image: View of the northern rockies from the fescue prairie uplands of the Badger-Two Medicine area. view more
Credit: <i>PNAS</i>
A study explores historical fire activity associated with bison hunting by indigenous groups in North America. Fire has played a key role in shaping the ecological history of landscape and biomes. However, the effects of humans and climate on fire activity, particularly in the Americas, remain unclear. Christopher I. Roos and colleagues analyzed prairie fire charcoal deposits associated with archeological features called drivelines, which were used for communal bison hunting, to examine fire activity over the last millennium in the Two Medicine River area of northcentral Montana. Radiocarbon dating of 13 prairie fire charcoal deposits from the driveline complexes revealed high prairie fire activity during 1100-1650 CE. Several of the deposits were associated with a period of intensive driveline use during 1400-1650 CE, indicating a link between humans and fire activity in the region. However, following comparison of the fire deposit data with climate records, the authors documented a strong influence of climate on fire activity, with more than half of the fire deposits coinciding with modest or short wet periods. According to the authors, the findings suggest that fire use by indigenous hunters might have amplified the effect of climate variability on fire activity in the North American Great Plains.
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Article #18-05259: "Indigenous impacts on North American Great Plains fire regimes of the past millennium," by Christopher I. Roos, María Nieves Zedeño , Kacy Hollenback, and Mary Erlick.
MEDIA CONTACT: Christopher I. Roos, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX; tel: 520-370-6061; e-mail: croos@smu.edu
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences