A review of speleothems as archives for paleofire proxies, with Australian case studies

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dc.contributor.authorCampbell, Men_AU
dc.contributor.authorMcDonough, LKen_AU
dc.contributor.authorTreble, PCen_AU
dc.contributor.authorBaker, AAen_AU
dc.contributor.authorKosarac, Nen_AU
dc.contributor.authorColeborn, Ken_AU
dc.contributor.authorWynn, PMen_AU
dc.contributor.authorSchmitt, AKen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-30T02:04:26Zen_AU
dc.date.available2023-06-30T02:04:26Zen_AU
dc.date.issued2023-03-22en_AU
dc.date.statistics2023-05-16en_AU
dc.description.abstractWildfires affect 40% of the earth's terrestrial biome, but much of our knowledge of wildfire activity is limited to the satellite era. Improved understanding of past fires is necessary to better forecast how fire regimes might change with future climate change, to understand ecosystem resilience to fire, and to improve data-model comparisons. Environmental proxy archives can extend our knowledge of past fire activity. Speleothems, naturally occurring cave formations, are widely used in paleoenvironmental research as they are absolutely dateable, occur on every ice-free continent, and include multiple proxies. Recently, speleothems have been shown to record past fire events (Argiriadis et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00767; McDonough et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.03.020; Homann et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34950-x). Here we present a review of this emerging application in speleothem paleoenvironmental science. We give a concise overview of fire regimes and common paleofire proxies, describe past attempts to use stalagmites to investigate paleofire, and describe the physical basis through which speleothems can record past fires. We then describe the ideal speleothem sample for paleofire research and offer a summary of applicable laboratory and statistical methods. Finally, we present four case studies from southwest Australia which: (a) explore the geochemistry of ash leachates, (b) detail how sulfate isotopes may be a proxy for post fire ecological recovery, (c) demonstrate how a catastrophic paleofire was linked to changes in climate and land management, and (d) investigate whether deep caves can record past fire events. We conclude the paper by outlining future research directions for paleofire applications. © 2023 The Authors. Open Access CC-By-NC Licenceen_AU
dc.description.sponsorshipThis review was funded by the Australian Research Council (DP200100203 and LP130100177). NK was supported by an Honours Scholarship from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (ALNSTU21014). MC was supported by a postdoctoral research award from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering. We thank WA Parks and Wildlife staff for enthusiastic assistance in the collection of ash samples. S-μXRF analyses were undertaken on the XFM beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, part of ANSTO, with thanks to David Patterson (experiment 14312). Thanks to Henri Wong and Chris Vardanega at ANSTO ITNS for analyses of ash leachates. Mass spectrometric results were obtained at the Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility within the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre of the University of New South Wales, with thanks to Lewis Adler. Thanks to three anonymous reviewers for their generous and comprehensive reviews, which have demonstrably improved the paper. Thanks also to the editors for thoughtful comments and handling of the manuscript. The authors respectfully acknowledge both the Whadjuk Noongar and Wadandi Noongar peoples as the traditional and spiritual custodians of the Yanchep (on Whadjuk Noongar boodja) and Margaret River (on Wadandi boodja) regions of Western Australia, which are the sites for all case studies presented in Section 6. Open access publishing facilitated by University of New South Wales, as part of the Wiley - University of New South Wales agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.en_AU
dc.identifier.articlenumbere2022RG000790en_AU
dc.identifier.citationCampbell, M., McDonough, L., Treble, P. C., Baker, A., Kosarac, N., Coleborn, K., Wynn, P. M., & Schmitt, A. K. (2023). A review of speleothems as archives for paleofire proxies, with Australian case studies. Reviews of Geophysics, 61(2), e2022RG000790. doi:10.1029/2022RG000790en_AU
dc.identifier.issn8755-1209en_AU
dc.identifier.issue2en_AU
dc.identifier.journaltitleReviews of Geophysicsen_AU
dc.identifier.uri https://doi.org/10.1029/2022RG000790en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://apo.ansto.gov.au/handle/10238/15077en_AU
dc.identifier.volume61en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherAmerican Geophysical Unionen_AU
dc.subjectFiresen_AU
dc.subjectCavesen_AU
dc.subjectAustraliaen_AU
dc.subjectDataen_AU
dc.subjectClimatesen_AU
dc.subjectGeochemistryen_AU
dc.subjectHazardsen_AU
dc.subjectEarth planeten_AU
dc.subjectEcosystemsen_AU
dc.subjectStatisticsen_AU
dc.titleA review of speleothems as archives for paleofire proxies, with Australian case studiesen_AU
dc.typeJournal Articleen_AU
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