The impact of fire on the Late Paleozoic Earth system.
The impact of fire on the Late Paleozoic Earth system.
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DOI：
10.3389/fpls.2015.00756
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发表时间：
2015
影响因子：
5.6
通讯作者：
Shao L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Glasspool IJ;Scott AC;Waltham D;Pronina N;Shao L
对大量岩相数据的分析表明，晚古生代野火比现在更加普遍。我们认为，这一时期火灾系统的发展主要受质量平衡模型预测的大气氧浓度（p(O2)）升高的控制。在较高的 p(O2) 水平下，火灾活动的增加会使高水分含量的植被更容易着火，并促进持续燃烧。我们认为，煤炭岩相数据表明，是 p(O2) 而不是全球气温或气候导致了晚古生代观察到的野火活动水平增加，因此可以用来预测野火活动。这些发现基于对分布在全球各地并在此期间沉积的多种煤炭中的木炭量的分析，然后将其与类似多样化的现代泥炭和新生代褐煤和煤炭进行比较。在此，我们研究了影响火灾活动的环境和生态因素，并得出结论，与现代世界的普遍情况相比，在这些因素中，p(O2) 在促进晚古生代泥炭形成环境以及整个生态系统的火灾中发挥了最大的作用。
Analyses of bulk petrographic data indicate that during the Late Paleozoic wildfires were more prevalent than at present. We propose that the development of fire systems through this interval was controlled predominantly by the elevated atmospheric oxygen concentration (p(O2)) that mass balance models predict prevailed. At higher levels of p(O2), increased fire activity would have rendered vegetation with high-moisture contents more susceptible to ignition and would have facilitated continued combustion. We argue that coal petrographic data indicate that p(O2) rather than global temperatures or climate, resulted in the increased levels of wildfire activity observed during the Late Paleozoic and can, therefore, be used to predict it. These findings are based upon analyses of charcoal volumes in multiple coals distributed across the globe and deposited during this time period, and that were then compared with similarly diverse modern peats and Cenozoic lignites and coals. Herein, we examine the environmental and ecological factors that would have impacted fire activity and we conclude that of these factors p(O2) played the largest role in promoting fires in Late Paleozoic peat-forming environments and, by inference, ecosystems generally, when compared with their prevalence in the modern world.