Expanding the interpretation of anthropogenic fire in the paleo-charcoal record through modern prescribed fires: A study of charcoal production and morphology during the 2021 Hitchiti Experimental Forest prescribed fire campaign, Georgia, USA

Differentiating between natural and anthropogenic fire activity in the past remains one of the principal challenges in interpreting paleo-charcoal records and has implications for contextualizing changing fire regimes in our world today. During the Holocene, cultural burning practices throughout the globe were motivated by diverse social institutions, values, and economics; however, the frequency, seasonality, spatial distribution, and ecological severity of global anthropogenic fire likely differed enough from natural fire to generate lasting ecological effects. Similarly, prescribed fire operations conducted by federal land managing agencies in the United States are modern examples of cultural burning to achieve desired ecological outcomes. Nonetheless, relatively few studies have utilized prescribed fires as laboratories for testing methods to interpret anthropogenic fire activity in charcoal records. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive study of charcoal production and morphology collected during a series of highly instrumented prescribed fires that occurred during March 2021 within the Hitchiti Experimental Forest, Georgia, USA. We relate both field-collected and lab-created charcoal datasets to pre-/post-burn vegetation inventories, thermal images capturing fire behavior, and radiometric measurement of energy release collected at 12 study plots throughout the burn area. Using this approach, we seek to expand the interpretive potential of paleo-charcoal records for identifying past anthropogenic fire activity similar to the frequent, low-severity prescribed fires practiced by land managers today.