Charcoal accumulation following a recent fire in the Cascade Range,northwestern USA,and its relevance for fire-history studies

Abstract

Stratigraphic records of macroscopic charcoal particles (>125 μm in diameter) are widely used as a means of reconstructing past fire events, yet fire-history studies rest on assumptions about the processes by which charcoal is transported and deposited in lake sediments. In order to clarify the interpretation of charcoal data, charcoal abundance in sediment cores was examined from 36 lakes within and near the 1996 Charlton Burn, a large stand-replacing fire in the central Cascade Range of Oregon. Stratigraphic variations in charcoal abundance provided strong evidence that macroscopic charcoal recorded a signal of local fire and that prevailing winds affected charcoal transportation, increasing charcoal abundance in lakes downwind of the fire. Charcoal abundance in the uppermost sediments (0–2 cm depth) was related primarily to whether or not a site had burned and secondarily to the surface area of the lake. At the Charlton Burn area, other variables that may influence the transportation of charcoal after a fire, such as relative position of unburned lakes, distance of the lake from the centre of the fire, maximum adjacent slope, and width of riparian vegetation, were not statistically significant. These results support the assumption in charcoal analysis that there is a relationship between the occurrence of local fire and peaks in macroscopic charcoal. Confirming this relationship strengthens the interpretation of long-term fire-history records.

Keywords

Charcoal records fire history macroscopic charcoal analysis lake sediments Cascade Range Oregon

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bradbury, J.P. 1996: Charcoal deposition and redeposition in Elk Lake, Minnesota, USA.The Holocene 6, 339–334.

Clark, J.S. 1988: Particle motion and the theory of charcoal analysis: source area, transport, deposition, and sampling.Quaternary Research 30, 67–80.

Clark, J.S. 1990: Fire and climate change during the last 750 yr in Northwestern Minnesota.Ecological Monographs 60, 135–159.

Clark, J.S. , Lynch, J. , Stocks, B.J. and Goldammer, J.G. 1998: Relationships between charcoal particles in air and sediments in west-central Siberia.The Holocene 8, 19–29.

Cofer III, W.R. , Koutzenogii, K.P. , Kokorin, A. and Ezcurra, A. 1997: Biomass burning emissions and the atmosphere. In Clark, J.S. , Cachier, H. , Goldammer, J.G. and Stocks, B. , editors,Sediment records of biomass burning and global change, NATO ASI Series, Series I: Global Environmental Change, New York: Springer, 189–206.

Cwynar, L.C. 1978: Recent history of fire and vegetation from annually laminated sediment of Greenleaf Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany 56, 10–12.

Franklin, J.F. and Dyrness, C.T. 1988:Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington. Corvallis: Oregon State Press.

Gardner, J.J. 1999:Charcoal accumulation in lake sediments following a modern fire in the central Cascade Range, Oregon. Unpublished Master of Science thesis, University of Oregon.

Larsen, C.P.S. and MacDonald, G.M. 1993: Lake morphometry, sediment mixing and the selection of sites for fine-resolution palaeoecological studies.Quaternary Science Reviews 12, 781–792.

10.

Larsen, C.P.S. and MacDonald, G.M. 1998a: An 840-year record of fire and vegetation in a boreal white spruce forest.Ecology 79, 106–118.

11.

Larsen, C.P.S. and MacDonald, G.M. 1998b: Fire and vegetation dynamics in a jack pine and black spruce forest reconstructed using fossil pollen and charcoal.Journal of Ecology 86, 815–828.

12.

MacDonald, G.M. , Larsen, C.P.S. , Szeicz, J.M. and Moser, K.A. 1991: The reconstruction of boreal forest fire history from lake sediments: a comparison of charcoal, pollen, sedimentological, and geochemical indices.Quaternary Science Reviews 10, 53–71.

13.

Millspaugh, S.H. and Whitlock, C. 1995: A 750-year fire history based on lake sediment records in central Yellowstone National Park, USA.The Holocene 5, 283–292.

14.

Ohlson, M. and Tryterud, E. 2000: Interpretation of the charcoal record in forest soils: forest fires and their production and deposition of macroscopic charcoal.The Holocene 10, 519–525.

15.

Patterson III, W.A. , Edwards, K.J. , and Maguire, D.J. 1987: Micro-scopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire.Quaternary Science Reviews 6, 3–23.

16.

Stocks, B.J. and Kauffman, J.B. 1997: Biomass consumption and behavior of wildland fires. In Clark, J.S. , Cachier, H. , Goldammer, J.G. and Stocks, B. , editors,Sediment records of biomass burning and global change, NATO ASI Series, Series I: Global Environmental Change, New York: Springer, 169–188.

17.

Swain, A.M. 1973: A history of fire and vegetation in northeastern Minnesota as recorded in lake sediments.Quaternary Research 3, 383–396.

18.

Swain, A.M. 1978: Environmental changes during the past 2000 yr in north-central Wisconsin: analysis of pollen, charcoal and seeds from varved lake sediments.Quaternary Research 10, 55–68.

19.

Tinner, W. , Condera, M. , Amman, B. , Gäggeler, H.W. , Gedye, S. , Jones, R. and Sägesser, B. 1998: Pollen and charcoal in lake sediments compared with historically documented forest fires in southern Switzerland since AD 1920.The Holocene 8, 31–42.

20.

Weisberg, S. 1985:Applied linear regression. New York: John Wiley.

21.

Whitlock, C. and Millspaugh, S.H. 1996: Testing the assumptions of fire-history studies: an examination of modern charcoal accumulation in Yellowstone National Park, USA.The Holocene 6, 7–15.

22.

Whitlock, C. , Bradbury, J.P. and Millspaugh, S.H. 1997: Controls on charcoal distribution in lake sediments: case studies from Yellowstone National Park and northwestern Minnesota. In Clark, J.S. , Cachier, H. , Goldammer, J.G. and Stocks, B. , editors,Sediment records of biomass burning and global change, NATO ASI Series, Series I: Global Environmental Change, New York: Springer, 367–386.

23.

Willamette and Deschutes National Forests 1996: Crest Wilderness Prescribed Natural Fire Program: background and fire management plan. US Department of Agriculture, open file report.