Fires and their significance in the Earth’s post-Glacial period: a review of methods, achievements, progress
M. A. PUPYSHEVA1, T. A. BLYAKHARCHUK1,2
1Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems SB RAS, Tomsk, Russia
2National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
Keywords: paleofires, fire dynamics, micro- and macro-charcoal analyzes, lake-swamp sediments, Holocene
Abstract
The article presents a generalization of the results of studying the long-term history of paleofires in the world and on the territory of Russia specifically. Perspective and reliable methods for reconstructing the local and regional dynamics of paleofires - micro- and macro-charcoal analyzes, are considered. In the article, we analyze approaches to the study of paleofires, methods of processing and identifying micro- and macroscopic charcoal particles, including the state-of-the-art software tools for their identification (“The Charcoal Quantification Tool”, “WinSEEDLETM”) and analysis (“CharAnalysis”) based on a review of world and Russian scientific achievements. In addition, the possibilities of modern international paleofire databases (Global Charcoal Database, Reading Palaeofire Database), which contain up-to-date information on local and regional paleofire data in the Holocene, are considered here. The results of the study of paleofires globally and on the territory of Russia in particular are analyzed and possible research directions along with fire reconstruction issues are highlighted. The review of Russian publications has shown that the central and south part of the East European Plain, as well as the southeast of Western Siberia, are the most studied regions in terms of reconstructing the dynamics of paleofires. Few similar studies were carried out in the Urals Mts., Eastern Siberia and the Far East, but most of the regions of Russia remain unstudied in this regard. In recent years, Russian researchers are mainly focused on the study of local fire dynamics based on the use of macro-charcoal analysis. The analysis of international paleofire databases (Global Charcoal Database, Reading Palaeofire Database) shows that these data need to be radically revised in relation to key sites in Russia. The authors present a generalized map-scheme of Russia indicating the key areas where paleofire dynamics were reconstructed using micro- or macro-charcoal analyzes.
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