Traces of Fire

Sedimentary organic matter contains a rich archive of information about past climates and environments. Fire can disturb and stabilize modern ecosystems, although evidence for its role on deep timescales has been limited or ambiguous. Armed with new ways to study past fire signals using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), I will explore how distributions and isotope signatures of these compounds allow us to test if wildfire accelerated the rise of grasslands, and to trace the redistribution of carbon weathered from soils and sedimentary rocks during past climate upheavals.

About this Series

The Department Lecture Series at EAPS at MIT is a series of Weekly talks given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science. For more information please contact: Maggie Cedarstrom, maggie84@mit.edu.