Holocene and Last-Glacial Burial Fluxes of Charcoal

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Abstract ATM-9422858 Ruddiman, William F. University of Virginia Title: Holocene and Last-Glacial Burial Fluxes of Charcoal The burial flux of charcoal over large spatial scales remains basically unknown, both today and in the historical and geological past. Recent advances in charcoal analysis have opened up new research opportunities, two of which are targeted in this project: (1) a qualification of charcoal bupial rates in the context of global carbon inventories, with an emphasis on establishing baseline late Holocene fluxes prior to the fossil-fuel era; (2) an exploration of eolian charcoal as a paleoclimatic indicator during the last 20,000 years, with particular attention to its use in distinguishing changes in source-area moisture balances from changes in wind strength. This award supports the following tasks: (1) an effort to quantify burial fluxes of eolian charcoal during the late Holocene and last- glacial maximum in ocean sediments downwind from the major continents; (2) initial explorations of potentially large charcoal burial rates in a variety of deposits along continental margins; and (3) initial investigation of lacustrine sediments to test the applicability of the new charcoal analysis method and to evaluate sedimentological complications.