Wildfires have occurred over geologic time since the evolution of land plants and affect global biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem processes.  Charcoal may record various aspects of the paleowildfire regime (fuel consumption, seasonality, frequency, and fire intensity) that can help us understand past conditions.  Fire intensity, described as the amount of energy produced during a fire, is poorly understood and unquantified for past fires, and may be recorded in charcoal.  We propose a proxy for paleowildfires temperatures based off the aromatic ring cluster size in charcoal.  To test this, we measured ring cluster size from 13C NMR of charcoal derived from cattail and willow specimens burned during a fire at the Waco Wetland in Waco, Texas and compared them to temperatures measured at the soil surface.  These results may allow for a better understanding of past conditions during fires as well as fire fuel chemistry and heat release.

Charcoal chemistry: Developing a proxy for paleofire regimes using NMR

245th National Meeting (2013)

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