AIM

The aim of the Global Palaeofire Working Group is to continue the growth of the first global palaeofire dataset. Two global synthesis 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 review), and global fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum (Power et al. 2008), and global paleofire reconstructions during the last two millennium (Marlon et al. 2009)
• Several 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

NEWS

September 2009: Meeting announcement - Africa Palaeofires Workshop, Kenya, postponed until 2010

Registration details are available on the Workshops page of this site.

August 2009: QUESTING Summer School, Besancon, France

The 1st Annual Summer School was a great success. Twelve Professors and twenty-six graduate and postdoctoral students from 10 countries attended a week of courses and discussions on topics in Paleoecology, including this years theme on Paleofire. PDF's of the Instructor's presentations will soon be available on-line

19 February 2009: Radio Broadcast

Mitchell Power gave a live radio broadcast on "Challenges to Living in Prehistoric Americas: Climate Change, Fires, and the Arrival of Europeans". This was the first lecture in a series broadcast on KCPW in collaboration with the Utah Museum of Natural History.

3 February 2009: Publication in PNAS

Marlon et al. (2009) Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI)

28/29 January 2009: GPWG Wildfires paper reviewed in the news

The upcoming Marlon et al. paper published in PNAS has featured on several websites this week, including:
The BBC (READ ARTICLE)
Desert Research Institute (READ ARTICLE)
University of Oregon (READ ARTICLE)

To view the PNAS paper follow link from publications or see news item for 3 February 2009

19 January 2009: Third Workshop Report

The third workshop of the GPWG was held in November 2008 at Queens Court Hotel, Exeter. The meeting report and future goals are now available to download on the workshops page.

25 November 2008: Bartlein elected AAAS Fellow

Congratulations to Patrick Bartlein, GPWG Scientific Steering Group leader, who has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This award honours the major contribution Bart has made to the advancement of science or its applications, in terms of modeling and visualization of synoptic climatic and vegetation dynamics across a range of geologic timescales.

Meeting announcement: GPWG Seminar at Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (30 January 2009)

Jenn Marlon will present the latest GPWG results in a talk entitled "Global Fire History Since the Last Glacial Maximum" at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, as part of their Friday Noon Seminar Series.

Meeting announcement: 2009 PAGES Open Science Conference

Jenn Marlon will present results from the latest GPWG efforts at the PAGES Open Science Conference at Corvallis, Oregon (8-11 July 2009). The conference takes place every four years and is a major event for palaeoclimate scientists. Jenn will be presenting in a session called "Land cover, water, and sediment: global and regional synthesis" in the frame of the "human-climate-ecosystem" focus of PAGES.

Conference Program | PAGES

29 September 2008: GPWG feature on NERC's Planet Earth Online

The GPWG results published in Nature Geosciences were featured in the latest news section of Planet Earth Online.

29 September 2008: GPWG in The Salt Lake Tribune

A recent article by Brian Maffly in The Salt Lake Tribune highlights the recent findings of the GPWG.

READ ARTICLE

26 September 2008: UMNH Scientists Find History of Fires, Climate Change in Lakes

Mitch Power was interviewed by Elizabeth Ziegler of KCPW News on the significance of GPWG research.

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

22 September 2008: Researchers trace earth's history through fire

GPWG research was reported on by KSL News, based on an interview with Mitch Power.

WATCH REPORT

September 2008: Publication in Nature Geoscience

Marlon et al. (2008) Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience - Advance Online Publication (DOI)

August 2008: Global Palaeofire Working Group Newsletter

Meeting announcement: Wildfires in boreal ecosystems: past, present and future fire regimes, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada, 14-17 March 2009

The symposium's main objective is to gather researchers working on the reconstruction and modeling of past, present and future fire regimes. This gathering will illustrate how effective collaborations are developed amongst the numerous researchers, and will enhance new collaborations across Europe and North America. About 60-70 participants are expected to attend. This interdisciplinary conference, lasting 4 days, will facilitate contacts and stimulate intellectual exchanges.

Further information | Registration (Deadline 31 Jan 2009) | Abstracts (Deadline 31 Dec 2008)

Meeting announcement: AIMES Young Scholar's Network Interdisciplinary Workshop, 14-18 July 2008

For millennia humans have utilized fire as a tool of landscape management, and in some regions this process continues. The historic impacts of fire on the environment and climate are thought to be significant. This workshop will explore the drivers of human use of landscape fires, as well as the impacts; indigenous and contemporary management of landscape fire across scales from anthropologic, historic, palaeoclimate, ecologic, biogeochemical and climate perspectives.

Further information | AIMES website

Global Charcoal Database Version 1.0 (GCD v1.0)

Now available to download from the database page of this site.

Meeting announcement: Africa Palaeofires Workshop, Kenya, October 2009

More information is available on the Workshops page of this site.

January 2008: PAGES Newsletter

Fire in the Earth System: The Global Palaeofire Working Group (page 39)

GPWG is now part of the IGBP cross-project activity on FIRE, December 2008

View the GPWG 5-year plan

Past news items

2006 | 2007