Regional variability in peatland burning at mid-to high-latitudes during the Holocene

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dc.contributor.authorSim, Thomas G.
dc.contributor.authorSwindles, Graeme T.
dc.contributor.authorMorris, Paul J.
dc.contributor.authorBaird, Andy J.
dc.contributor.authorGallego-Sala, Angela V.
dc.contributor.authorWang, Yuwan
dc.contributor.authorBlaauw, Maarten
dc.contributor.authorCamill, Philip
dc.contributor.authorGarneau, Michelle
dc.contributor.authorHardiman, Mark
dc.contributor.authorLoisel, Julie
dc.contributor.authorVӓliranta, Minna
dc.contributor.authorAnderson, Lysanna
dc.contributor.authorApolinarska, Karina
dc.contributor.authorAugustijns, Femke
dc.contributor.authorAunina, Liene
dc.contributor.authorBeaulne, Joannie
dc.contributor.authorBobek, Přemysl
dc.contributor.authorBorken, Werner
dc.contributor.authorLacourse, Terri
dc.contributor.authoret al.
dc.date.accessioned2023-10-07T18:59:59Z
dc.date.available2023-10-07T18:59:59Z
dc.date.copyright2023en_US
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionRecords from the Global Charcoal Database supplemented this work and therefore we would like to thank the contributors and managers of this open-source resource. We also thank Annica Greisman, Jennifer Shiller, Fredrik Olsson and Simon van Bellen for contributing charcoal data to our analyses.en_US
dc.description.abstractNorthern peatlands store globally-important amounts of carbon in the form of partly decomposed plant detritus. Drying associated with climate and land-use change may lead to increased fire frequency and severity in peatlands and the rapid loss of carbon to the atmosphere. However, our understanding of the patterns and drivers of peatland burning on an appropriate decadal to millennial timescale relies heavily on individual site-based reconstructions. For the first time, we synthesise peatland macrocharcoal records from across North America, Europe, and Patagonia to reveal regional variation in peatland burning during the Holocene. We used an existing database of proximal sedimentary charcoal to represent regional burning trends in the wider landscape for each region. Long-term trends in peatland burning appear to be largely climate driven, with human activities likely having an increasing influence in the late Holocene. Warmer conditions during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (∼9–6 cal. ka BP) were associated with greater peatland burning in North America's Atlantic coast, southern Scandinavia and the Baltics, and Patagonia. Since the Little Ice Age, peatland burning has declined across North America and in some areas of Europe. This decline is mirrored by a decrease in wider landscape burning in some, but not all sub-regions, linked to fire-suppression policies, and landscape fragmentation caused by agricultural expansion. Peatlands demonstrate lower susceptibility to burning than the wider landscape in several instances, probably because of autogenic processes that maintain high levels of near-surface wetness even during drought. Nonetheless, widespread drying and degradation of peatlands, particularly in Europe, has likely increased their vulnerability to burning in recent centuries. Consequently, peatland restoration efforts are important to mitigate the risk of peatland fire under a changing climate. Finally, we make recommendations for future research to improve our understanding of the controls on peatland fires.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work developed from the PAGES (Past Global Changes) CPEAT (Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time) working group. PAGES has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences. We acknowledge the following financial support: U.K. Natural Environment Research Council Training Grants NE/L002574/1 (T.G.S.) and NE/S007458/1 (R.E.F.); Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Irish Bogs, Quaternary Research Association and Leverhulme Trust RPG-2021-354 (G.T.S.); the Academy of Finland (M.V.); PAI/SIA 77180002 and FONDECYT Iniciaci on 11220705 - ANID, Chile (C.A.M.); R20F0002 (PATSER) ANID Chile (R.D.M.); Swedish Strategic Research Area (SRA) MERGE (ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system) (M.J.G.); Polish National Science Centre (NCN) Grant numbers 2018/29/B/ST10/ 00120 (K.A.), 2021/41/B/ST10/00060 (M.L.), 2018/31/B/ST10/02498 and 2019/35/O/ST10/02903 (M.S.); Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 19-14-00102 (Y.A.M.); University of Latvia Grant No. AAp2016/B041/Zd2016/AZ03 and the Estonian Science Council grant PRG323 (TrackLag) (N.S. and A.M.); U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Science/Climate Research & Development Program (M.J., L.A., and D.W.); German Research Foundation (DFG), grant MA 8083/2e1 (P.M.) and grant BL 563/19e1 (K.H.K.); German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), grant no. 57044554, Faculty of Geosciences, University of Münster, and Bavarian University Centre for Latin America (BAYLAT) (K.H.K.).en_US
dc.identifier.citationSim, T. G., Swindles, G. T., Morris, P. J., Baird, A. J., Gallego-Sala, A. V., Wang, Y., … Zhang, H. (2023). Regional variability in peatland burning at mid-to highlatitudes during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 305, 108020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108020.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108020
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/15490
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherQuaternary Science Reviewsen_US
dc.subjectFire
dc.subjectCharcoal
dc.subjectPalaeofire
dc.subjectPalaeoenvironments
dc.subjectData analysis
dc.subjectNorth America
dc.subjectEurope
dc.subjectPatagonia
dc.subjectCarbon balance
dc.subjectDrought
dc.subjectCentre for Forest Biology
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Biology
dc.titleRegional variability in peatland burning at mid-to high-latitudes during the Holoceneen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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