Evidence of wildfire in the British Isles during the Last Glacial- Interglacial Transition; revealing spatiotemporal patterns and controls

Charcoal records are now widely used to reconstruct past burning activity as there is an increasing global interest in understanding the complex interactions between fire, climate, vegetation and human activity. However, this topic has been relatively overlooked in the British Isles, as the region is generally thought to not support natural burning regimes. Here, for the first time, we present a synthesis of previously published charcoal data for 238 sites and demonstrate the widespread occurrence of charcoal in sediments that span the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; c. 17−8.3 ka cal. BP) in the British Isles. Analysis is based upon a semi-quantitative analysis of the assembled dataset; the common patterns are identified and are considered in relation to independent reconstructions of climate, vegetation and anthropogenic activity. No causal relationships with vegetation are identified, while charcoal is also prominent during periods when archaeological evidence for human occupation of the British Isles is absent or scarce. Climate is very likely to have controlled the fire regimes during the LGIT. We conclude with ten research priorities to further advance our understanding of palaeofire drivers during the Lateglacial-Early Holocene.

9.3 ka event, Charcoal, Early Holocene, Fire, Humans, Late Upper Palaeolithic, Lateglacial, Mesolithic, climate change, radiocarbon 28 29 1.

10.1016/j.pgeola.2020.05.001

0016-7878

562-577

Tsakiridou, Margarita

9b9736f6-a88c-44fa-b87c-01fd21381cf5

Hardiman, Mark

c8e5bfdd-676c-4998-b076-080783886a1d

Grant, Michael

56dae074-d54a-4da8-858a-2bf364a5a550

Lincoln, Paul

b59021d6-ec42-4003-9c8a-8a9a5d0643df

Cunningham, Laura

8201f13d-4671-43ab-824b-fba7459f3388

October 2020

Tsakiridou, Margarita

9b9736f6-a88c-44fa-b87c-01fd21381cf5

Hardiman, Mark

c8e5bfdd-676c-4998-b076-080783886a1d

Grant, Michael

56dae074-d54a-4da8-858a-2bf364a5a550

Lincoln, Paul

b59021d6-ec42-4003-9c8a-8a9a5d0643df

Cunningham, Laura

8201f13d-4671-43ab-824b-fba7459f3388

Tsakiridou, Margarita, Hardiman, Mark, Grant, Michael, Lincoln, Paul and Cunningham, Laura (2020) Evidence of wildfire in the British Isles during the Last Glacial- Interglacial Transition; revealing spatiotemporal patterns and controls. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 131 (5), 562-577. (doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2020.05.001).

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Abstract

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PGEOLA-D-19-00109R1 - Accepted Manuscript

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 May 2020

e-pub ahead of print date: 3 June 2020

Published date: October 2020

Additional Information: Funding Information: This work has been part of doctoral research funded by a University of Portsmouth bursary. The authors would like to thank the Global Palaeofire Working Group (phase 2) for fruitful discussions, and Ian Matthews, Zoë Hazell, Rupert Housley for discussions and comments. The authors would also like to thank both reviewers for useful and helpful comments which have improved the manuscript and Paul Carter for his help with GIS and map plotting. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Geologists' Association

Keywords: 9.3 ka event, Charcoal, Early Holocene, Fire, Humans, Late Upper Palaeolithic, Lateglacial, Mesolithic, climate change, radiocarbon 28 29 1.