C dating, but cover longer (multi-millennial) time scales (Conedera et al., 2009). However, charcoal production, transport, settling and percolation are dependent on a multitude of environmental variables and taphonomic processes (Conedera et al., 2009; Whitlock and Larsen, 2002). Charcoal preserved in forest soils are not stratified, and the reconstruction of fire histories using this archive requires even more 14C dates compared to lake and peatland archives which are composed of stratified sediments (Carcaillet et al., 2001; Gavin et al., 2003). Moreover, charcoal particles preserved in peat and soils can be destroyed by re-burning during subsequent high-severity fires (Lertzman et al., 2002; Ouarmim et al., 2015), thus inducing a loss of information over time. Finally, peatlands are less susceptible to deep burning than forest soils owing to their high moisture content (Terrier et al., 2014) and hence, charcoal preserved in peat layers under waterlogged conditions can be protected from post-deposition combustion.

Although charcoal in lake sediments are not subjected to re-burning, they include signals from both regional and local fire events (i.e., from outside and within the watershed) in contrast with large charcoal particles (>0.5–2 mm) from soil and peat deposits which are local in origin (Asselin and Payette, 2005a; Conedera et al., 2009; Ohlson and Tryterud, 2000; Tolonen, 1985). Charcoal particles larger than 160 μm found in lake sediments can be used to reconstruct fire events that have occurred at local to regional scales, between 0 and 30 km from lakeshores (Duffin et al., 2008; Higuera et al., 2011; Kelly et al., 2013; Oris et al., 2014a; Whitlock and Millspaugh, 1996). Two most recent methods developed to optimize the reconstruction of local fire events based on charcoal preserved in lake deposits are named the Charcoal Size Distribution method (hereafter CSD; Asselin and Payette, 2005b) and the Area-Count method (hereafter ARCO; Finsinger et al., 2014). However, only one study has compared the fire histories resulting from these two methods (Oris et al., 2014a). To distinguish local and regional fire events in lake charcoal deposits is not an easy task and constitutes an ongoing research challenge (Itter et al., 2017). Several procedures and numerical analyses are required to isolate fire episodes (Higuera et al., 2007) that could enclose one or more fires occurring in the charcoal source area (Gavin et al., 2007).

Thus, charcoal records from lake, peat or soil allow to reconstruct longer fire histories than tree-ring analyses. However, clear guidelines are still lacking to decide which archive and proxy to use depending on (1) temporal scale (from annual to millennial), (2) spatial scale (from local to regional), and (3) precision (from identifying historic trends to individual fire events). Only a few studies have so far compared fire histories reconstructed from various archives (e.g. tree rings, peat, soil, lake) in order to highlight similarities and differences in their outputs (Hawthorne and Mitchell, 2016; Higuera et al., 2011; Rius et al., 2011; Robin et al., 2013), but none has simultaneously addressed the three above-mentioned dimensions (temporal scale, spatial scale and precision level).

We studied two sites in the boreal forest of northeastern North America where we reconstructed fire histories using different archives and proxies to highlight their respective limits and advantages. We suggest explanations for differences between archives and proxies and we provide guidelines to choose the appropriate archive and proxy based on research objectives.

Section snippets

Study area

We used tree-ring analyses and charcoal records from lake sediments, peatlands and forest soils around two lakes located in the spruce-moss bioclimatic domain of Quebec (between 49 and 50°N, and 68 and 79°W; Fig. 1) and under a climate characterized by long cold winters and short cool summers. The two sites were selected due to their dissimilar vegetation and regional fire histories linked to regional environmental conditions. The current mean fire cycles deduced from dendrochronological

Fire reconstruction correspondences between archives

At the Lili site, 2 fire events were detected in tree rings over a period covering the last 170 years (Fig. 2 and Fig. S2). Statistical analyses of 14C dated soil charcoal allowed to detect 9 fire periods over the last 3000 years (Fig. 2 and Fig. S3; Table S2), whereas peat charcoal allowed to detect 8 fires over the last 7000 years (Fig. 2 and Fig. S3; Table S2). Analyses of lake charcoal revealed 50 fire events with CHARC, 49 with CHARA, 32 with CSD and 21 with ARCO over the last 8200 years (

Efficiency of fire reconstruction methods

Even if the locations of tree-ring samples only cover a portion of each lake's watershed (especially at Lili site; Fig. S2b), dates of the fire events recorded by tree ring analyses are similar to those recorded by other studies in the same zones for both sites. Bouchard et al. (2008) recorded one fire at the Innu site around 1902 very close to the most recent fire dated by fire scar analysis around 1905 (Fig. S1); and Bergeron et al. (2004) recorded two fires close to the Lili site around 1820

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC-STPGP 479283-15), the Fonds de Recherche du Québec ‒ Nature et Technologies (FRQNT-2014-PR-173570), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS France), the MITACS program (MITACS-IT08209, MITACS-IT04396 and MITACS-IT03922) in association with the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec, Barrette-Chapais Ltd and the Institut Écologie et Environnement through the GDRI

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