Using phytolith analysis to reconstruct prehistoric fire regimes in central coastal California

Abstract

Over the last century, northern coastal scrub has encroached into open grasslands along the central California coast, increasing fire risk in coastal wildland–urban interfaces. Understanding prehistoric ecological conditions is crucial for fire mitigation projects. Current estimates of these conditions in coastal California grasslands and shrublands are largely speculative because tree ring data, lake sediment evidence and ethnographic information are sparse. Phytolith analysis is an alternative palaeoecological tool that has been successfully used to reconstruct the extent of prehistoric grass cover in California. Our study uses phytolith analysis of soil samples from the East Bay hills of the San Francisco Bay region as a novel approach to estimate prehistoric grassland distribution and infer fire frequency in central coastal California. Our data strongly indicate that many areas in the region were dominated by perennial bunchgrasses for at least several hundred years before European contact. Because grass-dominated grasslands in the East Bay hills are disturbance-dependent, our data suggest prehistoric fire frequency was of the order of 5 years or less in the region. Phytolith analysis is a useful technique for prehistoric fire regime reconstruction for grasslands and shrublands worldwide, leading to improved, data-based land management.