scholarly journals Indigenous Fire-Managed Landscapes in Southeast Australia during the Holocene—New Insights from the Furneaux Group Islands, Bass Strait

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Adeleye ◽  
Simon G. Haberle ◽  
Simon E. Connor ◽  
Janelle Stevenson ◽  
David M.J.S. Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Recurrence Rate ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Biomass Accumulation ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Southeast Australia ◽  
Managed Landscapes ◽  
Indigenous Land

Indigenous land use and climate have shaped fire regimes in southeast Australia during the Holocene, although their relative influence remains unclear. The archaeologically attested mid-Holocene decline in land-use intensity on the Furneaux Group islands (FGI) relative to mainland Tasmanian and SE Australia presents a natural experiment to identify the roles of climate and anthropogenic land use. We reconstruct two key facets of regional fire regimes, biomass (vegetation) burned (BB) and recurrence rate of fire episodes (RRFE), by using total charcoal influx and charcoal peaks in palaeoecological records, respectively. Our results suggest climate-driven biomass accumulation and dryness-controlled BB across southeast Australia during the Holocene. Insights from the FGI suggest people elevated the recurrence rate of fire episodes through frequent cultural burning during the early Holocene and reduction in recurrent Indigenous cultural burning during the mid–late Holocene led to increases in BB. These results provide long-term evidence of the effectiveness of Indigenous cultural burning in reducing biomass burned and may be effective in stabilizing fire regimes in flammable landscapes in the future.

scholarly journals Three distinct Holocene intervals of stalagmite deposition and nondeposition revealed in NW Madagascar, and their paleoclimate implications

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1771-1790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ny Riavo Gilbertinie Voarintsoa ◽  
Loren Bruce Railsback ◽  
George Albert Brook ◽  
Lixin Wang ◽  
Gayatri Kathayat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Intertropical Convergence Zone ◽  
Convergence Zone ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Resolution Data

Abstract. Petrographic features, mineralogy, and stable isotopes from two stalagmites, ANJB-2 and MAJ-5, respectively from Anjohibe and Anjokipoty caves, allow distinction of three intervals of the Holocene in NW Madagascar. The Malagasy early Holocene (between ca. 9.8 and 7.8 ka) and late Holocene (after ca. 1.6 ka) intervals (MEHI and MLHI, respectively) record evidence of stalagmite deposition. The Malagasy middle Holocene interval (MMHI, between ca. 7.8 and 1.6 ka) is marked by a depositional hiatus of ca. 6500 years. Deposition of these stalagmites indicates that the two caves were sufficiently supplied with water to allow stalagmite formation. This suggests that the MEHI and MLHI intervals may have been comparatively wet in NW Madagascar. In contrast, the long-term depositional hiatus during the MMHI implies it was relatively drier than the MEHI and the MLHI. The alternating wet–dry–wet conditions during the Holocene may have been linked to the long-term migrations of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). When the ITCZ's mean position is farther south, NW Madagascar experiences wetter conditions, such as during the MEHI and MLHI, and when it moves north, NW Madagascar climate becomes drier, such as during the MMHI. A similar wet–dry–wet succession during the Holocene has been reported in neighboring locations, such as southeastern Africa. Beyond these three subdivisions, the records also suggest wet conditions around the cold 8.2 ka event, suggesting a causal relationship. However, additional Southern Hemisphere high-resolution data will be needed to confirm this.

scholarly journals Holocene history of fire, vegetation and land use from the central Pyrenees (France)

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Rius ◽  
Boris Vanniére ◽  
Didier Galop
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Subsequent Reduction ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
History Of ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Central Pyrenees

Located on a mountain pass in the west-central Pyrenees, the Col d'Ech peat bog provides a Holocene fire and vegetation record based upon nine 14C (AMS) dates. We aim to compare climate-driven versus human-driven fire regimes in terms of frequency, fire episodes distribution, and impact on vegetation. Our results show the mid-Holocene (8500–5500 cal yr BP) to be characterized by high fire frequency linked with drier and warmer conditions. However, fire occurrences appear to have been rather stochastic as underlined by a scattered chronological distribution. Wetter and colder conditions at the mid-to-late Holocene transition (4000–3000 cal yr BP) led to a decrease in fire frequency, probably driven by both climate and a subsequent reduction in human land use. On the contrary, from 3000 cal yr BP, fire frequency seems to be driven by agro-pastoral activities with a very regular distribution of events. During this period fire was used as a prominent agent of landscape management.

European colonization and the emergence of novel fire regimes in southeast Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 205301962110446
Author(s):  
Matthew Adesanya Adeleye ◽  
Simon Edward Connor ◽  
Simon Graeme Haberle ◽  
Annika Herbert ◽  
Josephine Brown
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Biomass Accumulation ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Southeast Australia ◽  
Generalized Linear Modelling ◽  
Indigenous Land Management ◽  
European Colonization

The rapid increase in severe wildfires in many parts of the world, especially in temperate systems, requires urgent attention to reduce fires’ catastrophic impacts on human lives, livelihoods, health and economy. Of particular concern is southeast Australia, which harbours one of the most flammable vegetation types on Earth. While previous studies suggest climate and European activities drove changes in southeast Australian fire regimes in the last 200 years, no study has quantitatively tested the relative roles of these drivers. Here, we use a Generalized Linear Modelling to identify the major driver(s) of fire regime change in the southeast Australian mainland during and prior to European colonization. We use multiple charcoal and pollen records across the region and quantitatively compare fire history to records of climate and vegetation change. Results show low levels of biomass burned before colonization, when landscapes where under Indigenous management, even under variable climates. Biomass burned increased markedly due to vegetation/land-use change after colonization and a major decline in regional precipitation about 100 years later. We conclude that Indigenous-maintained open vegetation minimized the amount of biomass burned prior to colonization, while European-suppression of Indigenous land management has amplified biomass accumulation and fuel connectivity in southeast Australian forests since colonization. While climate change remains a major challenge for fire mitigation, implementation of a management approach similar to the pre-colonial period is suggested to ameliorate the risk of future catastrophic fires in the region.

Long-term variability of root production in bioenergy crops from ingrowth core measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheyenne Lei ◽  
Michael Abraha ◽  
Jiquan Chen ◽  
Yahn-Jauh Su
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Root Biomass ◽  
Biomass Productivity ◽  
Biomass Accumulation ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Ingrowth Core ◽  
Biofuel Crops

Abstract Aims Long-term determination of root biomass production upon land use conversion to biofuel crops is rare. To assess land-use legacy influences on belowground biomass accumulation, we converted 22-year-old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands and 50+-year-old agricultural (AGR) lands to corn (C), switchgrass (Sw) and restored prairie (Pr) biofuel crops. We maintained one CRP grassland as a reference (Ref). We hypothesized that land use history and crop type have significant effects on root density, with perennial crops on CRP grasslands having a higher root biomass productivity, while corn grown on former agricultural lands produce the lowest root biomass. Methods The ingrowth core method was used to determine in situ ingrowth root biomass, alongside measurements of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). Ancillary measurements, including air temperature, growing season length, and precipitation were used to examine their influences on root biomass production. Important Findings Root biomass productivity was the highest in unconverted CRP grassland (1716 g m -2 yr -1), and lowest in corn fields (526 g m -2 yr -1). All perennial sites converted from CRP and AGR lands had lower root biomass and ANPP in the first year of planting but peaked in 2011 for switchgrass and a year later for restored prairies. Ecosystem stability was higher in restored prairies (AGR-Pr: 4.3 ± 0.11; CRP-Pr: 4.1 ± 0.10), with all monocultures exhibiting a lower stability. Root biomass production was positively related to ANPP (R  2 = 0.40). Overall, attention should be given to root biomass accumulation in large-scale biofuel production as it is a major source of carbon sequestration.

scholarly journals The Iberian Peninsula’s Burning Heart—Long-Term Fire History in the Toledo Mountains (Central Spain)

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Luelmo-Lautenschlaeger ◽  
Blarquez ◽  
Pérez-Díaz ◽  
Morales-Molino ◽  
López-Sáez
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
Central Spain ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
In Fire ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Long-term fire ecology can help to better understand the major role played by fire in driving vegetation composition and structure over decadal to millennial timescales, along with climate change and human agency, especially in fire-prone areas such as the Mediterranean basin. Investigating past ecosystem dynamics in response to changing fire activity, climate, and land use, and how these landscape drivers interact in the long-term is needed for efficient nature management, protection, and restoration. The Toledo Mountains of central Spain are a mid-elevation mountain complex with scarce current anthropic intervention located on the westernmost edge of the Mediterranean basin. These features provide a perfect setting to study patterns of late Holocene fire activity and landscape transformation. Here, we have combined macroscopic charcoal analysis with palynological data in three peat sequences (El Perro, Brezoso, and Viñuelas mires) to reconstruct fire regimes during recent millennia and their linkages to changes in vegetation, land use, and climatic conditions. During a first phase (5000–3000 cal. BP) characterized by mixed oak woodlands and low anthropogenic impact, climate exerted an evident influence over fire regimes. Later, the data show two phases of increasing human influence dated at 3000–500 cal. BP and 500 cal. BP–present, which translated into significant changes in fire regimes increasingly driven by human activity. These results contribute to prove how fire regimes have changed along with human societies, being more related to land use and less dependent on climatic cycles.

Diachronic variability in prehistoric land use in Oregon’s Warner Valley

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey M Smith ◽  
Donald D Pattee ◽  
Madeline Ware van der Voort
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Pedestrian Survey ◽  
Warner Valley

Pedestrian survey in northern Warner Valley, Oregon, has provided data capable of contributing to reconstructions of prehistoric land use. Such information is complementary to data generated by recent work at the stratified LSP-1 rockshelter situated in the Northern Warner Valley Study Area (NWVSA). Here, we present results of our survey and focus on when the area was visited, how it was used, and from where visitors to the area originated and/or obtained toolstone. Our results indicate that the NWVSA saw heavy use by Paleoindians before being largely abandoned during the Middle Holocene. During the Late Holocene, groups likely operating from residential bases further south in the better-watered parts of Warner Valley returned to the NWVSA. Compared to other nearby areas, the NWVSA was utilized less intensively during much of the Holocene.

scholarly journals Legacies of Indigenous land use shaped past wildfire regimes in the Basin-Plateau Region, USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vachel A. Carter ◽  
Andrea Brunelle ◽  
Mitchell J. Power ◽  
R. Justin DeRose ◽  
Matthew F. Bekker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Wildfire Regimes ◽  
Indigenous Land

AbstractClimatic conditions exert an important influence on wildfire activity in the western United States; however, Indigenous farming activity may have also shaped the local fire regimes for millennia. The Fish Lake Plateau is located on the Great Basin–Colorado Plateau boundary, the only region in western North America where maize farming was adopted then suddenly abandoned. Here we integrate sedimentary archives, tree rings, and archeological data to reconstruct the past 1200 years of fire, climate, and human activity. We identify a period of high fire activity during the apex of prehistoric farming between 900 and 1400 CE, and suggest that farming likely obscured the role of climate on the fire regime through the use of frequent low-severity burning. Climatic conditions again became the dominant driver of wildfire when prehistoric populations abandoned farming around 1400 CE. We conclude that Indigenous populations shaped high-elevation mixed-conifer fire regimes on the Fish Lake Plateau through land-use practices.

Crustal subsidence inferred from reconstruction of the Pleistocene–Holocene palaeogeography in the northern Lake Inba area, central Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Takashi Chiba ◽  
Shigeo Sugihara ◽  
Yoshiaki Matsushima ◽  
Yusuke Arai ◽  
Kunihiko Endo
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Diatom Assemblages ◽  
Central Japan ◽  
Lower Salinity ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Transgression

ABSTRACTTo help characterise the palaeogeographic and lacustrine environmental changes that resulted from the Holocene transgression and residual subsidence in the eastern Kanto Plain of central Japan, we analysed four drill cores and reviewed other core data from the southern part of the Lake Inba area. Fossil diatom assemblages yielded evidence of centennial-scale palaeogeographic and salinity responses to sea-level changes since the late Pleistocene. We determined that the seawater incursion into the Lake Inba area during the Holocene transgression occurred at approximately 9000 yr. We also recognised a late Holocene regression event corresponding to the Yayoi regression, considered to have occurred from ca. 3000 to ca. 2000 yr, and a subsequent transgression. Our data clarify some of the palaeogeographic changes that occurred in the Lake Inba area and document an overall trend toward lower salinity in the lake during the regression. In particular, the environment in Lake Inba changed from brackish to freshwater no later than 1000 yr. From the detailed palaeogeographic and palaeo-sea-level reconstruction, we recognised that residual subsidence occurred during the Holocene in this area. Thus, comparison of sea-level reconstructions based on modelling and fossil diatom assemblages is effective in interpreting Holocene long-term subsidence.

scholarly journals Long-term variations in Iceland–Scotland overflow strength during the Holocene

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1627-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. R. Thornalley ◽  
M. Blaschek ◽  
F. J. Davies ◽  
S. Praetorius ◽  
D. W. Oppo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Arctic Sea

Abstract. The overflow of deep water from the Nordic Seas into the North Atlantic plays a critical role in global ocean circulation and climate. Approximately half of this overflow occurs via the Iceland–Scotland (I–S) overflow, yet the history of its strength throughout the Holocene (~0–11 700 yr ago, ka) is poorly constrained, with previous studies presenting apparently contradictory evidence regarding its long-term variability. Here, we provide a comprehensive reconstruction of I–S overflow strength throughout the Holocene using sediment grain size data from a depth transect of 13 cores from the Iceland basin. Our results reveal weaker I–S overflow during the early and late Holocene, with maximum overflow strength occurring at ~7 ka, the time of a regional climate thermal maximum. Climate model simulations suggest a shoaling of deep convection in the Nordic Seas during the early and late Holocene, consistent with our evidence for weaker I–S overflow during these intervals. Whereas the reduction in I–S overflow strength during the early Holocene likely resulted from melting remnant glacial ice-sheets, the decline throughout the last 7000 yr was caused by an orbitally-induced increase in the amount of Arctic sea-ice entering the Nordic Seas. Although the flux of Arctic sea-ice to the Nordic Seas is expected to decrease throughout the next century, model simulations predict that under high emissions scenarios, competing effects, such as warmer sea surface temperatures in the Nordic Seas, will result in reduced deep convection, likely driving a weaker I–S overflow.

scholarly journals Long-term variations in Iceland–Scotland overflow strength during the Holocene

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 2073-2084 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. R. Thornalley ◽  
M. Blaschek ◽  
F. J. Davies ◽  
S. Praetorius ◽  
D. W. Oppo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Arctic Sea

Abstract. The overflow of deep water from the Nordic seas into the North Atlantic plays a critical role in global ocean circulation and climate. Approximately half of this overflow occurs via the Iceland–Scotland (I–S) overflow, yet the history of its strength throughout the Holocene (~ 0–11 700 yr ago, ka) is poorly constrained, with previous studies presenting apparently contradictory evidence regarding its long-term variability. Here, we provide a comprehensive reconstruction of I–S overflow strength throughout the Holocene using sediment grain size data from a depth transect of 13 cores from the Iceland Basin. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that the main axis of the I–S overflow on the Iceland slope was shallower during the early Holocene, deepening to its present depth by ~ 7 ka. Our results also reveal weaker I–S overflow during the early and late Holocene, with maximum overflow strength occurring at ~ 7 ka, the time of a regional climate thermal maximum. Climate model simulations suggest a shoaling of deep convection in the Nordic seas during the early and late Holocene, consistent with our evidence for weaker I–S overflow during these intervals. Whereas the reduction in I–S overflow strength during the early Holocene likely resulted from melting remnant glacial ice sheets, the decline throughout the last 7000 yr was caused by an orbitally induced increase in the amount of Arctic sea ice entering the Nordic seas. Although the flux of Arctic sea ice to the Nordic seas is expected to decrease throughout the next century, model simulations predict that under high emissions scenarios, competing effects, such as warmer sea surface temperatures in the Nordic seas, will result in reduced deep convection, likely driving a weaker I–S overflow.

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