Multi-Scale Analyses of Fire-Climate-Vegetation Interactions on Millennial Scales

The aim of the Global paleofire Working Group (GpWG) is to facilitate scientific research on fire activity in the Earth system through the development of a global charcoal dataset (GCD). Analysis and synthesis of sedimentary charcoal records from around the globe has enabled the identification and explanation of spatiotemporal patterns in paleofire activity, created a framework for exploring fire-climate-vegetation linkages at decadal-tomillennial time scales, and allowed evaluation of fire model simulations at regional to global scales. Science emerging from the GpWG community includes a public-access database and multi-authored publications describing observed spatiotemporal changes in fire at global and regional scales as well as their causes and consequences (e.g. time series and maps; power et al. 2008).