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(A) ERA5 reanalysis data at Lake Satagay (Hersbach et al., 2020) for temperature, precipitation, and a fire-weather-index (FWI; calculated from daily values with the R package “cffdrs”; Wang et al., 2017) from 1950 to 2020 CE. (B) Burnt area in a 200 km buffer around Lake Satagay from 2001 to 2020 CE (NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC product MCD64A1.006; Giglio et al., 2016). (C) Correlation of mean summer months FWI and annual burnt area.
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Wildfires play an essential role in the ecology of boreal forests. In eastern Siberia, fire activity has been increasing in recent years, challenging the livelihoods of local communities. Intensifying fire regimes also increase disturbance pressure on the boreal forests, which currently protect the permafrost beneath from accelerated degradation. H...
Citations
... Therefore, understanding the future of wildfires and their causes and effects demands an approach that integrates the monitoring of recent occurrences (collecting metrics data like fire seasonality, intensity, severity, and area) with insights from palaeofire research (particularly focused on past thermal maxima with conditions similar to those expected over the coming decades). Currently, our knowledge of palaeo-wildfire behaviour in the Siberian boreal ecosystem is limited to northern regions based on reconstructions from ice cores (Eichler et al., 2011) and on charcoal, black carbon, and anhydrite records in lake sediments (Dietze et al., 2020;Glückler et al., 2021Glückler et al., , 2022, which identify climate, wildfire activity, and vegetation type back to ca. 430 ka. In southern Siberia, observational data (e.g. ...
Wildfires are a rapidly increasing threat to boreal forests. While our understanding of the drivers behind wildfires and their environmental impact is growing, it is mostly limited to the observational period. Here we focus on the boreal forests of southern Siberia and exploit a U–Th-dated stalagmite from Botovskaya Cave, located in the upper Lena region of southern Siberia, to document wildfire activity and vegetation dynamics during parts of two warm periods: the Last Interglacial (LIG; specifically part of the Last Interglacial maximum between 124.1 and 118.8 ka) and the Holocene (10–0 ka). Our record is based on levoglucosan (Lev), a biomarker sensitive to biomass burning, and on lignin oxidation products (LOPs) that discriminate between open and closed forest and hard- or softwood vegetation. In addition, we used carbonate carbon stable isotope ratios (δ13C), which reflect a dominant control of the host rock, to evaluate soil respiration and local infiltration changes. Our LOP data suggest that, during the Last Interglacial, the region around Botovskaya Cave was characterised by open forest, which by ca. 121.5 ka underwent a transition from fire-resistant hardwood to fire-prone softwood. The Lev record indicates that fire activity was high and increased towards the end of Last Interglacial just before 119 ka. In contrast, the Holocene was characterised by a closed-forest environment with mixed hard- and softwood vegetation. Holocene fire activity varied but at a much lower level than during the Last Interglacial. We attribute the changes in wildfire activity during the intervals of interest to the interplay between vegetation and climate. The open forests of the Last Interglacial were more likely to ignite than their closed Holocene equivalents, and their flammability was aided by warmer and drier summers and a stronger seasonal temperature contrast due to the increase in seasonal insolation difference compared to the Holocene. Our comparison of the last two interglacial intervals suggests that, with increasing global temperatures, the boreal forest of southern Siberia may become progressively more vulnerable to higher wildfire activity.
... Study sites are located in southwestern Yakutia (Lake Khamra; Glückler et al., 2021) and the western region of central Yakutia (Lake Satagay; Glückler et al., 2022Glückler et al., , 2024 and are spread across the Lena-Amga interfluve, the south-ern Verkhoyansk Mountains, and the Oymyakon Highlands (nine lakes; Glückler et al., 2025). ...
... In contrast, dense forests of the Late Holocene may be related to the modern, low-intensity surface fire regime. Based on these findings, it is suggested that thinning forests with continued climate change may result in a positive feedback on intensifying fire regimes (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
... This dissertation provides insights into past wildfire dynamics and their relationships with climate, vegetation, and human activity in a region that was previously poorly studied and will be confronted by continued environmental and climatic changes. (Glückler et al., 2021(Glückler et al., , 2022. ...
[Thesis abstract]
Recent intense wildfire seasons in the circumpolar boreal forests raise questions regarding drivers and impacts of past fire regime changes. Charcoal in lake sediments is commonly used to reconstruct past trends of biomass burning. However, eastern Siberia is poorly covered by such data. Considering the unique larch-dominated forests and their climate-sensitive relationships with permafrost and fire, both affected by ongoing climatic warming, this lack of data presents a key research gap.
By applying both paleo-ecological and modeling methods, this dissertation evaluates (I) wildfire dynamics of the past ca. 20 000 years, (II) relationships between fire regime changes and larch forest structure, and (III) the potential human dimension of past fire regime changes in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). [...]
... Eichler et al., 2011;Glückler et al., 2021;Lamentowicz et al., 2015;Z. Wang et al., 2021), little is known about the fire history of the entire Holocene period (Barhoumi et al., 2021;Glückler et al., 2022) or other interglacials. Wildfire records from the Late Pleistocene period, including the Lateglacial (LG) and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), are particularly rare (Shichi et al., 2009(Shichi et al., , 2013. ...
... The MH interval reveals maximum CHAR values from Lake Kotokel ( Fig. 9g and h) between ca. 6 and 5 ka BP, synchronous with the increased fire frequency in the two other records from Trans-Baikal (Fig. 9l) and with a second Holocene peak in global charcoal abundance (Fig. 9m). However, the available records from lakes Ochaul (Fig. 9j) in Cis-Baikal and Satagay (Fig. 9i) in Central Yakutia (Glückler et al., 2022) show much lower values compared to the EH. The observed differences in the records north and south of Lake Baikal likely indicate regional differences in the fire regimes of the two regions during the Holocene, complicated by local fire variability. ...
... The Ochaul and Kotokel records demonstrate relatively low CHAR levels in the Late Holocene, with a small increase over the last millennium. The CHAR record from Central Yakutia (Glückler et al., 2022) shows a similar picture (Fig. 9i), consistent with the decreasing trend in the global dataset (Fig. 9m). In contrast to the decreasing CHAR and fire magnitude, fire frequency increases from a minimum around 4 ka BP to peak values ca. ...
With the increase in global wildfire activity in response to global climate warming, the reconstruction of long-term fire histories and their links to environmental and anthropogenic factors has recently become an important focus of palaeoenvironmental research. Here we compare the precisely radiocarbon (14 C) dated long-term histories of vegetation change and fire activity from lakes Ochaul (Cis-Baikal) and Kotokel (Trans-Baikal) in the Lake Baikal Region (LBR) of Siberia, a known source region of wildfires whose past and future relationships with climate, vegetation structure and human economy are still poorly understood. Our results show that under cold and dry glacial climate conditions (32-18.2 ka BP) fire frequencies in both study regions were low. Deglaciation, which was characterised by the spread of woody plants, began around 18.2 ka BP, accompanied by a slight increase in fire activity. Differences in the fire records from both subregions are observed from the end of the Lateglacial (LG), with peak fire activity in Cis-Baikal during the Early Holocene (EH) and in Trans-Baikal during the Middle Holocene (MH). During the Late Holocene (LH) both regions are marked by generally low fire activity. We propose that the long-term spatiotemporal differences in fire activity during the EH-MH interval are primarily driven by vegetation composition and landscape openness and the resulting changes in fire regime. Interestingly, both peaks are also observed in a global-scale fire record, which suggests spatiotemporal complexity of the Holocene fire history. Low charcoal accumulation rates in both records during the Middle Neolithic (ca. 6660-6050 a BP) "cultural hiatus" archaeologically documented for Cis-Baikal suggest an LBR-wide population decline. On the other hand, the spread of Late Bronze and Iron Age cultures into the LBR from 3.5 ka BP may have at least partly driven the increase in fire frequency around Lake Kotokel.
... Wildfires play a significant role in the modern dynamics of taiga ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere [4,5]. Depending on the fire intensity and type, the forest stand density, productivity and the dominants of the upper and subordinate layers of the vegetation cover change [6]. ...
Data on the main properties of Histic Podzols in the pine forests of semi-hydromorphic landscapes in the middle taiga of the Komi Republic after forest fires are presented. A decrease in topsoil horizon thickness by more than 7.6 times, an increase in litter density by 6 times, and a decrease in litter stock by 4 times were observed in postfire soil. There was an increase in carbon content in the pyrogenic horizon (48%) and in the upper part of the podzolic horizon—from 0.49 at the control plot to 1.16% after the fire. The accumulation of all studied trace metals (Cu—from 2.5 to 6.8 mg × kg⁻¹; Zn—from 35.7 to 127.4 mg × kg⁻¹; Ni—from 2.2 to 8.1 mg × kg⁻¹; Pb—from 1.4 to 28.3 mg × kg⁻¹; Cd—from 0.3 to 1.1 mg × kg⁻¹) in soils after wildfires was recorded. The effect of the fire can be traced to a depth of approximately 20–30 cm. A significant influence of the pyrogenic factor on the alpha and beta bacterial diversity was noted. The bacterial response to a forest fire can be divided into an increased proportion of spore-forming and Gram-negative species with complex metabolism as well.
... Due to the complexity of fire ecology, dependent on many interrelated variables, there is high uncertainty in any simulations of future local fire regime changes (Hantson et al. 2016). This is exacerbated by a lack of long-term information on fire regime changes and their impacts, especially in the eastern Siberian part of the boreal zone (Glückler et al. 2022). ...
... Apart from model-based studies, any paleoecological evidence for the long-term impacts of changing fire regimes on boreal vegetation remains sparse in eastern Siberia. Recent evidence from lake sediment analyses suggests potential positive feedback mechanisms between intensifying wildfire regimes and more open forests (Glückler et al. 2022), reinforcing the results of the modeling study by Tchebakova et al. (2009), while emphasizing the need for an improved understanding of fire regime changes on long timescales. Where paleoecological studies are lacking, long-term simulations in fire-vegetation models may contribute insights into forest responses to changing fire regimes. ...
... Central Yakutia, especially west of the Lena River, experienced severe wildfire seasons in recent years (relative to years with available satellite observations). An evaluation of MODIS-derived burned area for 2001 to 2021 is provided by Glückler et al. (2022), showing that 2021 was the year with the largest burned area since 2001 within a 100 km 2 buffer around the study site. Although fire regimes in eastern Siberia are generally described as lowintensity surface fires (Rogers et al. 2015), fires in 2021 were observed to engulf whole tree stands and threaten settlements, including Nyurbachan, c. 30 km north of the study site. ...
Background: Wildfires are recognized as an important ecological component of larch-dominated boreal forests in eastern Siberia. However, long-term fire-vegetation dynamics in this unique environment are poorly understood. Recent paleoecological research suggests that intensifying fire regimes may induce millennial-scale shifts in forest structure and composition. This may, in turn, result in positive feedback on intensifying wildfires and permafrost degradation, apart from threatening human livelihoods. Most common fire-vegetation models do not explicitly include detailed individual-based tree population dynamics, but a focus on patterns of forest structure emerging from interactions among individual trees may provide a beneficial perspective on the impacts of changing fire regimes in eastern Siberia. To simulate these impacts on forest structure at millennial timescales, we apply the individual-based, spatially explicit vegetation model LAVESI-FIRE, expanded with a new fire module. Satellite-based fire observations along with fieldwork data were used to inform the implementation of wildfire occurrence and adjust model parameters.
Results: Simulations of annual forest development and wildfire activity at a study site in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) since the Last Glacial Maximum (c. 20,000 years BP) highlight the variable impacts of fire regimes on forest structure throughout time. Modeled annual fire probability and subsequent burned area in the Holocene compare well with a local reconstruction of charcoal influx in lake sediments. Wildfires can be followed by different forest regeneration pathways, depending on fire frequency and intensity and the pre-fire forest conditions. We find that medium intensity wildfires at fire return intervals of 50 years or more benefit the dominance of fire-resisting Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Rupr.), while stand-replacing fires tend to enable the establishment of evergreen conifers. Apart from post-fire mortality, wildfires modulate forest development mainly through competition effects and a reduction of the model’s litter layer.
Conclusion: With its fine-scale population dynamics, LAVESI-FIRE can serve as a highly localized, spatially explicit tool to understand the long-term impacts of boreal wildfires on forest structure and to better constrain interpretations of paleoecological reconstructions of fire activity.
... 10,800 cal yrs BP covered by the sediment core. A detailed description of the age-depth modelling approach can be found in Glückler et al. (2022). In this study, the mean value of the modelled chronologies per depth, calibrated to calendar years BP, is used. ...
... More evidence of a prevailing input of terrestrial plant material is provided by the relatively high TOC/TN atomic ratio in this period (Meyers and Teranes 2002;Biskaborn et al. 2013). A pollen-based vegetation reconstruction by Glückler et al. (2022) reveals open woodlands with extensive grasslands, while charcoal particles reveal increased wildfire disturbances until 8500 cal yrs BP. Potentially, any post-fire thermokarst activity may have contributed to this increase of erosional input (Jones et al. 2015). ...
In Central Yakutia (Siberia) livelihoods of local communities depend on alaas (thermokarst depression) landscapes and the lakes within. Development and dynamics of these alaas lakes are closely connected to climate change, permafrost thawing, catchment conditions, and land use. To reconstruct lake development throughout the Holocene we analyze sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) and biogeochemistry from a sediment core from Lake Satagay, spanning the last c. 10,800 calibrated years before present (cal yrs BP). SedaDNA of diatoms and macrophytes and microfossil diatom analysis reveal lake formation earlier than 10,700 cal yrs BP. The sedaDNA approach detected 42 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of diatom taxa, one ASV of Eustigmatophyceae (Nannochloropsis), and 12 ASVs of macrophytes. We relate diatom and macrophyte community changes to climate-driven shifts in water level and mineral and organic input, which result in variable water conductivity, in-lake productivity, and sediment deposition. We detect a higher lake level and water conductivity in the Early Holocene (c. 10,700–7000 cal yrs BP) compared to other periods, supported by the dominance of Stephanodiscus sp. and Stuckenia pectinata. Further climate warming towards the Mid-Holocene (7000–4700 cal yrs BP) led to a shallowing of Lake Satagay, an increase of the submerged macrophyte Ceratophyllum, and a decline of planktonic diatoms. In the Late Holocene (c. 4700 cal yrs BP–present) stable shallow water conditions are confirmed by small fragilarioid and staurosiroid diatoms dominating the lake. Lake Satagay has not yet reached the final stage of alaas development, but satellite imagery shows an intensification of anthropogenic land use, which in combination with future warming will likely result in a rapid desiccation of the lake.
... Little is thus known about the structuring role of fire in mountain birch woodlands in Fennoscandia. Nevertheless, compound disturbances, such as extreme weather events, insect outbreaks, as well as browsing by reindeers, can have lasting ecological consequences on tree mortality and regeneration success (Glückler et al., 2022;Holtmeier and Broll, 2019;Kuuluvainen et al., 2017;Vindstad et al., 2022). ...
... Human influence was limited before the Medieval Warm Period (Clear, 2013), and thus an anthropogenic effect on fire regimes at millennial timescales and at the regional spatial scale seems unlikely. It is possible that insect outbreaks in the birch forests became more frequent in the late Holocene (Harr et al., 2021;Holtmeier and Broll, 2019;Jonsson, 2004;Nygaard et al., 2022;, increasing fuel availability (Glückler et al., 2022;Karlsson et al., 2004;Nygaard et al., 2022;Tenow et al., 2004). However, little is known about the long-term dynamics of insect outbreaks and their interactions with the fire regimes during the Holocene in northern Fennoscandia. ...
In boreal environments, wildfires are expected to decrease in frequency and/or size with latitude/elevation, mainly in response to climate, as well as fuel availability and type. Furthermore, fire frequency and biomass burned are supposed to have been higher during warm and dry periods of the Holocene (last~11,000 years). We tested these assumptions in northern Finland by using charcoal analysis to reconstruct Holocene regional fire regimes from eight lake sediment sequences sampled within four different environments in terms of elevation, latitude and vegetation type: (1) low latitude/mid elevation coniferous forests (Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies); (2) mid latitude/low elevation pine forests (Pinus sylvestris); (3) mid-high latitude/elevation transitional mixed forests (Pinus sylvestris and Betula pubescens subsp. tortuosa); and (4) high latitude/elevation birch woodlands (Betula pubescens subsp. tortuosa). As expected, fire frequency decreased with increasing latitude/elevation. Contrary to expectations, fire frequency was not significantly higher in the warm and dry mid-Holocene than in the cool and wet late Holocene, except in transitional mixed forests. Biomass burned was higher in the mid- than in the late Holocene, but only in pine and pine-spruce forests. The opposite was observed in transitional mixed forests and birch woodlands, suggesting that factors other than climate controlled fire regimes in these environments. While climate warming will likely result in more biomass burned in low latitude/elevation coniferous forests, other disturbances (such as insect outbreaks) might play a more important role in high latitude/elevation birch-pine forests and birch woodlands.
... Paleoenvironmental research allows us to explore these relationships at long timescales. Glückler et al. (2022) reconstructed >10,000 years of charcoal and pollen history for a site in Siberia. They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
... Glückler et al. (2022) reconstructed >10,000 years of charcoal and pollen history for a site in Siberia. They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). They showed that the milder Mid Holocene fire regime was driven by long-term vegetation changes from open larch-birch woodlands to a closed canopy predominantly larch forest (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
... They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). They showed that the milder Mid Holocene fire regime was driven by long-term vegetation changes from open larch-birch woodlands to a closed canopy predominantly larch forest (Glückler et al., 2022). The combined fire and climate information in this record led them to hypothesize that future climate change will involve a return to a more severe fire regime, partially promoted by a shift to a more open, fire-prone, woodland (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
From sediment cores to speleothems, environmental archives are helping us to understand the history of wildfires.
... Paleoenvironmental research allows us to explore these relationships at long timescales. Glückler et al. (2022) reconstructed >10,000 years of charcoal and pollen history for a site in Siberia. They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
... Glückler et al. (2022) reconstructed >10,000 years of charcoal and pollen history for a site in Siberia. They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). They showed that the milder Mid Holocene fire regime was driven by long-term vegetation changes from open larch-birch woodlands to a closed canopy predominantly larch forest (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
... They demonstrated distinct shifts in fire regime from high-severity in the Early Holocene to an intermediate regime during the Mid Holocene (Glückler et al., 2022). They showed that the milder Mid Holocene fire regime was driven by long-term vegetation changes from open larch-birch woodlands to a closed canopy predominantly larch forest (Glückler et al., 2022). The combined fire and climate information in this record led them to hypothesize that future climate change will involve a return to a more severe fire regime, partially promoted by a shift to a more open, fire-prone, woodland (Glückler et al., 2022). ...
Wildfires affect 40% of the earth's terrestrial biome, but much of our knowledge of wildfire activity is limited to the satellite era. Improved understanding of past fires is necessary to better forecast how fire regimes might change with future climate change, to understand ecosystem resilience to fire, and to improve data‐model comparisons. Environmental proxy archives can extend our knowledge of past fire activity. Speleothems, naturally occurring cave formations, are widely used in paleoenvironmental research as they are absolutely dateable, occur on every ice‐free continent, and include multiple proxies. Recently, speleothems have been shown to record past fire events (Argiriadis et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00767; McDonough et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.03.020; Homann et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34950-x). Here we present a review of this emerging application in speleothem paleoenvironmental science. We give a concise overview of fire regimes and common paleofire proxies, describe past attempts to use stalagmites to investigate paleofire, and describe the physical basis through which speleothems can record past fires. We then describe the ideal speleothem sample for paleofire research and offer a summary of applicable laboratory and statistical methods. Finally, we present four case studies from southwest Australia which: (a) explore the geochemistry of ash leachates, (b) detail how sulfate isotopes may be a proxy for post fire ecological recovery, (c) demonstrate how a catastrophic paleofire was linked to changes in climate and land management, and (d) investigate whether deep caves can record past fire events. We conclude the paper by outlining future research directions for paleofire applications.
... Diekmann et al., 2016), Satagay (e.g. Glückler et al., 2022), Bolshoye Toko (e.g. Biskaborn et al., 2019), and in Kamchatka and Far East (e.g. ...
The current special issue (SI) of QI presents the articles based on scientific reports presented at the 4th International conference “Paleolimnology of Northern Eurasia". The current Special Issue (SI) of QI includes 14 articles that present new data obtained from the lakes geographically distributed from the Kuril Islands in the Far East to coastal areas of the White and Baltic Seas, and central part of the East European Plain in the West.
The first paleolimnological laboratory in the USSR was founded in
1959, at Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was led by Prof. Gerbert G. Martinson
(1911–1997) (Sapelko, Subetto, 2020). In the USSR and then in Russia, paleolimnological conferences (“The History of Lakes”) were held every three years between the 1960 and 1990s. After an almost 20-year-long break, the conferences were revived, and in 2014 the First International conference “Paleolimnology of Northern Eurasia” was held at the Norther Water Problems Institute of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Science, Petrozavodsk (2014). The subsequent conferences were held in Yakutsk (2016, North-East Federal University), Kazan (2018, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University), and Irkutsk (2020, Limnological Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Siberian Branch). Owing to the COVID pandemic, the 4th International conference “Paleolimnology of Northern Eurasia” in Irkutsk (2020) was held as a web conference with online presentations (http://lin.irk.ru/paleo2020/en/). The conference proceedings were published in a special issue of the Limnology and Freshwater Biology journal (http://limnolfwbiol.com/index.php/LFWB/issue/view/13).
