Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano
Abstract New approaches are needed to resolve persistent geographic gaps and biases in paleofire research. Most sedimentary paleofire research relies on lake and peat sediments. We present an unconventional sedimentary charcoal record preserved in a modern, post‐bomb bat guano deposit and compare it...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2024-10-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112045 |
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| author | Alexandra Tsalickis Richard S. Vachula J. Conner Welch Joshua W. Campbell Matthew N. Waters |
| author_facet | Alexandra Tsalickis Richard S. Vachula J. Conner Welch Joshua W. Campbell Matthew N. Waters |
| author_sort | Alexandra Tsalickis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract New approaches are needed to resolve persistent geographic gaps and biases in paleofire research. Most sedimentary paleofire research relies on lake and peat sediments. We present an unconventional sedimentary charcoal record preserved in a modern, post‐bomb bat guano deposit and compare its accumulation to historical fire data. We find strong correlations between charcoal accumulation rates (CHAR) and non‐winter prescribed burns. CHAR in bat guano is more strongly correlated with prescribed fire than wildfire or total area burned, likely due to bats seeking out areas burned by prescribed fire for better foraging opportunities and/or bats avoiding wildfire. We attribute the CHAR in guano being a better recorder of area burned during non‐winter months to winter bat hibernation. Our analyses show that charcoal preserved in bat guano is a reliable paleofire proxy system, which has important implications for the paleofire field and encourages future research using bat guano as a viable archive. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-70792f90eead49f2a7f9c8eec2aeb7c8 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-10-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-70792f90eead49f2a7f9c8eec2aeb7c82025-08-20T02:45:43ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072024-10-015119n/an/a10.1029/2024GL112045Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their GuanoAlexandra Tsalickis0Richard S. Vachula1J. Conner Welch2Joshua W. Campbell3Matthew N. Waters4Department of Geosciences Auburn University Auburn AL USADepartment of Geosciences Auburn University Auburn AL USADepartment of Geosciences Auburn University Auburn AL USAUSDA‐ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory Sidney MT USADepartment of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences Auburn University Auburn AL USAAbstract New approaches are needed to resolve persistent geographic gaps and biases in paleofire research. Most sedimentary paleofire research relies on lake and peat sediments. We present an unconventional sedimentary charcoal record preserved in a modern, post‐bomb bat guano deposit and compare its accumulation to historical fire data. We find strong correlations between charcoal accumulation rates (CHAR) and non‐winter prescribed burns. CHAR in bat guano is more strongly correlated with prescribed fire than wildfire or total area burned, likely due to bats seeking out areas burned by prescribed fire for better foraging opportunities and/or bats avoiding wildfire. We attribute the CHAR in guano being a better recorder of area burned during non‐winter months to winter bat hibernation. Our analyses show that charcoal preserved in bat guano is a reliable paleofire proxy system, which has important implications for the paleofire field and encourages future research using bat guano as a viable archive.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112045paleofireproxy calibrationcharcoal accumulation ratehuman caused fireprescribed fire |
| spellingShingle | Alexandra Tsalickis Richard S. Vachula J. Conner Welch Joshua W. Campbell Matthew N. Waters Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano Geophysical Research Letters paleofire proxy calibration charcoal accumulation rate human caused fire prescribed fire |
| title | Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano |
| title_full | Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano |
| title_fullStr | Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano |
| title_short | Fire in Feces: Bats Reliably Record Fire History in Their Guano |
| title_sort | fire in feces bats reliably record fire history in their guano |
| topic | paleofire proxy calibration charcoal accumulation rate human caused fire prescribed fire |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112045 |
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