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Permineralization process promotes preservation of Holocene macrofossil charcoal in soils

Summary

Published in Journal of Quaternary Science, 26: 571-575.

The use of macrofossil soil charcoal as a palaeoecological tool to reconstruct past vegetation, climate or fire history has gained much interest in recent years. Yet, little is known about the taphonomy of charcoal in soils. Here, we assessed the putative loss of palaeoecological information due to charcoal fragmentation after burial. We found no significant loss of charcoal mass with time. Instead, we found a significant positive relationship between the mass of charcoal particles and their age. Permineralization of charcoal particles older than ca. 5200 a explained the increased charcoal mass with time in mineral soils. The permineralization process increased the density of charcoal particles (resulting in a two-fold increase particle mass) and, thus, offers a protection against subsequent degradation. Our results suggest high stability of palaeoecological information from charcoal macrofossils buried in mineral soils at least over the Holocene timescale.

Sector(s): 

Forests

Categorie(s): 

Scientific Article

Theme(s): 

Forest Ecology, Forestry Research

Departmental author(s): 

Couillard, Pierre-Luc

Author(s)

De LAFONTAINE, Guillaume, Pierre-Luc COUILLARD and Serge PAYETTE

Year of publication :

2011

Format :

PDF

Keywords :

14C AMS dating, charcoal analysis, macrofossil, permineralization, taphonomy

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