Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435 (2015) 86–94

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Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo

Linkages between climate, fire and vegetation in southwest China during

the last 18.5 ka based on a sedimentary record of black carbon and its
isotopic composition
Enlou Zhang a,⁎, Weiwei Sun a,b, Cheng Zhao a, Yongbo Wang c, Bin Xue a, Ji Shen a
a
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
b
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
c
College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fires are sensitive to climate changes, and in addition they have a major influence on the global carbon cycle,
Received 14 February 2015 land-surface properties, and chemical composition of the atmosphere, which in turn can affect the climate sys-
Received in revised form 18 April 2015 tem. Projecting the impacts of future climate changes on fire-mediated biogeochemical processes requires under-
Accepted 2 June 2015
standing of how various climatic factors influence regional fire regimes. However, long-term variations in fire
Available online 11 June 2015
activity and their controls are poorly known. In this study, we report the concentration of black carbon (BC)
Keywords:
and its isotopic composition (δ13CBC) in an upland lake sediment core from southwest China in order to elucidate
Fire linkages between changes in fire regime, climate and vegetation over the past 18.5 ka. The results show that the
Black carbon sedimentary BC content recorded variations in fire activity and exhibits a close negative correlation with the
Indian summer monsoon amount of precipitation delivered by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). During Heinrich Event 1(18.5–
Carbon isotopes 15.0 cal ka BP), the Younger Dryas (12.8–11.1 cal ka BP) and the mid- to late-Holocene, the weakening of the
Lake sediments ISM led to greatly increased fire activity in southwest China. In the last 1.0 ka, the BC record may have been af-
fected by human activity in the catchment which may have caused an increased influx of minerogenic material
to the lake thereby diluting the sedimentary BC concentration. The general trend of changing vegetation compo-
sitions inferred from the δ13CBC values also tracks the variations of the ISM, suggesting a change from mixed C3/
C4-plant ecosystems during the last glacial maximum to C3-plant-dominated forest during the Holocene. Howev-
er, the abundance of C4 plants may be overestimated during the Bølling–Allerød warm interval and the early Ho-
locene due to the fact that fires were probably limited to the savanna ecosystem in the valleys and low-lying
basins.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Over the past few decades, large changes in the frequency and inten-
sity of fires have occurred on all vegetated continents (Lohman et al.,
2007; Page et al., 2002; van der Werf et al., 2006; Westerling et al.,
2006). The combustion of biomass leads to the release of CO2, CO and
N2O, as well as particulates such as black carbon (BC). These emissions
would have had a significant impact on climate (Andreae et al., 2004;
Bowman et al., 2009; Ramanathan and Carmichael, 2008; Ramanathan
et al., 2001; Randerson et al., 2006). For example, BC aerosols have
strong solar radiation absorption properties and may have the greatest
influence on climatic warming after atmospheric pCO2 (Ramanathan
and Carmichael, 2008; Ramanathan et al., 2001). Changes in fire regimes
also affect the carbon cycle by altering vegetation structure and generat-
ing a disturbance-adapted ecosystem (Bond et al., 2005; Caldararo,
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: elzhang@niglas.ac.cn (E. Zhang).
2002; Wooller et al., 2000). In addition, climate changes may also mod-
ulate fire frequency and/or intensity (Kitzberger et al., 1997). Recently,
widespread and more frequent wildfires in several regions have been
linked to anthropogenic climate change (IPCC, 2007; Westerling et al.,
2006). Modern fire regimes are also increasingly being influenced by
anthropogenic practices. For example, the use of fire for land clearance
is estimated to cause over 80% of all fires in the world (FAO, 2007). As
a result, fire regimes depend not only on climatic and biological factors,
but also reflect the cultural background of how people managed ecosys-
tems and fire (Whitlock et al., 2010). Our limited knowledge of climate–
vegetation–fire linkages creates challenges in projecting the future im-
pacts of fires in a warming world and for managing present biodiversity
and ecosystem function.
The use of paleoenvironmental proxies allows a better understand-
ing of both long-term climate–vegetation–fire interactions at different
temporal scales and the role of anthropogenic activity (Conedera et al.,
2009; Marlon et al., 2013; X. Wang et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2005,
2013b). Fire history can be reconstructed directly by compiling

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.06.004
0031-0182/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 E. Zhang et al. / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435 (2015) 86–94
historical documents or by analyzing the carbon-rich materials pro-
duced by fires and preserved in sediments (Conedera et al., 2009). Un-
fortunately, information from archeological relicts, written documents
and photographic records is limited both by source availability and a
short time span (Brunelle and Whitlock, 2003). Recent studies of the
fire history in China on orbital to millennial timescales have mainly con-
centrated on the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) region (X. Wang
et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2005, 2013b; Yang et al., 2001; Zhou et al.,
2007), and the fire regimes in this region may also have been impacted
by human activity due to the establishment of agriculture in north China
during the Holocene (Kong et al., 2003; Tan et al., 2011; X. Wang et al.,
2012; Wang et al., 2013b; Yang et al., 2001; Zhou et al., 2007). In con-
trast, fire history reconstructions from southwest China, which is influ-
enced by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), are rare. In southwest
China, significant human activity occurred from about 2.2 cal ka BP on-
wards (Dearing et al., 2008; Hillman et al., 2014; Shen et al., 2006; Wu
et al., 2014), although vegetation change in the Lake Erhai catchment
may have been caused by human impacts at about 6.4 cal ka BP or
even earlier (Dearing et al., 2008; Shen et al., 2006). Therefore, a fire his-
tory study in the region would potentially provide a better context for
distinguishing the potential impacts of climate from human activity on
long-term fire regimes.
Various case studies have used different terms, such as charcoal,
soot, elemental carbon and BC, to define the refractory carbon produced
by the incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels (Lim and
Cachier, 1996). Here the term BC is used to describe the combustion
continuum ranging from partly charred plant material through char
and charcoal to graphite and soot particles, and is defined according to
the chemical treatment procedure described hereafter (Lim and
Cachier, 1996; Masiello, 2004; Schmidt and Noack, 2000). Due to the
fact that BC is comparatively inert and resistant to oxidation and biodeg-
radation in natural conditions, it is unlikely to be subject to significant
alteration after burial in sedimentary sequences (Lim and Cachier,
1996; Schmidt and Noack, 2000). In addition, the amount of BC in sed-
iments reflects past burning activity (Zhou et al., 2007). Furthermore,
the isotopic composition of BC is close to that of the combusted biomass
(Bird and Gröcke, 1997; Bird et al., 1999; Wang et al., 2013a), and thus
BC isotopic signatures in sediments can provide important insights into
the type of burned vegetation. Here, we present a well-dated and de-
tailed fire history for the last 18.5 ka from an 830-cm-long sediment
core collected from Lake Tengchongqinghai (TCQH) in Yunnan Prov-
ince, China. We measured the BC content and its stable carbon isotopic
Fig. 1. (a) Location of Yunnan Province, the study area and Dongge and Hulu Caves. The triangle indicates the location of Lake TCQH. The circles indicate the location of other lakes in
Yunnan Province referenced in the text. (b) Bathymetry of Lake TCQH (m); the triangle indicates the location of core TCQH10-1.
87
composition (δ13CBC) of the Lake TCQH sediments, using chemical oxi-
dation pretreatment (Lim and Cachier, 1996), in order to reconstruct
the fire history and past interactions between climate, vegetation and
fire.
2. Study site, climate and vegetation
Lake TCQH (25°07′48″–25°08′6″ N, 98°34′11″–98°34′16″ E) is locat-
ed in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, Southwest China (Fig. 1a). It
is a crater lake with an area of 0.25 km2 and a catchment area of 1.5 km2.
The maximum water depth is 8.1 m, the mean water depth is about
5.2 m and the elevation is 1885 m above sea level (a.s.l.). The lake is
mainly charged by precipitation, groundwater and surface runoff from
the catchment, and currently there is no outlet. The most common
rock types in the catchment are andesite and basalt. The region has a
temperate climate with distinct dry and wet seasons. From October to
May, the Tibetan High dominates and prevents humid air masses from
entering the region, while the plateau acts as a barrier to the
Mongolian cold anticyclonic pressure system (Wu et al., 1980). From
May onwards, the temperature rises but the monsoon precipitation
does not normally begin until June. The mean annual air temperature
is approximately 14.7 °C; the annual precipitation is approximately
1425 mm; and the rainy season between May and October accounts
for 84% of the total mean annual precipitation. The average annual evap-
oration is about 1575 mm. The lake is currently eutrophic and the shal-
low areas of the lake are covered by submerged macrophytes, including
Phragmites communis, Myriophyllum spicatum and Trapaincisa sp.
Because of the complex topography, there is a strong altitudinal zo-
nation of vegetation in the region (Wu et al., 1987). Below about 1300 m
the vegetation is dominated by open bush and grass savanna, and is dis-
turbed by human activity. Between 1600 and 2400 m the vegetation is
semi-humid evergreen broadleaved forest and Pinus yunnanensis forest.
From 2400 to 2900 m the landscape is occupied by mid-montane humid
evergreen broadleaved forest, composed primarily of Lithocarpus
craibianus, Lithocarpus confertifolia, Lithocarpus hancei and Schima
argentea. Above 2700 m this vegetation type gives way to montane co-
nifer and broadleaved mixed forest mainly composed of Tsuga, Abies,
Lithocarpus, Betula, Acer, Rhododendron, and Sinarundinaria, which ex-
tends up to about 3000 m. Between 3100 and 4200 m, subalpine cold-
temperate conifer forest dominated by Abies and Picea is present.
From 4000 to 4700 m, the vegetation is composed mainly of alpine Rho-
dodendron shrubland, Kobresia meadow, and alpine tundra. The dense
88 E. Zhang et al. / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435 (2015) 86–94

terrestrial vegetation in the catchment consists mainly of Evergreen international reference materials. Replicate analyses of well-mixed
Quercus, Castanopsis/Lithocarpus and Pinus. samples indicate a precision better than 0.1‰.

3. Materials and methods
3.1. Sediment cores and chronology
The 830-cm-long sediment core (TCQH10-1) was retrieved from the
center of the lake in a water depth of 6.3 m, using a UWITEC platform
with a percussion corer in July 2010 (Fig. 1b). The sediment cores
were split longitudinally and photographed, and then subsampled con-
tinuously at a 1-cm interval and stored at 4 °C prior to analysis.
The sediment chronology was established using accelerator mass
spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating. Ten dates were obtained from terrestri-
al plant fragments and seven dates were obtained from bulk sediment
samples (Table 1). The analyses were performed by the National Isotope
Centre, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Ltd, New Zealand,
and by the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. The resulting
AMS 14C dates were calibrated using the Bacon program with the
IntCal13 dataset implemented in R 3.1.0 with default settings for lake
sediments (memory strength of 4, memory mean of 0.7, accumulation
mean of 20) at 10-cm intervals (R Development Core Team, 2013;
Reimer et al., 2013), and then interpolated using the Bayesian model,
taking sediment accumulation rates into account, in order to construct
the final age–depth model (Blaauw and Andres Christen, 2011).
3.2. BC analysis
Core TCQH10-1 was sampled at a 4-cm interval for analysis of BC and
δ13CBC. BC in bulk sediments was extracted following the method used
by Lim and Cachier (1996). About 2.0 g of powdered dry bulk sediment
was weighed for each sample, and carbonates and part of the silicate
fraction were removed by acid treatment using HCl (3 mol/L), HF
(10 mol/L)/HCl (1 mol/L) and HCl (10 mol/L), in sequence. The acid-
treated samples were then oxidized using 0.2 mol/L K2Cr2O7/2 mol/L
H2SO4 at 55 °C for 60 h to remove soluble organic matter and kerogen.
The remaining refractory carbon in the sediment residues is regarded
as BC, including charcoal and atmospheric soot particles. Dried samples
were then crushed in an agate mortar to reduce the grain size and to ho-
mogenize the sample. The BC and δ13CBC of the samples were deter-
mined using a Finnigan MAT Delta Plus mass spectrometer coupled
with an elemental analyzer (Flash EA 1112). The carbon isotope results
are expressed using the conventional δ-notation in per mil (‰) devia-
tion from the Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB). The calibration and as-
sessment of the reproducibility and accuracy of the isotopic analyses are
based on replicate analyses of laboratory standard materials and
4. Results
The AMS 14C dating results are shown in Table 1. It is clear that the
AMS 14C ages obtained from the bulk sediments are influenced by the
hard-water effect. Therefore all of the AMS 14C ages from the bulk sam-
ples were ignored and the chronological model of the sediment core
was constructed solely from the ages derived from terrestrial plant mac-
rofossils. These results indicate that the age of the base of core TCQH10-
1 is 18.5 cal ka BP and the resulting age–depth model is plotted in Fig. 2.
The sediment accumulation rate is relatively stable before 0.9 cal ka BP,
with a mean of 38.5 cm/ka. Subsequently, the rate is significantly higher
at 164 cm/ka (Fig. 3a), although the number of age control points is in-
sufficient to capture short-term changes.
The δ13CBC values range from − 33.9 to − 23.6‰ with a mean of
about − 28.7‰ (Fig. 3b). They exhibit a gradually decreasing trend
from 18.5 to 8.0 cal ka BP with several centennial-scale fluctuations
superimposed, followed by the occurrence of the lightest δ13CBC value
at about 8.0 cal ka BP. From 8.0 cal ka BP to the present, the δ13CBC values
are generally light but with a trend towards heavier values. A lighter
peak is evident between 1.5 and 0.8 cal ka BP. The abundance of BC
ranges from 0.08 to 3.96% with a mean of 1.71% (Fig. 3c). The most strik-
ing feature of the record is that the quantity of BC varies frequently and
exhibits significantly high values during three intervals: from 18.5 to
15.0 cal ka BP, from 12.8 to 11.1 cal ka BP, and from 8.0 cal ka BP to
the present. In contrast, the BC content from 15.0 to 12.8 cal ka BP,
and from 11.1 to 8.0 cal ka BP, is relatively low with only minor
fluctuations.
5. Discussion
5.1. Changes in fuel source
The two major photosynthetic mechanisms of terrestrial higher
plants are well-documented, i.e. the C3 and C4 pathways (Farquhar
et al., 1989; O'Leary, 1981), which generate different carbon isotopic
signatures. C3 plants include almost all trees and most shrubs and lead
to a carbon isotopic composition range between − 35‰ and − 20‰,
with a mean of about −26‰ (Deines, 1980). The C4 pathway is charac-
teristic of many savanna grasses and sedges, and produces a carbon iso-
topic signature range from − 16‰ to − 10‰ with a mean of − 13‰
(Deines, 1980). Except in extremely dry conditions, Crassulacean Acid
Metabolism plants have low biomass productivity compared to C3 and
C4 plants (Lüttge, 2004), and therefore we regard their contribution to
the ecosystem in southwest China as negligible. The conversion of

Table 1
Results of AMS 14C dating samples from core TCQH10-1.
14
Depth (cm) Lab ID C age (yr BP) Material dated 2-sigma calibrated range (Cal yr BP) Median probability (Cal yr BP)

152 NZA 35976 908 +/− 15 Leaves 783–909 867

208 NZA 35977 2802 +/− 20 Wood 2855–2954 2905
255 BETA 308448 3410 +/− 30 Plant material 3576–3813 3659
255 NZA 35979 3590 +/− 20 Bulk sediment 3838–3966 3891
322 BETA 308449 4700 +/− 30 Plant material 5321–5578 5399
353 NZA 35981 5842 +/− 25 Bulk sediment 6566–6735 6663
416 BETA 308451 7080 +/− 40 Plant material 7831–7979 7905
453 NZA 35986 8477 +/− 30 Bulk sediment 9462–9532 9499
476 BETA 308452 8630 +/− 40 Plant material 9532–9678 9584
521 NZA 35986 9410 +/− 40 Plant material 10,524–10,741 10,640
560 NZA 35982 10986 +/− 40 Bulk sediment 12,730–12,980 12,834
571 BETA 308454 10,310 +/− 40 Plant material 11,958–12,382 12,107
610 NZA 35983 10,737 +/− 40 Bulk sediment 12,621–12,738 12,687
714 NZA 35980 12,803 +/− 45 Bulk sediment 15,096–15,452 15,251
715 BETA 327101 12,290 +/− 50 Plant material 14,035–14,559 14,219
813 NZA 35988 15,360 +/− 110 Bulk sediment 18,372–18,842 18,629
817 BETA 327102 15,100 +/− 60 Plant material 18,138–18,545 18,356
 E. Zhang et al. / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435 (2015) 86–94
Fig. 2. Age–depth model for core TCQH10-1 produced using the Bacon software (Blaauw
and Andres Christen, 2011). The black dotted lines indicate the 95% confidence interval
and the red dotted line shows the weighted mean ages for each depth.
vegetation to BC results in very limited carbon isotope fractionation,
about − 0.3‰ for C3 plants and − 1.7‰ for C4 plants, respectively
(Wang et al., 2013a). Therefore, the δ13CBC values likely represent the
type of burned vegetation. In addition, the δ13C values of terrestrial
plants are sensitive to humidity or precipitation in north China, with
the greater the precipitation the lighter the δ13C values, and vice versa
(Liu et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2003). However, the exact relationship be-
tween the δ13C values of terrestrial plants and precipitation in south-
west China remains unclear, reducing the accuracy of the binary
mixing model approach. The δ13CBC record from Lake TCQH shows
that in southwest China a gradual decrease in the proportion of herba-
ceous fuels occurred from 18.5 to 8.0 cal ka BP; an abrupt change to
fuels dominated by trees and shrubs occurred at 8.0 cal ka BP; and the
contribution of herbaceous plants for fuels generally increased from
8.0 cal ka BP.
5.2. Linkages between fire, climate and vegetation
From a global perspective, the major effects of climate on fire re-
gimes are mediated by changes in temperature and precipitation.
Most paleofire studies extending to the last glacial period reveal that
the fire activity at that time was lower because of the colder conditions,
compared to the Holocene (Daniau et al., 2012; Power et al., 2008). In
general, high temperatures are associated with increased burning
through the incidence of fire-promoting climatic conditions and fuel
availability (Daniau et al., 2012). However, the relationship is mediated
by precipitation which also governs net primary productivity, and by
the abundance and composition of fuels (Dennison et al., 2008; Moritz
et al., 2012). Modern case studies indicate that the annual burned area
tends to be highest in regions with intermediate levels of moisture
availability; that increasing precipitation tends to increase fire frequen-
cy in arid and semi-arid environments; and that in humid environments
fire frequency is reduced by increased precipitation (Krawchuk and
Moritz, 2011; van der Werf et al., 2008; Veblen and Kitzberger, 2002).
Based on the observed variations in the BC content, during the last
deglaciation between 18.5 and 11.1 ka, high fire activity occurred from
18.5 to 15.0 cal ka BP, corresponding to Heinrich Event 1 (H1); low
fire activity occurred from 15.0 to 12.8 cal ka BP corresponding to the
Bølling-Allerød (BA) warm interval; and sharply increased fire activity
occurred from 12.8 to 11.1 cal ka BP corresponding to the Younger
Dryas (YD) (Fig. 3d, Rasmussen, 2006; Svensson et al., 2006; Vinther
et al., 2006). Millennial-scale oscillations of the ISM during the last de-
glaciation have been recorded by the following proxy records: the
grain-size record from Lake TCQH (Fig. 3e, Zhang et al., in review), pol-
len data from nearby Lake Tiancai (Xiao et al., 2014), the stalagmite δ18O
89
record from Songjia Cave in central China (Zhou et al., 2008), the hydro-
gen isotopic record from the northern Bay of Bengal (Contreras-Rosales
et al., 2014), and the stalagmite δ18O record from Moomi Cave in Yemen
(Fig. 3g, Shakun et al., 2007). The stalagmite δ18O records from Donge
Cave (Fig. 3h, Dykoski et al., 2005) and Hulu Cave (Fig. 3h, Wang et al.,
2001) in the EASM region, which are argued to reveal the precipitation
variability of the ISM rather than the EASM variability (Chen et al.,
2014a; Yang et al., 2014), have also recorded these events. The overall
trend of fire history in southwest China during the last deglaciation gen-
erally tracks changes in ISM intensity, or the amount of precipitation.
These changes follow the trend of Northern Hemisphere summer inso-
lation (Fig. 3f Berger and Loutre, 1991), with high fire activity occurring
when the climate was cold and dry, and low fire activity occurring when
it was warm and humid. Contrary to the traditional expectation that low
temperature is the major cause of decreased fire activity, our data sug-
gest that in this region a dry climate also increased the incidence of
fire as a result of fuel desiccation. This phenomenon is also observed
in tropical and subtropical savanna ecosystems (Daniau et al., 2013;
Nelson et al., 2012), as well as in the EASM region, where the fuel avail-
ability is not limited during cold conditions and the overwhelming fac-
tor controlling fire occurrence is the effective moisture (Marlon et al.,
2013; Wang et al., 2013b). The seasonal distribution of precipitation
may also affect fire behavior. Droughts in the ISM region are commonly
linked to El Niño events. During an El Niño event, tropical convection
and the associated rising limb of the Walker circulation result in anom-
alously warm waters in the central and eastern Pacific. Consequently
there was an anomalous zone of subsiding air extending from the west-
ern Pacific region to the ISM realm, weakening the ISM circulation and
delaying the onset of the ISM (Ju and Slingo, 1995; Kumar et al.,
1999a,1999b). Previous studies have shown that seasonality of precipi-
tation may modulate fuel moisture content and fire season length,
which are linked to wildfire variability (Carcaillet and Richard, 2000;
Chen et al., 2014b; Hessl et al., 2004; Heyerdahl et al., 2008; Taylor
and Beaty, 2005). The delayed onset of the ISM, reducing the number
of rainy days, would favor the burning of biomass in spring, when
most of the wildfires in south China occurred (Tian et al., 2013). High
sedimentary BC content is contemporaneous with the frequent occur-
rence of El Niño events (Fig. 3i, Liu et al., 2014) suggesting that fire his-
tory in southwest China was impacted by changing El Niño-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) activity during the last deglaciation. On a millennial
time scale, climate-fire linkages are governed by changes in the latitudi-
nal distribution of solar radiation and by high-latitude climate, which
influence large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, especially the
ISM system (Marlon et al., 2013).
During the Holocene, the BC content indicates a low and stable state
of fire activity from 11.1 to 8.0 cal ka BP, and a highly variable increasing
trend from 8.0 cal ka BP to the present (Fig. 3c). The period of low fire
frequency is synchronous with the early Holocene climatic optimum
that has been documented between 11.0 and 8.0 ka BP in records
from southwest China (An et al., 2000; Hodell et al., 1999; Zhang et al.,
in review). The timing of the Holocene climatic optimum is in agree-
ment with the climate history of south Asia (Fleitmann et al., 2003;
Fuchs and Buerkert, 2008; Lézine et al., 2007). For example, a study of
playa-like sediments dated by optically stimulated luminescence from
the Hajar Mountain range in north Oman showed that the early Holo-
cene humid period began at 10.5 ka BP, and reached a maximum at
9.0–8.0 ka BP (Fuchs and Buerkert, 2008). However, the timing of the
maximum effective precipitation recorded in southwest China was ear-
lier than in other regions in China (Wang et al., 2010). The difference has
been ascribed to dating uncertainties due to the fact that AMS 14C dating
of bulk sediments often suffers from the now well-documented carbon
reservoir problem. However, in the case of the present study, the terres-
trial plant fragments used for AMS 14C dating provide a reliable chrono-
logical control. The maximum in summer insolation in the Northern
Hemisphere, at around 11.0 ka BP (Berger and Loutre, 1991), was the
primary driver of the ISM maximum which was driven by strong
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convection over the Tibetan Plateau during the early Holocene, and
which also prevented the strengthening of the EASM (Wang et al.,
2010). Only when this circulation weakened, in response to decreasing
insolation, did the subsequent enhancement of the EASM lead to the oc-
currence of a moisture maximum over the EASM region. In summary,
this evidence suggests that fire activity was reduced in southwest
China during the humid early Holocene associated with the northward
migration of the intertropical convergence zone (Fleitmann et al., 2007).
The increased fire activity after 8.0 cal ka BP corresponds to the
weakening of the ISM. The significant increase in the sand fraction of
the Lake TCQH sediments indicates that the ISM underwent a gradual
decline from the early Holocene onwards (Fig. 3e, Zhang et al., in
review). Diatom assemblages from Lake Erhai suggest a decline in lake
level and thus that the local climate was dry during the mid-Holocene
(Shen et al., 2005). The stalagmite δ18O records from Dongge Cave in
south China (Fig. 3h, Dykoski et al., 2005), Tianmen Cave in the southern
Tibetan Plateau (Cai et al., 2012) and Qunf Cave in southern Oman
(Fig. 3g, Fleitmann et al., 2003) indicate that the strength of the ISM gen-
erally decreased after 8.0 cal ka BP. The mean annual precipitation in
southwest China simulated by the Kiel Climate Model exhibits a decadal
variability superimposed on a generally decreasing trend over the last
9.0 ka (Jin et al., 2014). The gradual decrease of ISM precipitation may
not directly account for the abrupt increase of BC content in the Lake
TCQH sediments. However, the δ13CBC record from Lake TCQH shows
that a higher proportion of trees and shrubs were burned after
8.0 cal ka BP. Compared with grassland fires, woodland and forest fires
tend to produce more BC particles due to the low combustion efficiency
(Stocks and Kauffman, 1997; Wang et al., 2013b). In addition, fires in
woodland and forest are of high-intensity with a large fuel continuity,
resulting in the development of a stronger convection column that
carries BC particles higher into the atmosphere and increasing their de-
position in lakes (Stocks and Kauffman, 1997; Whitlock and Larsen,
2001). Thus, the tree-dominated fuels in the Lake TCQH region after
8.0 cal ka BP would result in high BC production, thus explaining the
abrupt increase in the BC content of the lake sediments. The increasing
ENSO event frequency in the mid-late Holocene (Fig. 3i, Liu et al., 2014;
Moy et al., 2002) may also have facilitated the occurrence and spread of
fires.
Over the last 1.0 ka, the increasing trend of fire activity indicated by
the abundance of sedimentary BC is inconsistent with the increase in
ISM precipitation revealed by the Dongge Cave and Qunf Cave records
(Fig. 3g and h, Dykoski et al., 2005; Fleitmann et al., 2003). In addition
to climate changes, human activity may also have influenced the BC
content record from Lake TCQH during this interval. Historical docu-
ments show that the Yunnan region experienced a phase of intensive
exploitation during this period as a result of its control by two local au-
thorities, the Nanzhao and the Dali Kingdom (1.21–0.7 cal ka BP) (He,
2011). The coeval rapid increase in sedimentation rate may be the result
of intensified human activity associated with the establishment of the
Dali Kingdom, which would have caused significant soil erosion. Soil
erosion caused by large-scale population growth in Yunnan is also re-
corded in the sediments of Lake Erhai and Xingyun during the same in-
terval (Dearing et al., 2008; Hillman et al., 2014; Shen et al., 2006; Wu
et al., 2014). The increasing human population would have caused in-
creased deforestation, reclamation of wasteland, development of agri-
culture and stockbreeding in the lake catchment. Slash-and-burn was
widely used in the region and elsewhere in order rapidly to increase
the area under cultivation. Charcoal and coal were used to develop min-
ing and smelting as indicated by the increased concentration of heavy
metals in the sediments of Lakes Erhai, Xingyun and Shudu (Dearing
et al., 2008; Hillman et al., 2014; Jones et al., 2012; Shen et al., 2005).
Therefore the intensified human activity in the area during the late Ho-
locene would have resulted in significantly increased biomass burning.
However, the catchment deforestation and agricultural activity would
also have caused an influx of clay and fine silt particles to the lake
basin, decreasing the proportion of sand in the sediments (Zhang
et al., 2013, in review); in addition, the increased rate of minerogenic
sedimentation would have diluted the sedimentary BC concentration.
5.3. The climatic implications of δ13CBC
Previous studies have used δ13CBC values in sediments to estimate
changes in C3/C4 plant abundance in vegetation and the associated var-
iations in precipitation (Bird and Cali, 1998; Bird and Gröcke, 1997;
Clark et al., 2001; Ferrio et al., 2006; Hall et al., 2008; Jia et al., 2003;
Wang et al., 2013a; X. Wang et al., 2012). Vegetation changes deduced
from the δ13CBC record from Lake TCQH indicate a shift from a mixed
C3/C4-plant ecosystem during the deglaciation to C3-plant dominated
forest during the Holocene in the region (Fig. 3b). A detailed comparison
of the δ13CBC record from Lake TCQH and reconstructed of ISM rainfall
reveals that the vegetation composition inferred from the δ13CBC values
generally follows the variations of ISM precipitation. However, it did not
change significantly during the BA warm interval and the early Holo-
cene, when the ISM precipitation increased significantly (Fig. 3).
The annual mean temperature reconstruction for the last glacial
maximum (LGM) from Lake Xingyun, southwest China, indicates that
temperatures were at least 3 °C lower than at present (Chen et al.,
2014c), compatible with the estimated magnitude of cooling in low lat-
itude regions (Ballantyne et al., 2005; Kudrass et al., 2001; Porter, 2000;
Saraswat et al., 2013; S. Wang et al., 2012). However, they were still high
enough for the growth of C4 plants. Our results agree with those from
low latitudes, suggesting that C4 plants were abundant in the tropical
and subtropical regions during the LGM. Examples of such records are
from southern China (Xue et al., 2014), northern Bay of Bengal
(Contreras-Rosales et al., 2014; Galy et al., 2008), East Africa
(Castañeda et al., 2009; Ficken et al., 1998, 2002; Huang et al., 1999;
Sinninghe Damsté et al., 2011; Street-Perrott et al., 1997) and Meso-
america (Huang et al., 2001; Hughen et al., 2004; Makou et al., 2007).
The pollen record from Lake TCQH also suggests cold-dry conditions
with vegetation mainly composed of broadleaved deciduous forest, in-
cluding some coniferous tree species, also including Poaceae, which
flourished from 15.7 to 12.4 cal ka BP (Yang, 2013). An open landscape
is indicated by the relatively high abundance of C4 vegetation observed
in our record; however, it is impossible from pollen analysis to discrim-
inate plants using the C3 and C4 pathways (Street-Perrott et al., 1997).
C4 plants gradually declined in southwest China during the last de-
glaciation, accompanied by intensified ISM and an increase in the atmo-
spheric CO2 level (pCO2) (Fig. 3, Dykoski et al., 2005; Zhang et al., in
review; Monnin, 2001; Monnin et al., 2004). This indicates that the
lower pCO2, together with moisture deficits, may have exerted the dom-
inant control on the vegetation composition, since C4 plants use a CO2-
concentrating mechanism and are better able to survive water stress.
Therefore they would have outcompeted C3 plants during the last glacial
period (Ehleringer et al., 1997; Osmond et al., 1982; Sage et al., 1999). In
terms of the relative importance of these two factors, precipitation may
have exerted the more significant influence on C3/C4 variations, since
the abundance of C3 plants would have increased dramatically relative
to C4 plants during the last glacial when rainfall was sufficiently high

Fig. 3. Linkage of inferred fire regimes with independent climatic records. (a) Sedimentation rate of core TCQH10-1; (b) δ13CBC values from core TCQH10-1; (c) BC content of core TCQH10-
1 from Lake TCQH; (d) The NGRIP δ18O record from Greenland (Rasmussen, 2006; Svensson et al., 2006; Vinther et al., 2006); (e) Sand fraction from core TCQH10-1 (Zhang et al., in
review); (f) June insolation at 30°N (Berger and Loutre, 1991); (g) Speleothem δ18O records from Moomi Cave in Yemen (green line) and Qunf Cave in the southern Oman (orange
lines) (Fleitmann et al., 2003; Shakun et al., 2007); (h) Speleothem δ18O records from Hulu (blue line) and Dongge (red line) Caves in eastern and southern China (Dykoski et al.,
2005; Wang et al., 2001); (i) ENSO amplitude (Standard deviation of Niño3.4 interannual (1.5-7 years) sea surface temperature variability) based on a transient Coupled General Circu-
lation Model simulation in 300-year windows (Liu et al., 2014);and (j) CO2 record from the EPICA Dome C ice core, Antarctica (Monnin, 2001; Monnin et al., 2004).
92 E. Zhang et al. / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435 (2015) 86–94
(Galy et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2001, 2006; Rao et al., 2012; Schefuß
et al., 2003; Sinninghe Damsté et al., 2011; Xue et al., 2014). Several
studies suggest that climatic factors become the dominant controls on
vegetation succession after a certain pCO2 threshold value has been
crossed (Galy et al., 2008; Thomas et al., 2014), since below this thresh-
old value pCO2 would have significantly affected the growth of C3/C4
plants. The isotopic fractionation of plants may also be influenced by ef-
fective moisture, atmospheric CO2 carbon isotopic composition and
pCO2 (Pancost and Boot, 2004). Unfortunately, however, these effects
are very difficult to quantify.
As mentioned above, the maximum in ISM strength occurred during
the early Holocene. However, the δ13CBC record from Lake TCQH sug-
gests that a greater proportion of C4 plants were burned at this time.
The record from the northern Bay of Bengal indicates that a sharp in-
crease in C3 plants occurred during the early Holocene across the ISM
domain (Contreras-Rosales et al., 2014). The discrepancies may be due
to the heterogeneous distribution of vegetation and fire intensity,
which determine the biomass burned and the spread of fire. Southwest
China is topographically complex, with many high mountains and deep
valleys, and the altitudinal gradients of the terrains are quite steep.
Modern geomorphic features indicate that the altitudinal zone with
maximum moisture levels lies between 2700 and 3200 m a.s.l., and
this is also the zone of maximum precipitation. In contrast, the climate
in the valleys and low-lying basins is warm and dry, and thus there
are large differences in vegetation composition over short distances
(Wu et al., 1987). In the savannas, only a few weeks of dry weather
are required to desiccate the fuel loads, and it is unlikely that dry-
season aridity was reduced to the extent that grass fuels lacked suffi-
cient drying time occurred during the wetter periods (Nelson et al.,
2012; Stott, 2000). Herb-dominated vegetation also provides highly
flammable fuels, and in addition fires in grasslands are fast-moving,
low-energy fires (Stocks and Kauffman, 1997). In contrast, the forest en-
vironment is closed and moist, and a combination of short drying times
and weak fire intensity would hamper the development of fire. There-
fore, during the early Holocene, fire activity was limited by the high pre-
cipitation, and low frequency of fires may have occurred mainly in the
valleys and low-lying basins, where the vegetation was mainly com-
posed of open bush and grassland savannas, and the abundance of C4
plants may be overestimated by the δ13CBC values. This explanation
may also account for the same phenomenon during the BA warm
interval.
In the mid- to late- Holocene, the vegetation composition inferred
from the δ13CBC values generally followed the ISM precipitation due to
the high fire activity. The anomalously wet interval between 1.5 and
0.8 cal ka BP inferred from the δ13CBC values corresponds to the medie-
val warm period (Fig. 3a). This relatively wet interval has also been doc-
umented by other ISM proxies, including stalagmite δ18O records from
Wah Shikar Cave in northeast India (Sinha et al., 2011) and Zhijin
Cave in southwest China (Kuo et al., 2011), the δD record from East
Rongbuk ice core in the Himalayas (Kaspari et al., 2007), and the tree-
ring record from the south-central Tibetan Plateau (He et al., 2013).
The relatively wet climatic condition in the ISM region is also consistent
with north China, which is influenced by the EASM (Chen et al., 2015).
However, a generally dry medieval warm period prevailed over south
China and the South China Sea (Chen et al., 2015; Chu et al., 2002; Yan
et al., 2011a, 2011b). These results collectively suggest a broad
hydroclimatic contrast during the medieval period in China and sur-
roundings. Therefore, more high-quality evidence is necessary to under-
stand the spatial pattern of medieval hydroclimatic variability between
the ISM and EASM regions.
6. Conclusions
In this study we link fire regimes in southwest China during the past
18.5 ka to climate and vegetation changes, by comparing a well dated BC
record from Lake TCQH with the results of previous studies. The results
show that the sedimentary BC content provides a record of fire activity,
and exhibits a close correlation with the amount and seasonal distribu-
tion of ISM precipitation. During H1, the YD and in the mid- to late- Ho-
locene, the ISM weakened, leading to a high frequency and intensity of
fires in southwest China. In the last 1.0 ka, the record may be significant-
ly affected by human activity in the region, as suggested by the high sed-
imentation rate. The general trend of vegetation composition changes
deduced from δ13CBC values also tracked the variations of the ISM, sug-
gesting a shift from mixed C3/C4-plant ecosystems during the LGM to
forest dominated by C3 plants during the Holocene. However, the
δ13CBC values may overestimate the abundance of C4 plants during the
Bølling-Allerød and the early Holocene due to the fact that fires may
have been limited to the savanna ecosystem in valleys and low-lying
basins.
Acknowledgments
We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers whose sugges-
tions have greatly improved the quality of the manuscript. We also
thank Dr. Jan Bloemendal for improving the English text, and Prof. X.
Yang, Dr. S. Yao, and Mr. J. Tao for field assistance. This project was sup-
ported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No.
2010CB833404, 2012CB956104) and NIGLAS (2011KXJ002), as well as
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41272380).
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