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Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America

Publication ,  Journal Article
Clark, JS; Hussey, T; Royall, PD
Published in: Journal of Paleolimnology
January 1, 1996

We present a method for identifying analogs for past fire regimes and use it to assess similarity between late Quaternary fire regimes in northern Wisconsin and central New York and a reference set of charcoal series from just prior to presettlement time. The analog method is based on comparisons of distributions of charcoal accumulation rates from annually laminated sediments using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample D statistic (D). D is a non- parametric statistic expressing the difference between distributions that does not require assumptions concerning the shape of the distributions (e.g. normality, homoscedasticity) and it summarizes differences in a single index. Our study consists of (i) mapping D values obtained by comparisons between pairs of 'reference' charcoal series from the immediate presettlement (calibration) and (ii) identifying possible presettlement analogs from this reference set for Late Quaternary charcoal distributions. Our calibration analysis identified geographic transitions in charcoal transition that were much steeper than apparent from pollen data. Otherwise, geographic patterns in presettlement charcoal and pollen are comparable, including a group of oak/hardwood forest sites in Wisconsin, central Ontario, and New York having similar values, and another group of mostly northern hardwood/hemlock sites in Pennsylvania and Maine. Application to charcoal series dated after 11 000 yr BP at Wisconsin and New York suggests that fire regimes may have been different from those occurring at any of our reference sites. Differences in seasonality of climates and different fuel structures are a possible explanation.

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Published In

Journal of Paleolimnology

DOI

ISSN

0921-2728

Publication Date

January 1, 1996

Volume

16

Issue

1

Start / End Page

79 / 96

Related Subject Headings

  • Paleontology
  • 3709 Physical geography and environmental geoscience
  • 3705 Geology
  • 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
  • 0403 Geology
 

Citation

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Clark, J. S., Hussey, T., & Royall, P. D. (1996). Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America. Journal of Paleolimnology, 16(1), 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00173273
Clark, J. S., T. Hussey, and P. D. Royall. “Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America.” Journal of Paleolimnology 16, no. 1 (January 1, 1996): 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00173273.
Clark JS, Hussey T, Royall PD. Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America. Journal of Paleolimnology. 1996 Jan 1;16(1):79–96.
Clark, J. S., et al. “Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America.” Journal of Paleolimnology, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 1996, pp. 79–96. Scopus, doi:10.1007/BF00173273.
Clark JS, Hussey T, Royall PD. Presettlement analogs for quaternary fire regimes in eastern North America. Journal of Paleolimnology. 1996 Jan 1;16(1):79–96.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of Paleolimnology

DOI

ISSN

0921-2728

Publication Date

January 1, 1996

Volume

16

Issue

1

Start / End Page

79 / 96

Related Subject Headings

  • Paleontology
  • 3709 Physical geography and environmental geoscience
  • 3705 Geology
  • 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
  • 0403 Geology