Distribution and controlling factors of the Carboniferous global wildfires
Since the Silurian,wildfires have been widespread in Earth's history and significantly impacted terrestrial ecosystems.The plant began to flourish during the Carboniferous,however,the distribution pattern of its wildfires and main controlling factors are still unclear.We compiled 159 global wildfire occurrences of the Carboniferous based on three types of wildfire evidence,i.e.,charcoal,inertinite(fossil charcoal in coal),and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs).The results show that the Carboniferous wildfires were mainly concentrated in low-latitude tropical areas.Except for the Tournaisian Stage,all other time bins show sporadic wildfires in the high-latitude areas.The frequency of wildfires in the Late Carboniferous was significantly higher than in the Early Carboniferous,and the highest frequency of wildfires occurred during the Bashkirian and Moscovian stages.The increase in the frequency of wildfires from the Early Tournaisian to Early Visean may be associated with the high atmospheric oxygen concentration and the beginning of tropical swamp development.The low atmospheric oxygen concentrations may lead to a decrease in wildfire frequency during the Early Visean-Serpukhovian stage.The high frequency of wildfires from the Bashkirian to the Moscovian was related to the abundance of plant fuels at that time.The wildfire occurrences declined significantly during the Kasimovian-Gzelian due to the decrease in the area of low-latitude forest and the number of plant species.This study would be significant for better understanding the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and paleoclimate in the Carboniferous period.
万方数据
维普
