Fire in the Earth System: a Paleoperspective
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new s • • www.pages-igbp.org Vol 18 No 2 August 2010 Fire in the Earth System: A Paleoperspective Editors: Cathy Whitlock, Willy Tinner, Louise Newman and Thorsten Kiefer In recent decades, fire activity has increased dramatically in many parts of the world, raising concerns about future fire regimes with global warming. The image above shows a recent (2009) bush fire in northern Australia (photo: www.morgueFile.com/). Fire is recognized as an essential, natural process in most ecosystems but to fully appreciate fire's role in the Earth System requires an examination of its causes and consequences over multiple temporal and spatial scales. This newsletter highlights recent research efforts that seek to gain this broader perspective. Inside PAGES New PAGES Communications Climate Dynamics, DOI: 10.1007/s00382- (HITE), Paleo–ocean Acidification, and the Officer 010-0793-3) and precipitation (Neukom Asian, Arctic and European-Mediterranean PAGES has a new Project and Communi- et., al Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: groups of the 2000-year regional climate cations Manager! Anand Chandrasekhar 0.1029/2010GL043680) reconstructions reconstruction (“2k”) Network. Announcements ([email protected]) over the last centuries from southern South The next deadline for meeting support lived and studied in India and the UK and America. The papers synthesize work done proposals is the 22 Nov 2010, for consider- hasw no joined PAGES International Proj- by the PAGES-LOTRED-SA (Long-Term cli- ation by the EXCOM in mid-December. ect Office team in Switzerland. Anand has mate Reconstruction and Dynamics of More information on specific work- a forestry and conservation biology back- southern South America) Working Group. shops is available on the PAGES website ground and specializes in environment Finally, the special issue resulting from (calendar>PAGES supported) communications, advocacy and policy. the PAGES Open Science Meeting 2009, to At PAGES, Anand will be further develop- be published in the open access journal Call to host PAGES OSM/YSM in ing the PAGES communication strategy, in Climate of the Past, is progressing with 6 ar- 2013 particular revamping the PAGES website ticles readily published and 4 more under PAGES invites applications by groups in- to make it more dynamic and user-friendly review. All articles can be accessed from terested in hosting the 4th PAGES Open and establishing new pathways of com- http://www.pages-igbp.org/cgi-bin/We- Science Meeting (OSM) and the associated munication, such as PAGES on Facebook bObjects/products.woa/wa/type?id=3 2nd Young Scientists Meeting (YSM). The (become a fan!). meetings will be held in the first half of Recent SSC meeting 2013. The OSM and YSM are PAGES flagship New PAGES publications At its annual meeting, PAGES Scientific events and are much anticipated fixtures The Integrated History and Future of Steering Committee (SSC) surveyed the on the paleoscience calendar. Interested People on Earth (IHOPE) Research Plan is status of its science plan. The structure and groupse ar requested to send a completed now completed and available for down- progress of the scientific building blocks application form (see http://www.pages- load from the PAGES website (under (Themes, Working Groups, endorsed proj- osm.org/) to PAGES by 29 October 2010. resources>products). IHOPE seeks to bet- ects) was reviewed and old and new links ter understand the dynamic interactions with other organizations were discussed. IPCC AR5 authors between all aspects of human behavior Beyond this day-to-day business, the SSC Of the approximately 3000 nominations and the environment by connecting the also initiated a process to look further that were received from around the world, histories of humans, climate and environ- ahead and develop concepts for how 831 scientists have been selected to pre- mentt a multiple temporal scales (millen- PAGES and paleoscience coordination in pare the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report nial, centennial, decadal and future scenar- general could evolve over the next decade. (AR5). Three current PAGES SSC members ios). For more information on their pretty, Ideas discussed included past-to- will contribute to the “Paleoclimate Ar- new website: http://www.stockholmresil- present time-continuous coordination chives” chapter of IPCC Working Group 1. ience.org/ihope. of the physical basis of global change, Michael Schulz as a Coordinating Lead Au- PAGES has also recently published an continuing to provide the historical per- thor, Bette Otto-Bliesner as a Lead Author, article, essentially providing a condensed spectiveo t global change science, and Heinz Wanner as a Review Editor, and other version of the recent science plan (Cur- expanding Focus 4 type research with hu- authors involved with PAGES will help to rent Opinion in Environmental Sustainabil- mans as part of the Earth System. Minutes communicate results from PAGES activities ity, in press). For more information visit of SSC meetings are available on http:// toC. IPC Lists of authors of all IPCC WGs are http://www.pages-igbp.org/cgi-bin/Web www.pages-igbp.org/people/sscmembers available at http://www.ipcc.ch/ Objects/products.woa/wa/type?id=11 /meetingminutes.html A number of articles from PAGES ini- Next newsletter issue tiatives and Working Groups have been PAGES support for meetings The planned special section of the 3rd 2010 published. Two review papers from Focus PAGES Executive Committee (EXCOM) re- issue of PAGES news will be on PAGES and 4 Working Groups highlight research re- centlyo met t deliberate on workshop pro- International Geosphere-Biosphere Pro- sults and future goals. One paper, coming posals submitted to the first call in 2010. A gramme (IGBP) science. Paired topical ar- out of the LUCIFS (Land Use and Climate total of 10 meetings were awarded finan- ticles will provide different perspectives Impact on Fluvial Systems) Working Group, cial support. Two proposals to the “open on global change questions that are ad- wasy led b T. Hoffmann and reviews the call” from external groups were approved, dressed in PAGES and our IGBP sister-proj- interaction of people with rivers over the one for a workshop in Tanzania of the IN- ects.f I you have ideas for contributions to Holocene (Global and Planetary Change, QUA-Eastern African regional group, and this issue please let us know! Ninad Bon- 72: 87-98). The other paper, led by M.-J. one for a Symposium in Portugal that will dre, Science Editor at IGBP, will be guest- Gaillard, reviews approaches and data sets dissect the Medieval Warm Period idea. editor for this special section. In addition, of land-cover reconstructions, under the Two educational-type workshops received the newsletter will have the usual open umbrella of Focus 4 Land Cover Theme support, one on Paleochronology Build- (i.e., general) section for your research arti- (Climate of the Past, 6: 483-499). ing held in Mexico, and one on Paleocli- cles, program news and workshop reports. Two milestone articles uncover- mate and Paleoecology in South American Deadline for any contributions is 4 Octo- ing the climatic history of the Southern held in Chile. PAGES Working Groups that ber. Guidelines for contributions can be Hemisphere have also been published. were allocated support for their work- found online (http://www.pages-igbp.org/ These provide spatial, temporal and shops include Past Interglacials (PIGS), products/newsletters/instructions.html). seasonal temperature (Neukom et al., Human Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystems 54 PAGES news • Vol 18 • No 2 • August 2010 Editorial: Fire in the Earth System Cathy WhitloCk1 and Willy tinner2 1Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, USA; [email protected] 2Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland; [email protected] Fire as an Earth System process severity) within particular ecosystems and about the long-term trends in fire occur- Satellite images showing the broad extent better addressed issues of fire manage- rence and area burned associated with of biomass burning, especially in the trop- ment (Conedera et al., 2009). Tree-ring and major reorganizations of vegetation and ics and subtropics, bear testimony to fire’s charcoal records remain primary sources climate. Charcoal time series are now rou- significance as an Earth System process of fire-history information, but other disci- tinely calibrated against historic tree ring (Fig. 1). Modern observations of fire, how- plines and technologies, including biogeo- and documentary data (see Whitlock and ever, describe only part of its dynamics, chemistry, remote sensing, atmospheric Larsen, 2001), and interpretations have Highlights: Editorial Science particularly in biomes where fire reoccurs physics and environmental modeling, become more sophisticated with the de- on timescales of decades or centuries, or have recently contributed significantly to velopment of new process-based mod- is highly variable (e.g., in the boreal forest, the field of paleofire research. eling approaches (Higuera et al., this is- tropical rainforests and temperate hard- Fire science, and particularly paleofire sue). The combination of multiple proxy, wood forests). Gaining information about science, has experienced a renaissance empirical and modeling approaches, and these regions requires fire archives that in the last twenty years, motivated by an improved ability to document spatial span longer timescales (centuries to mil- theo need t understand recent large and and temporal patterns, show that natural lennia), such as tree rings, sediments and seemingly unprecedented fires in many fire regimes have long dynamic histories ice cores (Fig. 2). This issue of PAGES news parts of the world, as well as by projec- (Whitlock et al., 2010). These insights have highlights current research that examines tions that fire activity will soon exceed 20th guided land-management planning, as paste fir activity, its consequences and its century levels (Bowman et al., 2009; Flan- well as increased our understanding of fire relevance for the future.