[Aqualist] EGU23 CL5.7 Novel proxies for understanding past fires: outcomes for land and ecosystem management

[Micha C]

Dear AQUAlist,

Abstract submission for the 2023 EGU General Assembly is now open! Please
see below  our  accepted session proposal "Novel proxies for understanding
past fires: outcomes for land and ecosystem management", we would love to
see submissions from the Australasian community.

Conveners: Micheline Campbell, Liza McDonough, Yuval Burstyn, Kathleen
Johnson, Pauline Treble
Approximately 40% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface is fire-prone, with
wildfires likely to become larger, more common, and more severe with
climate change. To date, our understanding of fires is largely limited to
the last few decades, when satellite imagery is available. However,
satellite products do not capture the full range of past natural climate
variability and anthropogenic forcing (e.g., the agrarian revolution,
migration into the Americas and European colonisation). Better
understanding of how climate, vegetation communities, and anthropogenic
activity interact to affect fire regimes is necessary for the development
of land management strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Environmental proxy data from tree fire scars, sedimentary charcoal cores,
ice cores, and speleothems can be used to investigate how changes in
climate, land use, and human activity drive changes in fire regimes. This
session aims to highlight research which has the potential to produce
tangible outcomes for ecosystem management and land use policy. We
encourage submissions which highlight the links between fire and climate,
or which make use of novel proxies, proxy archives, or statistical
approaches. We particularly welcome submissions of records at
human-relevant temporal resolutions (seasonal to decadal), and which
examine the impact of changed land management practices (e.g. from
Indigenous to colonial and post-colonial land management systems) on modern
fire activity.

Cheers,
Micha