Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia
1. Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size, type...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10138/357179 |
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/357179 2024-01-07T09:43:09+01:00 Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia Remy, Cecile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. Department of Geosciences and Geography Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme Environmental Change Research Unit (ECRU) Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences 2023-04-21T12:19:01Z 16 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/357179 eng eng Wiley 10.1111/1365-2745.14065 Remy , C C , Magne , G , Stivrins , N , Aakala , T , Asselin , H , Seppä , H , Luoto , T , Jasiunas , N & Ali , A A 2023 , ' Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia ' , Journal of Ecology , vol. 111 , no. 4 , pp. 845-860 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 ORCID: /0000-0001-6925-3688/work/133559620 ORCID: /0000-0003-2494-7955/work/133560029 85147121305 5ebb3e32-4086-4a71-81dc-8e8d9fbafc06 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/357179 000919731200001 cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Boreal forest Charcoal Climate change Crown fire Pollen Spruce Surface fire 1171 Geosciences Article publishedVersion 2023 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:08:49Z 1. Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size, type (surface vs. crown) and severity (biomass burned) would allow better anticipation of the impact of climate change on these forests. In Fennoscandia, this objective is currently difficult to achieve due to the lack of knowledge of long-term (centuries to millennia) relationships between climate, fire and vegetation.2. We investigated the causes and consequences of changes in fire regimes during the Holocene (last similar to 11,000 years) on vegetation trajectories in the boreal forest of northern Finland. We reconstructed fire histories from sedimentary charcoal at three sites, as well as vegetation dynamics from pollen, moisture changes from Sphagnum spore abundance at two sites, and complemented these analyses with published regional chironomid-inferred July temperature reconstructions.3. Low-frequency, large fires were recorded during the warm and dry mid-Holocene period (8500-4500 cal. year BP), whereas high-frequency, small fires were more characteristic of the cool and wet Neoglacial period (4500 cal. year BP onward). A higher proportion of charcoal particles with a woody aspect-characterizing crown fires-was recorded at one of the two sites at times of significant climatic and vegetational changes, when the abundance of Picea abies was higher.4. Synthesis. Our results show both a direct and an indirect effect of climate on fire regimes in northern Fennoscandia. Warm and dry periods are conducive to large surface fires, whereas cool and moist periods are associated with small fires, either crown or surface. Climate-induced shifts in forest composition also affect fire regimes. Climatic instability can alter vegetation composition and structure and lead to fuel accumulation favouring stand-replacing crown fires. ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Fennoscandia Northern Finland HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Journal of Ecology 111 4 845 860 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
Boreal forest Charcoal Climate change Crown fire Pollen Spruce Surface fire 1171 Geosciences |
spellingShingle |
Boreal forest Charcoal Climate change Crown fire Pollen Spruce Surface fire 1171 Geosciences Remy, Cecile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
topic_facet |
Boreal forest Charcoal Climate change Crown fire Pollen Spruce Surface fire 1171 Geosciences |
description |
1. Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size, type (surface vs. crown) and severity (biomass burned) would allow better anticipation of the impact of climate change on these forests. In Fennoscandia, this objective is currently difficult to achieve due to the lack of knowledge of long-term (centuries to millennia) relationships between climate, fire and vegetation.2. We investigated the causes and consequences of changes in fire regimes during the Holocene (last similar to 11,000 years) on vegetation trajectories in the boreal forest of northern Finland. We reconstructed fire histories from sedimentary charcoal at three sites, as well as vegetation dynamics from pollen, moisture changes from Sphagnum spore abundance at two sites, and complemented these analyses with published regional chironomid-inferred July temperature reconstructions.3. Low-frequency, large fires were recorded during the warm and dry mid-Holocene period (8500-4500 cal. year BP), whereas high-frequency, small fires were more characteristic of the cool and wet Neoglacial period (4500 cal. year BP onward). A higher proportion of charcoal particles with a woody aspect-characterizing crown fires-was recorded at one of the two sites at times of significant climatic and vegetational changes, when the abundance of Picea abies was higher.4. Synthesis. Our results show both a direct and an indirect effect of climate on fire regimes in northern Fennoscandia. Warm and dry periods are conducive to large surface fires, whereas cool and moist periods are associated with small fires, either crown or surface. Climate-induced shifts in forest composition also affect fire regimes. Climatic instability can alter vegetation composition and structure and lead to fuel accumulation favouring stand-replacing crown fires. ... |
author2 |
Department of Geosciences and Geography Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme Environmental Change Research Unit (ECRU) Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Remy, Cecile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. |
author_facet |
Remy, Cecile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. |
author_sort |
Remy, Cecile C. |
title |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_short |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_full |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_fullStr |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_sort |
climatic and vegetational controls of holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern fennoscandia |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/357179 |
genre |
Fennoscandia Northern Finland |
genre_facet |
Fennoscandia Northern Finland |
op_relation |
10.1111/1365-2745.14065 Remy , C C , Magne , G , Stivrins , N , Aakala , T , Asselin , H , Seppä , H , Luoto , T , Jasiunas , N & Ali , A A 2023 , ' Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia ' , Journal of Ecology , vol. 111 , no. 4 , pp. 845-860 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 ORCID: /0000-0001-6925-3688/work/133559620 ORCID: /0000-0003-2494-7955/work/133560029 85147121305 5ebb3e32-4086-4a71-81dc-8e8d9fbafc06 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/357179 000919731200001 |
op_rights |
cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Journal of Ecology |
container_volume |
111 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
845 |
op_container_end_page |
860 |
_version_ |
1787424401006788608 |