Contrasting early- and late-Holocene vegetation and wildfire regimes in a high-value drinking water supply area, Canada

Horrelt, Daniel R.; Brown, Kendrick J.; Conder, Nicholas; Trofymow, John A.; Bone, Christopher

doi:10.5194/cp-22-561-2026

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-561-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-561-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

Research article

|

10 Mar 2026

Research article |

| 10 Mar 2026

Contrasting early- and late-Holocene vegetation and wildfire regimes in a high-value drinking water supply area, Canada

Daniel R. Horrelt, Kendrick J. Brown, Nicholas Conder, John A. Trofymow, and Christopher Bone

Data sets

Frog Lake charcoal dataset Christopher Bone et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/AGV1-H892

Frog Lake pollen dataset Christopher Bone et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/RY5S-E495

Worley Lake charcoal dataset Christopher Bone et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/PP10-C482

Worley Lake pollen dataset Christopher Bone et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/5DNG-CS22

Swanson Lake charcoal dataset Daniel Ross Horrelt et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/31J5-S285

Swanson Lake pollen dataset Daniel Ross Horrelt et al. https://doi.org/10.21233/KG7B-9G33

Short summary

By analyzing charcoal and pollen in lake sediments from a high-value drinking water supply area, this research found that forests on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia experienced more frequent wildfires in the past. Recently, cooler and moister climate has led to fewer fires and denser forests, with western sites experiencing the most change. Findings suggest that as climate warms in the future, wildfire occurrence could increase with implications for water supply management.