AIM

The aim of the Global Palaeofire Working Group is to continue the growth of the first global palaeofire dataset. Two global syntheses have enabled the examination of broad-scale patterns in palaeofire activity, provided new insights into the long-term interactions of fire, vegetation and climate, identified gaps in the existing palaeofire data, and provided a framework within which new records can be interpreted. Critically, this dataset is also allowing us to validate global model simulations The initiative is being sponsored by QUEST (Quantifying Uncertainties in the Earth System, a directed programme of the Natural Environment Research Council) and will contribute to the goals of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) cross project activity on fire.

Several products and projects have emerged from the IGBP Fast Track Initiative on Fire (2003-2007):

• a series of maps showing the change in fire regime at several key time periods during the last glacial-interglacial cycle;
• several joint-authored papers describing observed changes in fire regimes during glacial-interglacial cycles (Daniau et al. in press), and global fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum (Power et al. 2008), global reconstructions during the last two millennium (Marlon et al. 2009) and mid-Holocene fire regimes of the Mediterranean basin (Vannière et al. in press).
• joint-authored analyses are underway that describe the comparison of these records with simulated changes in fire patterns, and thus exploring the role of changes in climate on fire regimes;
• a public-access database, which will complement and expand the databases currently being archived through the NOAA-NGDC World Data Center for Paleoclimatology.

View the Global Palaeofire Working Group Data Access Policy