One of the consequences of recent climate change and human disturbance is that grassland, heath, peatland and forest ecosystems are now becoming more fire prone due to higher summer temperatures and reduced precipitation which creates a water deficit. Catastrophic wildfires are a threat to humans, natural resources, and infrastructure, and have been observed in Portugal and Estonia (2018), Poland (2019), the Russian Federation (2019, 2020, 2021) and California, USA (2021).
Fossil charcoal preserved in a range of sedimentary deposits can give insight into the extent, recurrence interval and intensity of burning from the present, recent past and deep time, but there are still large uncertainties in the reconstruction of former fires. This is principally due the taphonomy of charcoal (how much of the charcoal gets to the sedimentary archive deposit, how well does it preserve, how far do charcoal fragments travel from a fire, how much fracturing occurs during burning and transport?).
In order to answer these questions, the first part of this studentship will involve the collection of charcoal deposits from recently burnt heath and peatland ecosystems in the UK under a range of fuel loading, fuel moisture and fire weather conditions. Fire temperatures will be recorded using a pyrometer and thermocouples, and charcoal traps will be set up at different spatial scales on the ground and streams in order to understand the transport distance of macro-charcoal fragments (>1mm) by air and water. The fire temperature data will then be compared against reconstructed fire intensity data based upon Raman spectroscopy and reflectance data.
The second part of this studentship will be to use the understanding of modern fires to improve our understanding of the effect of burning which has occurred in millennial length records (peat deposits) and deep time by looking at samples of Carboniferous coals. It may then be possible to identify the intensity of burning, the proximity of the burning event to the sample location and the effects burning had upon the local vegetation through microfossil and macrofossil analyses.
The student will be required to undertake fieldwork, microscopy (light and SEM) and laboratory analyses (Raman spectroscopy). Training will be given in all of these experimental techniques. Efficient time-management will be important given the number of planned burning experiments. Candidates should display a strong computational aptitude, with competence in the use of statistics.
More project details are available here: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/quadrat-projects/
How to apply: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
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