Spatiotemporal evolution of wildfire activity during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in China  

作　　者：Xue-Ting WANG Zuoling CHEN Linlin CUI Xu WANG 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China [2]University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,College of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Beijing 100049,China [3]Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China

出　　处：《Science China Earth Sciences》2025年第2期509-522,共14页中国科学(地球科学英文版)

基　　金：supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2022YFF0800800);the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS(Grant No.XDB0710000)。

摘　　要：The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum(PETM)was the most prominent warming event in the Cenozoic and serves as a geological analog for the current global warming driven by anthropogenic CO_(2)emissions from burning fossil fuels.As a primary disruptor of Earth's ecosystems,wildfire activity affects the balance of ecosystems,the global carbon cycle,and climate change.Therefore,studying the evolution and driving mechanisms of wildfires during the PETM is essential for predicting wildfire activity under global warming scenarios and for understanding the carbon cycle in the context of wildfire disturbances.Current research on wildfires during the PETM has mainly focused on the Northern Hemisphere,particularly Europe and North America,whereas studies on Chinese mainland remain limited.In this study,we analyzed black carbon(BC)concentration and carbon isotope(δ13C)in the Beigou section of the Nanyang Basin and the Xilutian section of the Fushun Basin to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of wildfires in arid/semi-arid and humid zones.We integrated these findings with those of previous studies on the paleoclimate of the research area to elucidate the driving mechanisms behind wildfire occurrences.Our results indicate that wildfire activity weakened at the onset of the PETM,with the negative carbon isotope period characterized by low wildfire activity,except for a brief resurgence in the Nanyang Basin.During the recovery phase of the PETM,wildfire activity gradually increased,returning to the pre-PETM levels.The prolonged low wildfire state was likely caused by extremely high temperatures and precipitation as well as the resulting vegetation succession.During the PETM recovery phase,increased wildfire activity transformed“short-term carbon sinks”of the biological-atmospheric carbon cycle into“long-term carbon sinks”through the burial of BC.This process of carbon sink conversion may have acted as a negative feedback mechanism,contributing to carbon sequestration and the eventual recovery from the PETM.

关 键 词：PETM WILDFIRE Carbon cycle Nanyang Basin Fushun Basin 

分 类 号：P534.6[天文地球—古生物学与地层学] P532[天文地球—地质学]