Sedimentary charcoal: what can we infer from the archives?

Tamara Fletcher; Scott D. Mooney; Simon C. George; Claire M. Belcher

doi:10.3390/fire9010010

Sedimentary charcoal: what can we infer from the archives?

Tamara Fletcher^*, Scott D. Mooney, Simon C. George, Claire M. Belcher

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Natural Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/opinion › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

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Abstract

Sedimentary charcoal has been used to reconstruct past fire for over 80 years, but as we try to answer more nuanced questions about the complex interactions between fire, climate, vegetation, and human management, we need tools that can reconstruct specific aspects of past fire regimes. Here, we focus on recent advances in fire intensity reconstruction from sedimentary charcoal, with emphasis on optical reflectance, spectrographic, and geochemical methods. We summarize their origin and basis, before discussing next steps in development to maximize their utility and research impact.

Original language	English
Article number	10
Pages (from-to)	1-23
Number of pages	23
Journal	Fire
Volume	9
Issue number	1
Early online date	24 Dec 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/fire9010010
Publication status	Published - Jan 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

fire intensity
fire regime
paleofire
sedimentary charcoal
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

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10.3390/fire9010010

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 746 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "Sedimentary charcoal: what can we infer from the archives?",

abstract = "Sedimentary charcoal has been used to reconstruct past fire for over 80 years, but as we try to answer more nuanced questions about the complex interactions between fire, climate, vegetation, and human management, we need tools that can reconstruct specific aspects of past fire regimes. Here, we focus on recent advances in fire intensity reconstruction from sedimentary charcoal, with emphasis on optical reflectance, spectrographic, and geochemical methods. We summarize their origin and basis, before discussing next steps in development to maximize their utility and research impact.",

keywords = "fire intensity, fire regime, paleofire, sedimentary charcoal, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons",

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T2 - what can we infer from the archives?

AU - Fletcher, Tamara

AU - Mooney, Scott D.

AU - George, Simon C.

AU - Belcher, Claire M.

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2026/1

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N2 - Sedimentary charcoal has been used to reconstruct past fire for over 80 years, but as we try to answer more nuanced questions about the complex interactions between fire, climate, vegetation, and human management, we need tools that can reconstruct specific aspects of past fire regimes. Here, we focus on recent advances in fire intensity reconstruction from sedimentary charcoal, with emphasis on optical reflectance, spectrographic, and geochemical methods. We summarize their origin and basis, before discussing next steps in development to maximize their utility and research impact.

AB - Sedimentary charcoal has been used to reconstruct past fire for over 80 years, but as we try to answer more nuanced questions about the complex interactions between fire, climate, vegetation, and human management, we need tools that can reconstruct specific aspects of past fire regimes. Here, we focus on recent advances in fire intensity reconstruction from sedimentary charcoal, with emphasis on optical reflectance, spectrographic, and geochemical methods. We summarize their origin and basis, before discussing next steps in development to maximize their utility and research impact.

KW - fire intensity

KW - fire regime

KW - paleofire

KW - sedimentary charcoal

KW - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105029017224

U2 - 10.3390/fire9010010

DO - 10.3390/fire9010010

M3 - Comment/opinion

SN - 2571-6255

VL - 9

SP - 1

EP - 23

JO - Fire

JF - Fire

IS - 1

M1 - 10

ER -

Sedimentary charcoal: what can we infer from the archives?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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