Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga
The analysis of charcoal fragments in peat and lake sediments is the most widely used approach to reconstruct past biomass burning. With a few exceptions, this method typically relies on the quantification of the total charcoal content of the sediment. To enhance charcoal analyses for the reconstruc...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:197c9b9a464042d182a36872194807a4 2023-05-15T18:31:02+02:00 Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga A. Feurdean 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 https://doaj.org/article/197c9b9a464042d182a36872194807a4 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/18/3805/2021/bg-18-3805-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/197c9b9a464042d182a36872194807a4 Biogeosciences, Vol 18, Pp 3805-3821 (2021) Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 2022-12-31T07:32:30Z The analysis of charcoal fragments in peat and lake sediments is the most widely used approach to reconstruct past biomass burning. With a few exceptions, this method typically relies on the quantification of the total charcoal content of the sediment. To enhance charcoal analyses for the reconstruction of past fire regimes and make the method more relevant to studies of both plant evolution and fire management, the extraction of more information from charcoal particles is critical. Here, I used a muffle oven to burn seven fuel types comprising 17 species from boreal Siberia (near Teguldet village), which are also commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere, and built on published schemes to develop morphometric and finer diagnostic classifications of the experimentally charred particles. I then combined these results with those from fossil charcoal from a peat core taken from the same location (Ulukh-Chayakh mire) in order to demonstrate the relevance of these experiments to the fossil charcoal records. Results show that graminoids, Sphagnum , and wood (trunk) lose the most mass at low burn temperatures ( <300 ∘ C), whereas heathland shrub leaves, brown moss, and ferns lose the most mass at high burn temperatures. This suggests that species with low mass retention in high-temperature fires are likely to be under-represented in the fossil charcoal record. The charcoal particle aspect ratio appeared to be the strongest indicator of the fuel type burnt. Graminoid charcoal particles are the most elongate (6.7–11.5), with a threshold above 6 that may be indicative of wetland graminoids; leaves are the shortest and bulkiest (2.1–3.5); and twigs and wood are intermediate (2.0–5.2). Further, the use of fine diagnostic features was more successful in separating wood, graminoids, and leaves, but it was difficult to further differentiate these fuel types due to overlapping features. High-aspect-ratio particles, dominated by graminoid and Sphagnum morphologies, may be robust indicators of low-temperature surface fires, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper taiga Siberia Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Biogeosciences 18 12 3805 3821 |
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English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
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Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 A. Feurdean Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
The analysis of charcoal fragments in peat and lake sediments is the most widely used approach to reconstruct past biomass burning. With a few exceptions, this method typically relies on the quantification of the total charcoal content of the sediment. To enhance charcoal analyses for the reconstruction of past fire regimes and make the method more relevant to studies of both plant evolution and fire management, the extraction of more information from charcoal particles is critical. Here, I used a muffle oven to burn seven fuel types comprising 17 species from boreal Siberia (near Teguldet village), which are also commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere, and built on published schemes to develop morphometric and finer diagnostic classifications of the experimentally charred particles. I then combined these results with those from fossil charcoal from a peat core taken from the same location (Ulukh-Chayakh mire) in order to demonstrate the relevance of these experiments to the fossil charcoal records. Results show that graminoids, Sphagnum , and wood (trunk) lose the most mass at low burn temperatures ( <300 ∘ C), whereas heathland shrub leaves, brown moss, and ferns lose the most mass at high burn temperatures. This suggests that species with low mass retention in high-temperature fires are likely to be under-represented in the fossil charcoal record. The charcoal particle aspect ratio appeared to be the strongest indicator of the fuel type burnt. Graminoid charcoal particles are the most elongate (6.7–11.5), with a threshold above 6 that may be indicative of wetland graminoids; leaves are the shortest and bulkiest (2.1–3.5); and twigs and wood are intermediate (2.0–5.2). Further, the use of fine diagnostic features was more successful in separating wood, graminoids, and leaves, but it was difficult to further differentiate these fuel types due to overlapping features. High-aspect-ratio particles, dominated by graminoid and Sphagnum morphologies, may be robust indicators of low-temperature surface fires, ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. Feurdean |
author_facet |
A. Feurdean |
author_sort |
A. Feurdean |
title |
Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
title_short |
Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
title_full |
Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
title_fullStr |
Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
title_full_unstemmed |
Experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from Siberian taiga |
title_sort |
experimental production of charcoal morphologies to discriminate fuel source and fire type: an example from siberian taiga |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 https://doaj.org/article/197c9b9a464042d182a36872194807a4 |
genre |
taiga Siberia |
genre_facet |
taiga Siberia |
op_source |
Biogeosciences, Vol 18, Pp 3805-3821 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/18/3805/2021/bg-18-3805-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/197c9b9a464042d182a36872194807a4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3805-2021 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
3805 |
op_container_end_page |
3821 |
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1766214683364163584 |