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A 560-Year Record of Santa Ana Fires Reconstructed from Charcoal Deposited in the Santa Barbara Basin, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott A. Mensing ,
Joel Michaelsen  and
Roger Byrne
Scott A. Mensing
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, 89557
Joel Michaelsen
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106
Roger Byrne
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720
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Abstract

Microscopic charcoal from varved Santa Barbara Basin sediments was used to reconstruct a 560-yr record (A.D. 1425 to 1985) of Santa Ana fires. Comparison of large (>3750 μm2) charcoal with documented fire records in the Santa Barbara Ranger District shows that high accumulations correspond to large fires (>20,000 ha) that occurred during Santa Ana conditions. The charcoal record reconstructed a minimum of 20 large fires in the Santa Barbara region during the study period. The average time between fires shows no distinct change across three different land use periods: the Chumash period, apparently characterized by frequent burning, the Spanish/Early American period with nominal fire control, and the 20th century with active fire suppression. Pollen data support the conclusion that the fire regime has not dramatically changed during the last 500 yr. Comparison of large charcoal particle accumulation rates and precipitation reconstructed from tree rings show a strong relationship between climate and fire history, with large fires consistently occurring at the end of wet periods and the beginning of droughts.

Keywords

Santa Anafire historymicroscopic charcoalSanta Barbara Basinvarved sediments
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , May 1999 , pp. 295 - 305
Copyright
University of Washington

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