The mineral magnetic signatures of fire in the Kromrivier wetland, South Africa

Autor: W.N. Ellery, Juliette V. Lagesse, Simon Pulley
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Soils and Sediments. 17:1170-1181
ISSN: 1614-7480
1439-0108
DOI: 10.1007/s11368-016-1577-0
Popis: Almost 50 % of wetland types in South Africa are regarded as critically endangered. Erosion is extensively present in many wetlands and has been primarily attributed to human activities. However, many researchers have suggested that the erosion of some wetland types is a long-term naturally recurring process and may be preceded by fire events. Wetland sediments are highly affected by processes of dissolution diagenesis, so that very little evidence of catchment processes would be expected to be preserved by their magnetic signatures. However, previously published research has shown that the magnetic signatures of fire can be preserved in some wetland and lake sediments. The mineral magnetic properties of sediment cores were examined to attempt to identify the signatures of historical fires in the Kromrivier wetland, a palmiet dominated wetland in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This wetland has recently been burnt by a large fire event in 2011. The burning of catchment soils and sediments in controlled laboratory experiments was used to replicate the processes of magnetic enhancement taking place in the wetland. The majority of wetland sediment was very weakly magnetic due to processes of dissolution diagenesis. However, deposits of extremely magnetic sediment were found within the wetland. These deposits were attributed to the high temperature combustion of the wetland magnetically enhancing the fine-grained (
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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