Evidence that modern fires may be unprecedented during the last 3400 years in permafrost zone of Central Siberia, Russia

Abstract

Recent climate change in Siberia is increasing the probability of dangerous forest fires. The development of effective measures to mitigate and prevent fires is impossible without an understanding of long-term fire dynamics. This paper presents the first multi-site palaeo-fire reconstruction based on macroscopic charcoal data from peat and lake sediment cores located in different landscapes across the permafrost area of Central Siberia. The obtained results show similar temporal patterns of charcoal accumulation rates in the cores under study, and near synchronous changes in fire regimes. The paleo-fire record revealed moderate biomass burning between 3.4 and 2.6 ka BP, followed by the period of lower burning occurring from 2.6 to 1.7 ka BP that coincided with regional climate cooling and moistening. Minimal fire activity was also observed during the Little Ice Age (0.7 – 0.25 ka BP). Fire frequencies increased during the interval from 1.7 to 0.7 ka BP and appears to be partly synchronous with climate warming during the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Regional reconstructions of long-term fire history show that recent fires are unprecedented during the late Holocene, with modern high biomass burning lying outside millennial and centennial variability of the last 3400 years.

The reconstruction of Holocene northwestern Mongolian fire history based on high-resolution multi-site macro-charcoal analyses

“…Kuosmanen et al (2014) argued that in unmanaged boreal forests with patchy forest vegetation, the marked site-to-site variability is mainly controlled by topographic and microclimatic factors rather than human activity. In contrast, the findings from the transition zone from mixed Larix-forest to sub-Arctic tundra by Novenko et al (2022) indicate a rather homogenous fire history between their five sites only following climate patterns.…”

“…However, comparative studies from two remote areas in northwestern Russia (Kuosmanen et al, 2014) and northern Siberia (Novenko et al, 2022) yielded different interpretations for their varying reconstructed fire histories at the individual site. Kuosmanen et al (2014) argued that in unmanaged boreal forests with patchy forest vegetation, the marked site-to-site variability is mainly controlled by topographic and microclimatic factors rather than human activity.…”

Plant–Soil–Climate Interaction in Observed and Simulated Tree-Radial Growth Dynamics of Downy Birch in Permafrost

“…Northern forest ecosystems of the boreal zone will be particularly exposed to warming and changes in precipitation regimes causing permafrost degradation ( Osterkamp and Romanovsky, 1999 ; Schuur et al, 2008 ). At the same time, climate change is altering the fire regime in northern high-latitude regions, increasing annual burned area in Alaska ( Kasischke and Turetsky, 2006 ; Kasischke et al, 2010 ), Canada ( Gillet et al, 2004 ; Hanes et al, 2019 ), and Eurasia ( Hayes et al, 2011 ; Kharuk et al, 2013 ; Shuman et al, 2017 ; Novenko et al, 2022 ).…”

A 1300-year multi-proxy palaeoecological record from the northwest Putorana Plateau (Russian Subarctic): environmental changes, vegetation dynamics and fire history

“…Larix pollen values varied between 3% and 7%, indicating a relatively high proportion of larch. Larix is strongly underrepresented in pollen spectra and typically reflected by 0.5-2% (Klemm et al, 2013;Novenko et al, 2022). Cyperaceae pollen was predominant in the NAP group (up to 50% compared to the AP + NAP pollen sum) of the subzone LPAZ 1a.…”