In this Article, the y axis label of Fig. 4d was incorrect; it should have read ‘Population (10
6
)’. is has been corrected in the HTML
and PDF versions.
Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia
J. R. Marlon, P. J. Bartlein, C. Carcaillet, D. G. Gavin, S. P. Harrison, P. E. Higuera, F. Joos, M. J. Power and I. C. Prentice
Nature Geoscience 1, 697–702; published online: 21 September 2008; corrected aer print: 23 February 2009.
Corrigendum
' 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

ARTICLES
Climate and human inuences on
global biomass burning over the past
two millennia
J. R. MARLON1*, P. J. BARTLEIN1, C. CARCAILLET2, D. G. GAVIN1, S. P. HARRISON3, P. E. HIGUERA4,
F. JOOS5, M. J. POWER6 AND I. C. PRENTICE7
1Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA
2Centre for Bio Archaeology and Ecology (UMR5059 CNRS/UM2/EPHE), Institut de Botanique, F 34090 Montpellier, France
3School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK
4Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA
5Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, CH 3012 Bern, Switzerland
6Utah Museum of Natural History, Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
7QUEST, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
*e mail: jmarlon@uoregon.edu
Published online: 21 September 2008; corrected online: 24 February 2009; doi:10.1038/ngeo313
Large, well-documented wild res have recently generated worldwide attention, and raised concerns about the impacts of humans and
climate change on wild re regimes. However, comparatively little is known about the patterns and driving forces of global re activity
before the twentieth century. Here we compile sedimentary charcoal records spanning six continents to document trends in both
natural and anthropogenic biomass burning for the past two millennia. We nd that global biomass burning declined from AD 1 to
∼1750, before rising sharply between 1750 and 1870. Global burning then declined abruptly after 1870. The early decline in biomass
burning occurred in concert with a global cooling trend and despite a rise in the human population. We suggest the subsequent rise
was linked to increasing human in uences, such as population growth and land-use changes. Our compilation suggests that the nal
decline occurred despite increasing air temperatures and population. We attribute this reduction in the amount of biomass burned
over the past 150 years to the global expansion of intensive grazing, agriculture and re management.
Fire is a key Earth system process affecting ecosystems, land-surface
properties, the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, aerosols and
human activities. Humans manage re intensively today, so it is
easy to forget that re is a natural process that has dominated the
ecology of many terrestrial ecosystems throughout their history1–3.
Empirical data on long-term changes in re activity, particularly
at broad spatial scales, however, are limited. Historical records4,
remotely sensed data5 and tree-ring data from the past few
centuries6–8 provide most of the information about the interactions
of re, climate, vegetation and people. Climate-change projections
indicate that we will be moving quickly out of the range of the
natural variability of the past few centuries. Charcoal records from
lake sediments enable us to infer the impacts of climate changes
and human activities on global biomass burning during periods
when both have changed substantially. Although hundreds of such
records have been developed during palaeoecological analyses9,10,
until now no attempt has been made to analyse them for large-scale
patterns and trends over the past 2,000 years.
We present global and regional reconstructions of biomass
burned over the past 2,000 years (Figs 1 and 2) based on a global
sedimentary charcoal data set (Fig. 3). We interpret temporal
patterns in biomass burned, as indicated by changes in the
input of charcoal to sediments, by comparison with independent
reconstructions of human population and temperature changes,
and with climate simulations that mimic the broad features of
reconstructed temperature changes.
CHARCOAL RECORDS OF BIOMASS BURNING
Charcoal accumulation in sediments has been shown11,12 to re ect
biomass burning within tens of kilometres of the sampling site.
We developed regional and global composite stratigraphies based
on 406 charcoal records from lake sediments and peats. Although
there are geographic gaps, there is good coverage of climatic zones
and of all the major biomes except grassland/dry shrubland (Fig. 3;
Supplementary Information, Fig. S1), where low woody biomass
limits charcoal production. Composite records were standardized
and transformed (see Supplementary Information) to represent
centennial-scale trends in charcoal accumulation rates or in ux
(in units of quantity area−1 yr−1) for the globe or a given region and
to reveal the relative changes in biomass burned through time11.
Interannual to decadal variations are not resolved, so these data do
not record changes that might be attributable to higher-frequency
climate variability or land management changes over the past
few decades5,6. The strength of these data lies in their ability
to provide a long-term observational record with site coverage
that does not degrade substantially with increasing time from
the present.
nature geoscience VOL 1 OCTOBER 2008 www.nature.com/naturegeoscience 697
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