The role of climate-fuel feedbacks on Holocene biomass burning in upper-montane Carpathian forests

Carter, Vachel A.; Bobek, Přemysl; Moravcová, Alice; Šolcová, Anna; Chiverrell, Richard; Clear, Jennifer; Finsinger, Walter; Feurdean, Angelica; Tanţău, Ioan; Magyari, Enikő K.; Brussel, Thomas Van; Kuneš, Petr

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103264

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 117 publications

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“…Fire activity further declined after the regional expansion of broad-leaved deciduous forests dominated by Carpinus betulus , possibly even with admixed Fagus sylvatica , suggesting a biotic control of fire regimes. Recent studies from Central and Eastern Europe have argued that expansion of broad-leaved deciduous forest can lead to fire suppression due to lower flammability, higher forest density and moister microclimate (Feurdean et al 2017 ; Bobek et al 2019 ; Carter et al 2020 ). However, it is difficult to disentangle climatic and biotic drivers of fire regimes at our site, since the expansion of mesophilous beech forests in Central Europe has been attributed to cool and wet conditions (Tinner and Lotter 2006 ; Giesecke et al 2011 ) that in turn also have an effect on fuel flammability and fire spread.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Schwörer

Gobet

Leeuwen

et al. 2021

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Observing natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of Pinus sylvestris and Betula with continental Larix decidua and Pinus cembra established in the region around 13,450 cal bp, replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was Ulmus at 11,800 cal bp, followed by Quercus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia and Corylus ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica established at ca. 6,000 cal bp, coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal bp. Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Schwörer

Gobet

Leeuwen

et al. 2021

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…GAMs are suited for this purpose as they can unfold nonlinear relationships between a response variable and a smoothed function of the predictor variable (Hastie and Tibshirani, 1986). Specifically, we explored the responses of fires to variations in climate and land-use pressure, and the responses of dominant forest canopy taxa ( P. abies , A. alba , F. sylvatica , F. excelsior-type, Tilia and Ulmus ) to variations in climate, fires and land-use pressure (Carter et al, 2020; Colombaroli et al, 2010; Morales-Molino et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, we explored the responses of fires to variations in climate and land-use pressure, and the responses of dominant forest canopy taxa (P. abies, A. alba, F. sylvatica, F. excelsior-type, Tilia, and Ulmus) to variations in climate, fires and land-use pressure (Carter et al, 2020;Colombaroli et al, 2010;Morales-Molino et al, 2021).…”

Section: Ecosystem Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We assumed a quasi-Poisson distribution, log-transformed both the response and the predictor variables to stabilize their variances, and fitted GAMs using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) smoothness selection (Carter et al, 2020) with mgcv v1.8-38 (Wood, 2017). We chose a base period from 8000 cal BP to the present because secondary anthropogenic indicators were very abundant during the early Holocene, when human impact was negligible (Carter et al, 2020).…”

Section: Ecosystem Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of fire disturbances, human activities and climate change for long-term forest dynamics in upper-montane forests of the central Dinaric Alps

Cagliero

Paradis

Marchi³

et al. 2023

The Holocene

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We present the first high-resolution Holocene pollen, plant-macrofossil, and charcoal records from the upper-montane zone in the central Dinaric Alps. Drawing on these new records from well-dated lacustrine sediments of Zminje Jezero (ca. 1500 m a.s.l.; Montenegro) and on independent chironomid-inferred summer temperatures, we explore long-term ecosystem responses to variations in climate, fire disturbances and land use, as well as legacy effects of past environmental changes. A mixed spruce-fir forest established in the upper-montane zone around 9500 cal BP, and Fagus sylvatica became co-dominant with the two conifers after 5000 cal BP. Prehistoric land-use pressure was overall remarkably low, but increased since 2000 cal BP and was highest after the Middle Ages. We found a significant positive relationship between biomass burning and summer temperature, indicating that fires were mostly climate driven. Picea abies was insensitive to summer temperature, biomass burning and human impact, which supports the view that spruce forests may not be significantly impacted by fire. In contrast, Abies alba and other disturbance-sensitive trees ( Tilia, Ulmus, Fraxinus excelsior-type) show significant negative responses to land-use pressure and positive responses to summer temperature. This supports the notion that these species may be well-adapted to warmer-than present summer temperatures and that their populations declined in recent millennia due to land-use activities. Conversely, F. sylvatica was sensitive to summer temperatures but was promoted by low biomass burning, indicating that its expansion in the spruce-fir dominated forest was enhanced by the onset of cooler and possibly also moister climatic conditions as well as by fire disturbances.

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“…The ongoing global warming could threaten these ecosystems by altering future weather patterns (Meinshausen et al, 2011; Pachauri & Reisinger, 2008) and might act synergistically with changes in land use (Azuara et al, 2015; Beffa et al, 2016; Bobek et al, 2017). Changes have already occurred over the last few decades as mean summer temperatures in the Carpathians have increased by as much as 2°C (Alberton et al, 2017) exceeding the global mean (Auer et al, 2007; Carter et al, 2020), and the impact of climate change on these ecosystems may increase during the 21st century (Anders et al, 2014) in conjunction with heatwave and droughts. This global increase in temperature and drought predicted for the next decades could alter the future fire regime and impact biodiversity (Colombaroli & Tinner, 2013; Lestienne et al, 2020; Pausas, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of high diversity beech forest in the eastern Carpathians

Lestienne

Jamrichová

Kuosmanen

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim In recent decades, a surge in the number of significant and uncontrolled wildfires has occurred worldwide. Global warming may amplify this trend and threaten most ecosystems worldwide. Deciduous forests are characterized by high plant diversity, and understanding their long‐term dynamics is crucial to anticipate changes in these ecosystems during ongoing global warming. The aim of this study is to understand how European beech forests have colonized the inner Eastern Carpathians and how changes in fire regime and human activities have affected their biodiversity. Location Inner Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Slovakia. Taxon Plantae, gymnosperms, angiosperms. Methods Peat core was extracted from the centre of Ďurova mláka mire in 2018. A multi‐proxy approach has been applied to investigate the development of beech forest. Charcoal analysis has been done each centimetre to reconstruct the fire signal. Pollen analysis has been done at 2 cm resolution to reconstruct the vegetation composition and dynamics, and the variation in palynological richness (PRI), evenness and turnover has been analysed. Macro‐remains analysis has been performed at 10 cm resolution to add more information about the local vegetation. Results Low diversity spruce forest was dominant until 5200 cal. BP during a fire‐prone period due to specific climatic conditions (drier climate than the following period). The higher fire frequency and intensity following this period is simultaneous with the first expansion of Fagus which indicate that Fagus could occupy post‐fire habitats, at least at the local scale. However, its dominance coincided with major gaps in fire events from 3900 cal. BP. The PRI has increased during the transition from spruce to beech forest highlighting the importance of beech forests in maintaining plant biodiversity. However, the stronger increase in the richness is synchronous with the increase in human activities around 2000 cal. BP, and then 350 cal. BP. Main Conclusions Climate‐driven fire frequency has been a natural driver of vegetation changes in the Carpathians by promoting the emergence of high diversified beech forest. These changes were significantly modified by later increase in human activities.

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The role of climate-fuel feedbacks on Holocene biomass burning in upper-montane Carpathian forests

Cited by 11 publications

References 117 publications

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

The role of fire disturbances, human activities and climate change for long-term forest dynamics in upper-montane forests of the central Dinaric Alps

Development of high diversity beech forest in the eastern Carpathians

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