Long-Term Fire Trends in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico from Sedimentary Charcoal: A Comparison of Three Records

Abstract

Charcoal preserved in lake sediments is commonly used to reconstruct past trends in fire occurrence. However, interpretation of the charcoal record is often complicated, as changes in charcoal influx could represent natural shifts in fire regimes associated with changes in climate, changes in vegetation, or changes in patterns of anthropogenic burning. Here we examine sedimentary charcoal records from three lakes on the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico: Laguna Saladilla in the Dominican Republic, Lake Miragoane in Haiti, and Laguna Tortuguero in Puerto Rico. All records are based on microscopic charcoal fragments quantified from pollen slides and cover the last 7,000 or more years of the Holocene. We compare charcoal influx values to archeological and palynological evidence of human activity and explore the role of increasing winter insolation over the Holocene in driving increased charcoal deposition beginning ca. 6,000–5,000 cal yr BP. An increase in charcoal influx at Laguna Tortuguero at ca. 5,200 cal yr BP, previously interpreted as a signal of human settlement predating archeological evidence, may instead reflect insolation-driven shifts in winter drying that led to more frequent and possibly more intense natural fires. Decreased charcoal influx around 3,200 cal yr BP may signal human modification of the environment that altered fire frequency and/or intensity. Comparing the records from these three lowland Caribbean sites highlights possible intervals of synchronous, climate-driven burning as distinct from more localized anthropogenic burning.