Knowledge of historical fire activity tends to be focused at local to landscape scales with few attempts to examine how local patterns of fire activity scale to global patterns. Generally, fire activity varied globally and continuously since the last glacial maximum (LGM) in response to long-term changes in global climate and shorter-term regional changes in climate, vegetation, and human land use. We have synthesised sedimentary charcoal records of biomass burning since the LGM and present global maps showing changes in fire activity for time slices during the past 21,000 years (as differences in charcoal accumulation values compared to pre-industrial). There is strong broad-scale coherence in fire activity after the LGM, but spatial heterogeneity in the signals increases thereafter. In eastern and western North America and western Europe and southern South America, charcoal records indicate less-than-present fire activity from 21,000 to ~11,000 cal yr BP. In contrast, the tropical latitudes of South America and Africa show greaterthan-present fire activity from ~19,000 to ~17,000 cal yr BP whereas most sites from Indochina and Australia show greater-than-present fire activity from 16,000 to ~13,000 cal yr BP. Many sites indicate greater-than-present or near-present activity during the Holocene with the exception of eastern North America and eastern Asia from 8000 to ~2000 cal yr BP, Indonesia from 11,000 to 4000 cal yr BP, and southern South America from 6000 to 3000 cal yr BP where fire activity was less than present. Regional coherence in the patterns of change in fire activity was evident throughout the postglacial period. These complex patterns can be explained in terms of large-scale climate controls modulated by local changes in vegetation and fuel load.

[1] Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) membrane lipids in surface sediments from 24 lakes in China and Nepal were analyzed. The result shows that branched GDGT lipids occur widely in the studied lake sediments. The different distribution of branched GDGTs between the Chinese soils from Weijers et al. (2007b) and the Chinese lake sediments indicates that the branched GDGTs in the lacustrine sediment are the mixture of allochthonous and autochthonous branched GDGTs. Our result supports the suggestion that temperature is the principal factor affecting the distribution of GDGTs. Seasonality, sources, and precipitation increase the uncertainty of the correlation between the methylation index of branched tetraethers (MBT)/cyclization ratio of branched tetraethers (CBT) proxy and the temperature. The correlations of the MBT/CBT index with mean annual air temperature (T) for the global lakes are T = 6.803 − 7.062 × CBT + 37.090 × MBT (n = 139, p < 0.0001, R 2 = 0.62, and RMSE = 5.24°C); for the global lakes with pH < 8.5, T = 3.949 − 5.593 × CBT + 38.213 × MBT (n = 100, p < 0.0001, R 2 = 0.73, and RMSE = 4.27°C). The significant correlation suggests that the MBT/CBT proxy might be used as a potential paleotemperature proxy in the limnic environment. The MBT/CBT proxy provides an independent way to evaluate and verify the sensitivities of the different proxies for paleotemperature reconstruction from lacustrine sediments.

No abstract

International audienceA high-resolution pollen and Pediastrum record, spanning 12,500 yr, is presented for Lake Bayanchagan (115.21E, 41.65N, and 1355 in a.s.l.), southern Inner Mongolia. Individual pollen taxa (PT-MAT) and the PFT affinity scores (PFT-MAT) were used for quantitative climatic reconstruction from pollen and algal data. Both techniques indicate that a cold and dry climate, similar to that of today, prevailed before 10,500 cal yr B.P. The wettest climate occurred between similar to 10,500 and 6500 cal yr B.P., at which time annual precipitation was up to 30-60% higher than today. The early Holocene increases in temperature and precipitation occurred simultaneously, but mid-Holocene cooling started at approximately 8000 cal yr B.P., 1500 yr earlier than the drying. Vegetation reconstruction was based on the objective assignment of pollen taxa to the plant functional type. The results suggest that this region was dominated by steppe vegetation throughout the Holocene, except for the period similar to 9200 to similar to 6700 cal yr B.P., when forest patches were relatively common. Inner Mongolia is situated at the limit of the present East Asian monsoon and patterns of vegetation and climate changes in that region during the Holocene probably reflect fluctuations in the monsoon's response to solar insolation variations. The early to middle Holocene monsoon undoubtedly extended to more northern latitudes than at present. (c) 2005 University of Washington. All rights reserved

No abstract

The geochemistry of dated sediment cores from Lake Huguangyan (21°9′N, 110°17′E), tropical South China, reveals distinct stratigraphical patterns in total organic and inorganic carbon (TOC, TIC), biogenic silica (BS) and total nitrogen (TN) over the past 1400 years. In this hydrologically closed lake, TIC variations may re‘ ect changes in the precipitation/evaporation ratio, which controls the evaporative enrichment of carbonate. TOC, BS and TN in the sediment are proxy indicators of lake productivity and nutrient input, which we believe are linked to local precipitation. High TIC content correlates with low concentrations of TOC, BS and TN, and indicates two drought episodes dated to ad 670–760 and ad 880–1260 in the sediments of Lake Huguangyan. Local historical chronicles support these data, suggesting that the climate of tropical South China was dry during the ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’ (MWP) and wet during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA). The detected MWP drought is temporally correlated with evidence for lower precipitation on the Guliya (China) and Quelccaya (Peru) ice caps, and with increased salinity in Moon Lake (US Great Plains).

No abstract

Prehistoric human activities were likely influenced by cyclic monsoon climate changes in East Asia. Here we report a decadal-resolution Holocene pollen record from an annually-laminated Maar Lake in Northeast China, a proxy of monsoon climate, together with a compilation of 627 radiocarbon dates from archeological sites in Northeast China which is a proxy of human activity. The results reveal synchronous ~500-year quasi-periodic changes over the last 8000 years. The warm-humid/cold-dry phases of monsoon cycles correspond closely to the intensification/weakening of human activity and the flourishing/decline of prehistoric cultures. Six prosperous phases of prehistoric cultures, with one exception, correspond approximately to warm-humid phases caused by a strengthened monsoon. This ~500-year cyclicity in the monsoon and thus environmental change triggered the development of prehistoric cultures in Northeast China. The cyclicity is apparently linked to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, against the background of long-term Holocene climatic evolution. These findings reveal a pronounced relationship between prehistoric human activity and cyclical climate change.