7000-year human legacy of elevation-dependent European fire regimes

Vannière, B.; Blarquez, O.; Rius, D.; Doyen, E.; Brücher, T.; Colombaroli, Daniele; Connor, S.; Feurdean, A.; Hickler, T.; Boltshauser-Kaltenrieder, Petra; Lemmen, C.; Leys, B.; Massa, C.; Olofsson, J. (2016). 7000-year human legacy of elevation-dependent European fire regimes. Quaternary Science Reviews, 132, pp. 206-212. Pergamon 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.11.012

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Variability in fire regime at the continental scale has primarily been attributed to climate change, often overshadowing the widely potential impact of human activities. However, human ignition modifies the rhythm of fire episodes occurrence (fire frequency), whereas land use alters vegetation composition and fuel load, and thus the amount of biomass burned. It is unclear, however, whether and how humans have exercised a significant influence over fire regimes at continental and millennial scales. Based on sedimentary charcoal records, we use new alternative estimate of fire frequency and biomass burned for the last 16000 years (here after 16 ky) that we evaluate with outputs from climate, vegetation, land use and population models. We find that pronounced regional-scale land use changes in southern Europe at the beginning of the Neolithic (8–6 ky), during the Bronze Age (5–4 ky) and the medieval period (1 ky) caused a doubling of fire frequency compared to the Holocene average (the last 11.5 ky). Despite anthropogenic influences, southern European biomass burned decreased from 7 ky, which is in line both with changes in orbital parameters leading climate cooling and also reductions in biomass availability because of land use. Our study underscores the role of elevation-dependent parameters, and particularly biomass and land management, as major drivers of fire regime variability. Results attest a determinant anthropogenic driving-force on fire regime and a decrease in fire-carbon emissions since 7 ky in Southern Europe.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Palaeoecology
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)

UniBE Contributor:

Colombaroli, Daniele, Boltshauser-Kaltenrieder, Petra

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0277-3791

Publisher:

Pergamon

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

04 Apr 2016 14:41

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:53

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.11.012

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Europe, Ecological trends, Paleofire, Prehistoric land uses

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.78547

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/78547

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