Project F3 focuses on the relation between human population dynamics and fire.

With the onset of settlement and agricultural land use, humans had great impact on landscapes, for example, as indicated by frequent burning. Vice versa, vegetation fires likely accompanied human life since its very beginnings.

Up to now, we have observed that a continuum of Black Carbon (BC) analyses on lab-produced chars is sensitive to combustion temperature, thus opening new chances for ancient fire reconstruction.

Wildfire encroaching on a riparian area, Montana, 2002. Photo: Courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management, National Interagency Fire Center. Image Portal from: D. G. Neary et al., eds., Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on soils and water. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-42-vol. 4, 2005, revised 2008; https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr042_4.pdf