Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

Wildfire is an important disturbance in Arctic ecosystems and can cause abrupt perturbations in global carbon cycling and atmospheric chemistry. Over the next few decades, arctic fire frequency, intensity and extent are projected to increase due to anthropogenic climate change, as regional air temperatures are increasing at more than twice the global average. In order to be better able to predict the effects of human-caused climate change, it is crucial to study past climatic changes and their effects, using a high resolution proxy. Sae-lim’s project will use charcoal and other past wildfire residues in lake sediment cores from the Alaskan arctic as a proxy to determine the history of natural wildfires in that region because wildfire frequency and extent are likely to correlate with climate changes.