Fire, Holocene Climate Change, and Geomorphic Response Recorded in Alluvial Fan Sediments

Alluvial fan stratigraphic sequences record fire history in charcoal-rich deposits and buried burned soil surfaces. Deposit characteristics provide information about the magnitude of fire-related sedimentation events and severity of associated fires, and radiocarbon-dating of charcoal establishes the timing of fires. Unlike lakes, alluvial fans are ubiquitous in mountain environments. Although alluvial-fan fire records lack the annual resolution of tree-ring records, compilation of data from many alluvial fan sites provides a statistical sample of fire timing and approximate severity that can be related to climate variations over centennial to millennial timescales. We examine alluvial fan records from xeric Pinus ponderosa-dominated forests of central Idaho, and compare them with similar records from cooler, high-elevation Pinus contorta-dominated forests of Yellowstone National Park. Identification of charcoal macrofossils from Idaho fan deposits limits inbuilt age errors in radiocarbon dating, and shows that similar forest compositions have existed over the last ca. 4000 years in the fan drainage basins. Limited data from ca. 4000-7000 yr ago suggest that Pinus ponderosa was either sparse or absent in the 4 basins represented. Large fire-related debris flows in both Idaho and Yellowstone indicate severe fires during the ca. 1050-750 cal yr BP Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA), which included widespread and severe western US droughts. Another such episode 2700-1600 cal yr BP is less prominent in the Idaho record. Numerous small, fire-induced sedimentation events in Idaho ca. 350-500 (Little Ice Age), 1200-1400, and 2800-3000 cal yr BP likely indicate frequent low- to mixed-severity fires, and coincide with indicators of generally cool, moist conditions in the western USA and North Atlantic, and with minimal fire activity in Yellowstone. We infer that these effectively wetter periods allow greater grass growth, fueling frequent surface fires in ponderosa forests, but limiting fires in general in the effectively wetter forests of Yellowstone. Maxima in dated small events may relate to significant droughts within these intervals, e.g. in the late AD 1500s, but widespread severe fires are not indicated. Alluvial-fan records add to data from other charcoal-based proxy records of fire that indicate the importance of centennial- to millennial-scale climate change in modulating fire activity and geomorphic response in conifer forests over the Holocene.