Reading Palaeofire Database: Global Charcoal Records with Bayesian Age Models

1681 charcoal records from 1477 sites worldwide provide a reconstruction of historical wildfire regimes. The database, created by Sandy P. Harrison of Imperial College London, includes updated Bayesian age models for 714 of the records. These sedimentary charcoal sequences are used to study fire impacts on ecosystems, the carbon cycle, and climate.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing historical fire regimes based on global sedimentary charcoal records.
• Analyzing the drivers of wildfires based on paleofire data from diverse sites.
• Studying the impacts of wildfires on terrestrial ecosystems and the carbon cycle.
• Calibrating or validating climate and fire models based on documented charcoal evidence.

Strengths

• Contains 1681 distinct charcoal records from a global network of 1477 sites.
• Includes updated Bayesian age models for 714 records, which likely improves chronological accuracy.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Sandy P. Harrison, Imperial College London

Collection Method

Aggregated from sedimentary sequences worldwide.

Geography

Global