# Calder fire data from Whale Lake, Colorado - IMPD USPWL001 #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # NOTE: Please cite original publication, online resource and date accessed when using this data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigator, title, online resource and date accessed. # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Online_Resource: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19369 # Online_Resource: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/uspwl001.txt # # Archive: Fire History # # Parameter_Keywords: charcoal sediments #--------------------------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2015-09-16 #--------------------------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Calder fire data from Whale Lake, Colorado - IMPD USPWL001 #--------------------------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Calder, John, W.; Stopka, Cody; Parker, Dusty; Jiménez-Moreno, Gonzalo; Shuman, Bryan, N. #--------------------------------------- # Description and Notes # Description: # Chronology and macroscopic charcoal counts (number of pieces >125 microns) from Whale Lake in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area, Colorado # Provided Keywords: fire climate, warming # Calder et al. includes datasets for twelve sites, including the one documented here. A list of all dataset site names and URLs follow: # Lake Eileen http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/uselk001.txt # Gem Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usgem001.txt # Gold Creek Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usgcr001.txt # Hidden Lake near Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usphd001.txt # Hinman Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usphn001.txt # Middle Rainbow Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usprb001.txt # Round Lake near Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usprd001.txt # Seven Lakes http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/uspsv001.txt # Summit Lake near Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/ussbw001.txt # Teal Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/usptl001.txt # Tiago Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/ustig001.txt # Whale Lake http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/charcoal/northamerica/uspwl001.txt # # Contact person: Calder, John # Sample storage location: University of Wyoming # Sampling date: 9/24/2011 # Site size(ha): 3.9 # State/Province: Colorado # Water depth(cm): 1148 # Sampling device: Modified Livingston with a polycarbonate tube # Analysis method: Macroscopic charcoal counts - see Calder et al. 2015 for details #--------------------------------------- # Publication # Authors: Calder, W. John; Stopka, Cody; Parker, Dusty; Jiménez-Moreno, Gonzalo; Shuman, Bryan # Published_Date_or_Year: 2015 # Published_Title: Medieval Warming initiated exceptionally large wildfire outbreaks in the Rock Mountains # Journal_Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences # Volume: # Issue: # Pages: # Report Number: # DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1500796112 # Abstract: Many of the largest wildfires in US history burned in recent decades, and climate change explains much of the increase in area burned. The frequency of extreme wildfire weather will increase with continued warming, but many uncertainties still exist about future fire regimes, including how the risk of large fires will persist as vegetation changes. Past fire-climate relationships provide an opportunity to constrain the related uncertainties, and reveal widespread burning across large regions of western North America during past warm intervals. Whether such episodes also burned large portions of individual landscapes has been difficult to determine, however, because uncertainties with the ages of past fires and limited spatial resolution often prohibit specific estimates of past area burned. Accounting for these challenges in a subalpine landscape in Colorado, we estimated century-scale fire synchroneity across 12 lakesediment charcoal records spanning the past 2,000 y. The percentage of sites burned only deviated from the historic range of variability during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) between 1,200 and 850 y B.P., when temperatures were similar to recent decades. Between 1,130 and 1,030 y B.P., 83% (median estimate) of our sites burned when temperatures increased ~0.5 degrees C relative to the preceding centuries. Lake-based fire rotation during the MCA decreased to an estimated 120 y, representing a 260% higher rate of burning than during the period of dendroecological sampling (360 to -60 y B.P.). Increased burning, however, did not persist throughout the MCA. Burning declined abruptly before temperatures cooled, indicating possible fuel limitations to continued burning. #--------------------------------------- # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: National Science Foundation # Grant: BCS-0845129 #--------------------------------------- # Site Information # Site_Name: Whale Lake # Location: Colorado # Country: United States of America # Northernmost_Latitude: 40.556 # Southernmost_Latitude: 40.556 # Easternmost_Longitude: -106.675 # Westernmost_Longitude: -106.675 # Elevation: 3059 #--------------------------------------- # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: USPWL001 CHAR # First_Year: 2354 # Last_Year: -61 # Time_Unit: cal yr BP # Core_Length: # Notes: #--------------------------------------- # Chronology: # Age model generated with the R package Bchron # Depth (cm) Lab Number Material Age (14C BP +/-1Sigma ) # 9 Sediment surface # 26-27 UCIAMS-115858 Charcoal 255+/-20 # 62-63 UCIAMS-115857 Charcoal 1220+/-15 # 82-83 UCIAMS-138635 Picea seed and needle 1635+/-20 # 94-95 UCIAMS-115855 Charcoal 2520+/-110 # 94-95 UCIAMS-115856 Wood 1900+/-15 # 110-112 UCIAMS-102567 Charcoal 2350+/-25 # #--------------------------------------- # Variables # Data variables follow that are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Variables list, one per line, shortname-tab-longname components (9 components: what, material, error, units, seasonality, archive, detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data) ## depth-cm-top depth,,,cm,,,top depth,,N ## depth-cm-bottom depth,,,cm,,,bottom depth,,N ## age-calBP-top age,,,calendar years BP,,Fire History,top of sample,,N ## age-calBP-bottom age,,,calendar years BP,,Fire History,top of sample,,N ## vol-wetsed volume,wet sediment,,ml,,Fire History,used for charcoal counts,,N ## char>125um charcoal,,,counts,,Fire History,>125 um,,N #------------------------ # Data # Data lines follow (have no #) # Data line format - tab-delimited text, variable short name as header # Missing Value: n/a depth-cm-top depth-cm-bottom age-calBP-top age-calBP-bottom vol-wetsed char>125um 9 10 -61 -39 1 5 10 11 -39 -18 1 8 11 12 -18 2 1 5 12 13 2 23 1 12 13 14 23 44 1 10 14 15 44 65 1 10 15 16 65 86 1 5 16 17 86 107 1 45 17 18 107 127 1 51 18 19 127 148 1 13 19 20 148 168 1 5 20 21 168 189 1 4 21 22 189 210 1 5 22 23 210 231 1 7 23 24 231 252 1 7 24 25 252 273 1 11 25 26 273 298 1 8 26 27 298 322 1 68 27 28 322 345 1 10 28 29 345 368 1 21 29 30 368 391 1 19 30 31 391 414 1 26 31 32 414 437 1 13 32 33 437 460.5 1 7 33 34 460.5 485 1 24 34 35 485 508 1 16 35 36 508 529 1 9 36 37 529 553 1 10 37 38 553 576 1 16 38 39 576 598 1 10 39 40 598 620 1 8 40 41 620 644 1 7 41 42 644 667 1 4 42 43 667 690 1 13 43 44 690 713 1 16 44 45 713 735 1 21 45 46 735 759.5 1 18 46 47 759.5 782 1 11 47 48 782 805 1 21 48 49 805 825 1 27 49 50 825 847 1 34 50 51 847 869.5 1 21 51 52 869.5 892 1 15 52 53 892 914 1 41 53 54 914 937 1 27 54 55 937 962 1 18 55 56 962 985 1 12 56 57 985 1008 1 10 57 58 1008 1030 1 11 58 59 1030 1053 1 33 59 60 1053 1074 1 14 60 61 1074 1098 1 15 61 62 1098 1132 1 50 62 63 1132 1161 1 49 63 64 1161 1181 1 36 64 65 1181 1201 1 21 65 66 1201 1221 1 30 66 67 1221 1241 1 32 67 68 1241 1260 1 25 68 69 1260 1280 1 56 69 70 1280 1299 1 38 70 71 1299 1318 1 21 71 72 1318 1337 1 21 72 73 1337 1357 1 26 73 74 1357 1377 1 39 74 75 1377 1397 1 23 75 76 1397 1418 1 24 76 77 1418 1438 1 15 77 78 1438 1458 1 17 78 79 1458 1478 1 23 79 80 1478 1498 1 18 80 81 1498 1519 1 17 81 82 1519 1543 1 17 82 83 1543 1572 1 30 83 84 1572 1600 1 33 84 85 1600 1629 1 25 85 86 1629 1657 1 12 86 87 1657 1684.5 1 20 87 88 1684.5 1713 1 24 88 89 1713 1741 1 24 89 90 1741 1771 1 40 90 91 1771 1799 1 24 91 92 1799 1829 1 21 92 93 1829 1859 1 25 93 94 1859 1924 1 21 94 95 1924 2025.5 1 40 95 96 2025.5 2055 1 43 96 97 2055 2084.5 1 44 97 98 2084.5 2109 1 21 98 99 2109 2136.5 1 16 99 100 2136.5 2160 1 11 100 101 2160 2180 1 10 101 102 2180 2201 1 15 102 103 2201 2221 1 30 103 104 2221 2240 1 35 104 105 2240 2260 1 20 105 106 2260 2280 1 30 106 107 2280 2299 1 13 107 108 2299 2318 1 32 108 109 2318 2337 1 14 109 110 2337 2354 1 32