Climate and human impacts on
biomass burning during past millennia
Charlton Fire, Oregon
August 1996
Jennifer R. Marlon
In collaboration with the
Global Palaeofire Working Group (GPWG)
UO Dept. of
Geography
Fire in the Earth System
Yellowstone National Park
Amazon Fire
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Consumes vegetation
Damaging & costly
Causes air pollution
Emits greenhouse gases
Changes albedo
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Promotes growth
Removes pests & disease
Releases nutrients
Promotes habitat diversity
Reduces fuel build-up
Reconstructing Past Fires
Metaanalyses of
charcoal
records
(historical records & satellite data)
Modified from Gavin et al. 2007; Swetnam et al. 1999
Reconstructing Fire History From Charcoal
Regional charcoal
Local charcoal
Fall - out
V. Rubenstein
Redeposition
M. Power
Pinus contorta
(Lodgepole Pine)
(~80 µm)
Macroscopic Charcoal
(~2000 µm)
n = 582
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/impd/gcd.html
The Global Charcoal Database
Power, Marlon et al., 2008
Data Standardization Methods
1
‘Minimax’ rescaling:
‘Box-Cox’ transform:
2
‘Z-score’ transform:
3
4
(base = 4000-100 yr BP)
Anomaly calculation:
za = mean zi – mean z(1ka)
(modern = 1000-100 yr BP)
Power, Marlon et al., 2008
Biomass Burning since the Last Glacial Maximum
biomass burning
number of records
contributing
Glacial
period
Holocene
Deglaciation
CO2 (ppmv)
280
240
Ice-core record
of carbon dioxide
Taylor Dome, Antarctica
200
20000 18000 16000 14000 12000 10000 8000
Calibrated Years Before Present
Power, Marlon et al., 2008
6000
4000
2000
0
North America
13,000 Years Ago
Circles indicate
locations of 35
charcoal-based
paleofire records
Marlon et al., 2009
Laurentide
Ice Sheet
“I don’t want to sound catastrophic
here, but this is wild stuff. There is
significant evidence of massive
biomass burning.”
“The entire continent was on fire.”
– James Kennett
(New Scientist, 26 May 2007)
3
Three sites show a
peak within ± 50 yrs of
the beginning of the
YD interval
12
Twelve sites show a
peak within ± 50 yrs of
the end of the YD
interval
9
Nine sites show peaks
at the both the
beginning & end of the
YD interval
Marlon et al., 2009
Wildfire Responses to Abrupt Climate Change
CO2
Temperature
(N. Atlantic)
Biomass
Burning
n = 35
Fire
Frequency
n = 15
Woody Fuel Levels
(proportion of
trees & shrubs to
all terrestrial veg)
# of Records
# of Dates
Marlon et al., 2009
Climate and Human Influences on Global Fire
“Hockey Stick” curve of N. Hemisphere temperature (past 1000 years)
n = 436
Marlon et al., 2008
Climate and Human Influences on Global Fire
1750 A.D.
1750 A.D.
(Marlon et al. 2008)
(Population & land-cover data: Goldewijk & van Drecht, 2006)
Climate and Human Influences on Global Fire
(Marlon et al. 2008)
Lessons Learned
•  Climate drives fire on long time scales
•  Past episodes of abrupt warming are
associated with increases in fire activity
•  Human activities appear to have radically
altered global fire regimes since 1750 A.D
•  Paleo data are important for testing models
GPWG Community
R.Scott Anderson
Aziz Ballouche
Patrick Bartlein
Ruth Beer
Herman Behling
Richard Bradshaw
Christy Briles
Kendrick Brown
Andrea Brunelle
Mark Bush
Phil Camill
Christopher Carcaillet
GQ Chu
Jim Clark
Daniele Colombaroli
Simon Connor
Carlos Cordova
Mark Daniels
John Dodson
E Doughty
Mary Edwards
Walter Finsinger
David Foster
Marie-Jose Gaillard-Lemdahl
Daniel G. Gavin
Erika Gobet
Simon Haberle
Douglas J. Hallett
Sandy Harrison
Phil Higuera
Geoff Hope
Sally Horn
Jun Inoue
Petra Kaltenrieder
Lisa Kennedy
ZC Kong
Chris Larsen
Colin Long
Jason Lynch
Beth Lynch
Jenn Marlon
Francis Mayle
Matt McGlone
Scott Meeks
Scott Mensing
Grant Meyer
Thomas Minckley
Jerry Mohr
Scott Mooney
Patricio Moreno
Rewi Newnham
Roland Noti
Natalie Ortiz
Wyatt Oswald
Jen Pierce
I. Colin Prentice
Pierre Richard
Cassandra Rowe
Bryan Shuman
Hikaru Takahara
Kirsten Thonicke
Willy Tinner
Jaime Toney
Chris Turney
Charles Umbanhower
Marcus Vandergoes
Boris Vannière
Estella Vedrova
Elisa Vescovi
Megan Walsh
Xuan Wang
Cathy Whitlock
Nicola Williams
Janet Wilmshurst
Yun Zhang
Jiahua H Zhang
Yan Zhao