NATO
NATO Workshop: Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change
(Algarve, Portugal, 11-14 October 1994)
Fifty scientists from North America, Eurasia, and Australia gathered in Algarve, Portugal, 11-14 October 1994, for an assessment of the role of biomass burning during past changes in climate, vegetation, and land use. This interdisciplinary group of paleoecologists, fire ecologists and managers, atmospheric scientists, and organic chemists presented and debated three of the principle challenges to interpretation of long‑term burning from sediments. These challenges are i) characterization of combustion products embedded in organic sediment matrices, ii) description of production and transport of emissions, and iii) synthesis of existing sediment records. Problems characterizing combustion emissions in sediments have not only made it difficult to document past burning, but also to estimate the amount of carbon that is sequestered in recalcitrant elemental forms. The relative merits of microscopy, chemical, and thermal assays were compared. Atmospheric scientists used recent developments in meso scale transport and empirical evidence from controlled burns to argue that even relatively “large” particles might frequently be transported long distances. Paleo ecologists presented evidence to suggest that these particles represent principally local sources and therefore can be used to interpret local fires. Numerous examples were presented where known fires are well‑documented by sediment combustion records at local scales. Regional syntheses showed a high degree of geographic coherency in accumulation of combustion products. The results are published in the following volume:
Clark, J.S., H. Cachier, J.G. Goldammer, and B.J. Stocks (eds.). 1997. Sediment records of biomass burning and global change. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 489 pp.
