Articles | Volume 15, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1063-2019
Research article
 | 
19 Jun 2019
Research article |  | 19 Jun 2019

Evidence for fire in the Pliocene Arctic in response to amplified temperature

Tamara L. Fletcher, Lisa Warden, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté, Kendrick J. Brown, Natalia Rybczynski, John C. Gosse, and Ashley P. Ballantyne

Related authors

The warm winter paradox in the Pliocene northern high latitudes
Julia C. Tindall, Alan M. Haywood, Ulrich Salzmann, Aisling M. Dolan, and Tamara Fletcher
Clim. Past, 18, 1385–1405, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1385-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1385-2022, 2022
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Feedback and Forcing | Archive: Terrestrial Archives | Timescale: Cenozoic
Age and driving mechanisms of the Eocene–Oligocene transition from astronomical tuning of a lacustrine record (Rennes Basin, France)
Slah Boulila, Guillaume Dupont-Nivet, Bruno Galbrun, Hugues Bauer, and Jean-Jacques Châteauneuf
Clim. Past, 17, 2343–2360, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2343-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2343-2021, 2021
Short summary
Late Pliocene lakes and soils: a global data set for the analysis of climate feedbacks in a warmer world
M. J. Pound, J. Tindall, S. J. Pickering, A. M. Haywood, H. J. Dowsett, and U. Salzmann
Clim. Past, 10, 167–180, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-167-2014,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-167-2014, 2014

Cited articles

Abbot, D. S. and Tziperman, E.: Sea ice, high-latitude convection, and equable climates, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L03702, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL032286, 2008. 
Auclair, A. N.: Postfire regeneration of plant and soil organic pools in a Picea mariana–Cladonia stellaris ecosystem, Can. J. Forest Res., 15, 279–291, 1985. 
Ballantyne, A. P., Rybczynski, N., Baker, P. A., Harington, C. R., and White, D.: Pliocene Arctic temperature constraints from the growth rings and isotopic composition of fossil larch, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 242, 188–200, 2006. 
Ballantyne, A. P., Greenwood, D. R., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., Csank, A. Z., Eberle, J. J., and Rybczynski, N.: Significantly warmer Arctic surface temperatures during the Pliocene indicated by multiple independent proxies, Geology, 38, 603–606, 2010. 
Bendle, J. A., Weijers, J. W., Maslin, M. A., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., Schouten, S., Hopmans, E. C., Boot, C. S., and Pancost, R. D.: Major changes in glacial and Holocene terrestrial temperatures and sources of organic carbon recorded in the Amazon fan by tetraether lipids, Geochem. Geophy. Geosy., 11, Q12007, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GC003308, 2010. 
Download
Short summary
The last time atmospheric CO2 was similar to the present was 3–4 million years ago. The Arctic was warmer compared to the global average, and the causes are not fully known. To investigate this, we reconstructed summer temperature, forest fire and vegetation at a 3.9 Ma fen peat in Arctic Canada. The summer temperatures averaged 15.4 °C, and charcoal was abundant. Interactions between vegetation and climate were mediated by fire and may contribute to high Arctic temperatures during the Pliocene.