CHARCOAL PARTICLES AS INDICATORS OF PAST FIRES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69823/avacient.v4n2a20Keywords:
Fire, ecosystems, vegetation, macrocharcoal, microcharcoal.Abstract
Fire is an important form of disturbance that influences the composition, structure, and distribution of vegetation. Additionally, fire has effects at multiple biological levels, influencing populations, communities, and ecosystems. In the last years, significant efforts have been made to understand past fire dynamics and to identify key factors that play an important role in forest fires. During a fire, charcoal particles are produced, and these contain anatomic information of species as well as chemical and physical attributes of the environment at the time of deposition. New techniques and methods have been developed to understand past fire behavior to aid in establishing better fire management practices. This paper reviews fire and charcoal particles, the latter being the most important existing proxy for reconstructing fire history at large time scales. Additionally, we briefly present case studies, particularly for the Americas and Caribbean region, that have used charcoal analysis for past fire reconstruction.
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