Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka
AbstractWildfire is an integral part of the Earth’s climate system and plays an important role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, atmospheric chemistry, regional climate, and the carbon cycle in the Earth’s history. However, the lack of high-resolution records of lon...
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GeoScienceWorld
2022-06-01
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Series: | Lithosphere |
Online Access: | https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/lithosphere/article/2022/Special%209/7562666/614359/Climate-Driven-Changes-in-High-Intensity-Wildfire |
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author | Tianze Cheng Jianjun Zou Xuefa Shi Sergey Gorbarenko Yuriy Vasilenko Alexandr Bosin Yanguang Liu Bing Chen |
author_facet | Tianze Cheng Jianjun Zou Xuefa Shi Sergey Gorbarenko Yuriy Vasilenko Alexandr Bosin Yanguang Liu Bing Chen |
author_sort | Tianze Cheng |
collection | DOAJ |
description |
AbstractWildfire is an integral part of the Earth’s climate system and plays an important role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, atmospheric chemistry, regional climate, and the carbon cycle in the Earth’s history. However, the lack of high-resolution records of long wildfires limits our understanding of the natural variability, long-term trends of wildfire activity, and the reasons behind the changes in wildfire on orbital timescales. Here, a 320 ka long high-resolution wildfire record from the subarctic North Pacific is reconstructed with black carbon (BC), including its two subtypes char and soot. A 7-day-long back trajectory simulation analysis reveals the higher frequency of trajectories comes from Siberia. Our data show that continuous incidence of wildfire on a continental scale over the last 320 ka was higher during glacial periods than during the interglacial periods. The increase in wildfire frequency during glacial periods is ascribed to less precipitation. Contrasting patterns of wildfire incidence between marine isotope stages 2 and 6 may be ascribed to different fuel availability, which is related to contrasting configurations of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet between glacial periods. A significant periodicity of 23 ka of our wildfire record suggests the precession of the Earth’s orbit pace wildfire development. The tight coupling of intensified wildfire and enhanced nutrient utilization efficiency suggests a nontrivial role of fire in the climate system. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:37:54Z |
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issn | 1941-8264 1947-4253 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:37:54Z |
publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
publisher | GeoScienceWorld |
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spelling | doaj.art-d24fcbc3ed1440e3a66b15a08c8953a02022-12-22T03:00:12ZengGeoScienceWorldLithosphere1941-82641947-42532022-06-012022Special 910.2113/2022/7562666Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 kaTianze Cheng0http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5292-1632Jianjun Zou1http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-0224Xuefa Shi2http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8204-8021Sergey Gorbarenko3Yuriy Vasilenko4Alexandr Bosin5Yanguang Liu6Bing Chen7http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1041-45251 Environment Research Institute Shandong University Qingdao 266237 China sdu.edu.cn2 Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny First Institute of Oceanography Ministry of Natural Resources Qingdao 266061 China mnr.gov.cn2 Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny First Institute of Oceanography Ministry of Natural Resources Qingdao 266061 China mnr.gov.cn4 V.I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladivostok Russia4 V.I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladivostok Russia4 V.I. Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladivostok Russia2 Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny First Institute of Oceanography Ministry of Natural Resources Qingdao 266061 China mnr.gov.cn1 Environment Research Institute Shandong University Qingdao 266237 China sdu.edu.cn AbstractWildfire is an integral part of the Earth’s climate system and plays an important role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, atmospheric chemistry, regional climate, and the carbon cycle in the Earth’s history. However, the lack of high-resolution records of long wildfires limits our understanding of the natural variability, long-term trends of wildfire activity, and the reasons behind the changes in wildfire on orbital timescales. Here, a 320 ka long high-resolution wildfire record from the subarctic North Pacific is reconstructed with black carbon (BC), including its two subtypes char and soot. A 7-day-long back trajectory simulation analysis reveals the higher frequency of trajectories comes from Siberia. Our data show that continuous incidence of wildfire on a continental scale over the last 320 ka was higher during glacial periods than during the interglacial periods. The increase in wildfire frequency during glacial periods is ascribed to less precipitation. Contrasting patterns of wildfire incidence between marine isotope stages 2 and 6 may be ascribed to different fuel availability, which is related to contrasting configurations of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet between glacial periods. A significant periodicity of 23 ka of our wildfire record suggests the precession of the Earth’s orbit pace wildfire development. The tight coupling of intensified wildfire and enhanced nutrient utilization efficiency suggests a nontrivial role of fire in the climate system.https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/lithosphere/article/2022/Special%209/7562666/614359/Climate-Driven-Changes-in-High-Intensity-Wildfire |
spellingShingle | Tianze Cheng Jianjun Zou Xuefa Shi Sergey Gorbarenko Yuriy Vasilenko Alexandr Bosin Yanguang Liu Bing Chen Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka Lithosphere |
title | Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka |
title_full | Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka |
title_fullStr | Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka |
title_full_unstemmed | Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka |
title_short | Climate-Driven Changes in High-Intensity Wildfire on Orbital Timescales in Eurasia since 320 ka |
title_sort | climate driven changes in high intensity wildfire on orbital timescales in eurasia since 320 ka |
url | https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/lithosphere/article/2022/Special%209/7562666/614359/Climate-Driven-Changes-in-High-Intensity-Wildfire |
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