Reconstructing Australia’s fire history from cave stalagmites

火灾是一种主要的自然灾害，它对澳大利亚社区和生态系统的影响正在增加。这是世界上第一个项目，该项目旨在校准来自浅洞穴中石笋的古火灾信号，并建立过去数千年来古火灾频率和强度的年度解析石笋记录。该项目旨在使用澳大利亚西南部的石笋来确定火与气候之间的关系，并评估火灾易发地区石笋水文气候指标的稳健性。该项目预计将建立一个新的洞穴群科学研究领域，提高澳大利亚第四纪和洞穴群研究界的能力，并使土地管理者受益。

Fire represents a major natural hazard, and its impact on Australian communities and ecosystems is increasing. Representing a world first, this project aims to calibrate the paleofire signal from stalagmites in shallow caves, and to construct annually resolved stalagmite records of paleofire frequency and intensity for the last millennia. The project aims to use stalagmites from south west Australia to determine the relationship between fire and climate and assess the robustness of stalagmite hydroclimate proxies in fire-prone regions. This project expects to establish a new research field for speleothem science, enhancing capacity for the Australian Quaternary and speleothem research communities, as well as benefits to land managers.