Contrasting fire histories from coastal and inland Maine, U.S.A, since deglaciation Two statewide fires in 1825 and 1947, combined to burn millions of acres across Maine, mediating extensive vegetation changes at locations such as Acadia National Park. Little is known about fire-climate-vegetation interactions in pre-European Maine, largely because of historically infrequent wildfires. Concerns about future warming means there is an urgent need to fill this gap in our knowledge. We used Maine’s north-south climatic gradient to contrast changes within two paleofire records that span the Holocene to interpret trends that may have been mediated by changes in climate. Charcoal was extracted and counted using standard methods from two cores; Sargent Mountain Pond (SMP) in Acadia National Park cored in 2007 and Galilee Pond in northern Maine cored in 2006. The paleofire records at SMP and Galilee Pond display within and between site variability in charcoal accumulation (CHAR) and fire return intervals (FRI). Variability in CHAR and FRI corresponds to regional-to-local changes in long-term climate as well as abrupt climate events. Together, these results support further investigation into the drivers of fire in Maine, which is the most heavily forested state in the nation, and that wildfires may be more prevalent in the coming centuries.

Faculty Mentor: Jacquelyn Gill

Co-authors: Cassidy Bigos, Molly Ayotte, Dulcinea Groff, Jacquelyn Gill