Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature
The mid-Pliocene is a valuable time interval for investigating equilibrium climate at current atmospheric CO2 concentrations because atmospheric CO2 concentrations are thought to have been comparable to the current day and yet the climate and distribution of ecosystems were quite different. One intr...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:fsOI3Z97FY-7QjiITMt3e 2023-05-15T14:52:58+02:00 Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature Fletcher, Tamara L. Warden, Lisa Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S. Brown, Kendrick J. Rybczynski, Natalia Gosse, John C. Ballantyne, Ashley P. 2019-06-19 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/1063/2019/ en eng doi:10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 10670/1.zz4eal https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/1063/2019/ other Geographica Helvetica - geography eISSN: 1814-9332 envir geo Other https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_1843/ 2019 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 2023-01-22T17:34:42Z The mid-Pliocene is a valuable time interval for investigating equilibrium climate at current atmospheric CO2 concentrations because atmospheric CO2 concentrations are thought to have been comparable to the current day and yet the climate and distribution of ecosystems were quite different. One intriguing, but not fully understood, feature of the early to mid-Pliocene climate is the amplified Arctic temperature response and its impact on Arctic ecosystems. Only the most recent models appear to correctly estimate the degree of warming in the Pliocene Arctic and validation of the currently proposed feedbacks is limited by scarce terrestrial records of climate and environment. Here we reconstruct the summer temperature and fire regime from a subfossil fen-peat deposit on west–central Ellesmere Island, Canada, that has been chronologically constrained using cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to 3.9+1.5/-0.5 Ma. The estimate for average mean summer temperature is 15.4±0.8 ∘C using specific bacterial membrane lipids, i.e., branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers. This is above the proposed threshold that predicts a substantial increase in wildfire in the modern high latitudes. Macro-charcoal was present in all samples from this Pliocene section with notably higher charcoal concentration in the upper part of the sequence. This change in charcoal was synchronous with a change in vegetation that included an increase in abundance of fire-promoting Pinus and Picea. Paleo-vegetation reconstructions are consistent with warm summer temperatures, relatively low summer precipitation and an incidence of fire comparable to fire-adapted boreal forests of North America and central Siberia. To our knowledge, this site provides the northernmost evidence of fire during the Pliocene. It suggests that ecosystem productivity was greater than in the present day, providing fuel for wildfires, and that the climate was conducive to the ignition of fire during this period. The results reveal that interactions between paleo-vegetation and ... Other/Unknown Material Arctic Ellesmere Island Siberia Unknown Arctic Ellesmere Island Canada Climate of the Past 15 3 1063 1081 |
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envir geo Fletcher, Tamara L. Warden, Lisa Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S. Brown, Kendrick J. Rybczynski, Natalia Gosse, John C. Ballantyne, Ashley P. Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
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envir geo |
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The mid-Pliocene is a valuable time interval for investigating equilibrium climate at current atmospheric CO2 concentrations because atmospheric CO2 concentrations are thought to have been comparable to the current day and yet the climate and distribution of ecosystems were quite different. One intriguing, but not fully understood, feature of the early to mid-Pliocene climate is the amplified Arctic temperature response and its impact on Arctic ecosystems. Only the most recent models appear to correctly estimate the degree of warming in the Pliocene Arctic and validation of the currently proposed feedbacks is limited by scarce terrestrial records of climate and environment. Here we reconstruct the summer temperature and fire regime from a subfossil fen-peat deposit on west–central Ellesmere Island, Canada, that has been chronologically constrained using cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to 3.9+1.5/-0.5 Ma. The estimate for average mean summer temperature is 15.4±0.8 ∘C using specific bacterial membrane lipids, i.e., branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers. This is above the proposed threshold that predicts a substantial increase in wildfire in the modern high latitudes. Macro-charcoal was present in all samples from this Pliocene section with notably higher charcoal concentration in the upper part of the sequence. This change in charcoal was synchronous with a change in vegetation that included an increase in abundance of fire-promoting Pinus and Picea. Paleo-vegetation reconstructions are consistent with warm summer temperatures, relatively low summer precipitation and an incidence of fire comparable to fire-adapted boreal forests of North America and central Siberia. To our knowledge, this site provides the northernmost evidence of fire during the Pliocene. It suggests that ecosystem productivity was greater than in the present day, providing fuel for wildfires, and that the climate was conducive to the ignition of fire during this period. The results reveal that interactions between paleo-vegetation and ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Fletcher, Tamara L. Warden, Lisa Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S. Brown, Kendrick J. Rybczynski, Natalia Gosse, John C. Ballantyne, Ashley P. |
author_facet |
Fletcher, Tamara L. Warden, Lisa Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S. Brown, Kendrick J. Rybczynski, Natalia Gosse, John C. Ballantyne, Ashley P. |
author_sort |
Fletcher, Tamara L. |
title |
Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
title_short |
Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
title_full |
Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature |
title_sort |
evidence for fire in the pliocene arctic in response to amplified temperature |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/1063/2019/ |
geographic |
Arctic Ellesmere Island Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Ellesmere Island Canada |
genre |
Arctic Ellesmere Island Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ellesmere Island Siberia |
op_source |
Geographica Helvetica - geography eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 10670/1.zz4eal https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/1063/2019/ |
op_rights |
other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1063 |
op_container_end_page |
1081 |
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1766324367939076096 |