Description

As part of my dissertation, I propose to study the interactions between climate change, wildland fires, and post-fire permafrost thaw over the last 1,000 years (permafrost; permanently frozen ground occurring in boreal regions). The last 1,000 years has seen sizable climate changes in Alaska including the Medieval Warm Period (MWP, AD 950-1250), the Little Ice Age (LIA, AD 1300-1900), and the dramatic warming trend that has occurred in Alaska since AD 1950 (1). My overall research question is: What effects have warming episodes in the recent past had on fire frequency, carbon fluxes, and soil erosion in black spruce forest in Interior Alaska? To study the these interactions I will use a unique time series provided by annually layered lake sediment records (varves). Through these varved records, I will be able to quantify the changing inputs of charcoal, and thaw-induced soil erosion from Interior Alaskan watersheds at annual time steps. Results of this study will be useful in forecasting how wildland fire regimes and boreal-forest landscapes could respond to further climatic warming over the coming century. This project is being proposed for the climate change and fire category of the GRIN fellowship.