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Spatial distribution of charcoal in topsoil and its potential determinants on the Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

As an important proxy for investigating past fire activities, charcoal is often used to explore the characteristics of fire distribution and its relationships with vegetation, climate, and human activities. Research into the spatial distribution and environmental determinants for charcoal, however, is still limited. In this study, we identified and counted charcoal from topsoil samples covering the Tibetan Plateau using the pollen methodology, and investigated its relationships with vegetation net primary production (NPP), elevation, climate (precipitation, mean temperature of the coldest month and warmest month) and human population by boosted regression trees (BRT). Results reveal that the concentration of microscopic charcoal, macroscopic charcoal, and total charcoal all increase from south-west to north-east, which is consistent with the trend that the population density on the Tibetan Plateau is high in the east and low in the west, suggesting that an increase in human activity is likely to promote the occurrence of fire. The BRT modeling reveals that NPP, elevation, and mean temperature of the coldest month are important factors for total charcoal concentration on the Tibetan Plateau, and the frequency and intensity of fires further increase with increasing vegetation biomass, decreasing elevation, and decreasing mean temperature of the coldest month. The spatial variation characteristics of charcoal from topsoil on the Tibetan Plateau not only reflect well the spatial fire situation in the region, but also have a good indicative significance for vegetation, climate, and human activities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Center for Tibetan Plateau Earth System (BSCTPES, NSFC project No. 41988101). Cathy Jenks provided help with language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation Group (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yixuan Wang, Chaoqun Cao, Yanrong Zhang, Nannan Wang, Wenjia Li & Xianyong Cao

  2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yixuan Wang, Chaoqun Cao, Nannan Wang & Wenjia Li

  3. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China

    Lina Liu

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  1. Yixuan Wang
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  2. Chaoqun Cao
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Correspondence to Lina Liu or Xianyong Cao.

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Wang, Y., Cao, C., Zhang, Y. et al. Spatial distribution of charcoal in topsoil and its potential determinants on the Tibetan Plateau. Front. Earth Sci. 17, 1059–1069 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-023-1095-5

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