Wildfire Proxies in Ice Cores

Over the spring of 2022, I participated in a re-melt of the Denali Ice Core to measure various wildfire proxies, including black carbon, aromatic acids, and levoglucosan, in the Dartmouth Ice, Climate, and Environment lab. The experience was fascinating - the high resolution continuous black carbon records showed clear seasonal cycles in real time as we melted.

Soon after, out of the US Ice Core Early Career Researchers Workshop, I had the opportunity to write a summary of ice core wildfire science. Work with Prof. Laurence Yeung and Dr. Sandra Bruegger, we published our review in the PAGES Magazine. It’s short (2 pages), clear, and accessible to a wide audience. Our primary takeaway was that ice core wildfire research is an important and rapidly growing sub-discipline, with the potential to continue making major contributions to the paleofire community.

The full article can be accessed on the PAGES website here. Many other groups of early career scientists also drafted summaries of various aspects of ice core science, which are also concise and accessible. The full collection can be found here.