Fire in ice: two millennia of boreal forest fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core

Biomass burning is a major source of greenhouse gases and influences regional to global climate. Pre-industrial fire-history records from black carbon, charcoal and other proxies provide baseline estimates of biomass burning at local to global scales spanning millennia, and are thus use- ful to exam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climate of the Past
Main Authors: ZENNARO, PIERO, KEHRWALD, NATALIE MARIE, BARBARO, ELENA, GAMBARO, Andrea, BARBANTE, Carlo, JR McConnell, S. Schüpbach, OJ Maselli, J. Marlon, P. Vallelonga, D. Leuenberger, R. Zangrando, Spolaor, Andrea, M. Borrotti
Other Authors: Zennaro, Piero, Kehrwald, NATALIE MARIE, Jr, Mcconnell, S., Schüpbach, Oj, Maselli, J., Marlon, P., Vallelonga, D., Leuenberger, R., Zangrando, M., Borrotti, Barbaro, Elena, Gambaro, Andrea, Barbante, Carlo
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
WESTERN UNITED-STATES
LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT
BLACK CARBON
MASS-SPECTROMETRY
LAST MILLENNIUM
VEGETATION EMISSIONS
MOLECULAR TRACERS
CARBOXYLIC-ACIDS
HOLOCENE CLIMATE
ORGANIC AEROSOLS
Settore CHIM/01 - Chimica Analitica
Greenland
Ice cap
ice core
North Greenland
Siberia
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10278/44004
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1905-2014
Description
Summary:Biomass burning is a major source of greenhouse gases and influences regional to global climate. Pre-industrial fire-history records from black carbon, charcoal and other proxies provide baseline estimates of biomass burning at local to global scales spanning millennia, and are thus use- ful to examine the role of fire in the carbon cycle and climate system. Here we use the specific biomarker levo- glucosan together with black carbon and ammonium concen- trations from the North Greenland Eemian (NEEM) ice cores ◦◦ (77.49 N, 51.2 W; 2480ma.s.l) over the past 2000 years to infer changes in boreal fire activity. Increases in boreal fire activity over the periods 1000–1300 CE and decreases during 700–900 CE coincide with high-latitude NH temper- ature changes. Levoglucosan concentrations in the NEEM ice cores peak between 1500 and 1700 CE, and most levo- glucosan spikes coincide with the most extensive central and northern Asian droughts of the past millennium. Many of these multi-annual droughts are caused by Asian mon- soon failures, thus suggesting a connection between low- and high-latitude climate processes. North America is a primary source of biomass burning aerosols due to its relative prox- imity to the Greenland Ice Cap. During major fire events, however, isotopic analyses of dust, back trajectories and links with levoglucosan peaks and regional drought reconstruc- tions suggest that Siberia is also an important source of py- rogenic aerosols to Greenland.

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