TY  - JOUR
A1  - Glückler, Ramesh
A1  - Geng, Rongwei
A1  - Grimm, Lennart
A1  - Baisheva, Izabella
A1  - Herzschuh, Ulrike
A1  - Stoof-Leichsenring, Kathleen R.
A1  - Kruse, Stefan
A1  - Andreev, Andrej Aleksandrovic
A1  - Pestryakova, Luidmila
A1  - Dietze, Elisabeth
T1  - Holocene wildfire and vegetation dynamics in Central Yakutia, Siberia, reconstructed from lake-sediment proxies
T2  - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
N2  - Wildfires play an essential role in the ecology of boreal forests. 
In eastern Siberia, fire activity has been increasing in recent years, challenging the livelihoods of local communities. Intensifying fire regimes also increase disturbance pressure on the boreal forests, which currently protect the permafrost beneath from accelerated degradation. 

However, long-term relationships between changes in fire regime and forest structure remain largely unknown. 
We assess past fire-vegetation feedbacks using sedimentary proxy records from Lake Satagay, Central Yakutia, Siberia, covering the past c. 10,800 years. 

Results from macroscopic and microscopic charcoal analyses indicate high amounts of burnt biomass during the Early Holocene, and that the present-day, low-severity surface fire regime has been in place since c. 4,500 years before present. 
A pollen-based quantitative reconstruction of vegetation cover and a terrestrial plant record based on sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding suggest a pronounced shift in forest structure toward the Late Holocene. 

Whereas the Early Holocene was characterized by postglacial open larch-birch woodlands, forest structure changed toward the modern, mixed larch-dominated closed-canopy forest during the Mid-Holocene. 

We propose a potential relationship between open woodlands and high amounts of burnt biomass, as well as a mediating effect of dense larch forest on the climate-driven intensification of fire regimes. 
Considering the anticipated increase in forest disturbances (droughts, insect invasions, and wildfires), higher tree mortality may force the modern state of the forest to shift toward an open woodland state comparable to the Early Holocene. 
Such a shift in forest structure may result in a positive feedback on currently intensifying wildfires. 

These new long-term data improve our understanding of millennial-scale fire regime changes and their relationships to changes of vegetation in Central Yakutia, where the local population is already being confronted with intensifying wildfire seasons.
KW  - fire
KW  - larch
KW  - boreal
KW  - forest
KW  - Russia
KW  - charcoal
KW  - pollen
KW  - ancient DNA
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/64196
SN  - 2296-701X
VL  - 10
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -