Methodological proposal for the reconstruction of paleofire and fire history from sedimentological analysis

Fire is a transcendental natural element in ecosystems. At the level of anthropic use, it plays a fundamental role when it comes to managing forest areas, and at the environmental level, it is a key factor in the evolution of ecosystems. Anthropogenic fires began to be detected in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, and in recent centuries they have become a constant in the Mediterranean regions. One of the post-fire effects is the loss of soil due to erosion, and in turn, the restoration measures are aimed at stabilizing the soil. Levees are one of the measures that has been used historically, these places act as sediment traps and, therefore, from the analysis of sediment and the analysis of sedimentary coals, the forest history of an affected area by fire, could be reconstructed. This presentation aims to provide a methodological proposal for the study and analysis of historical and prehistoric fires based on sedimentary analysis. The area that has been chosen for the proposal is dissociated between the southeast and the center-west of the Iberian Peninsula, Province of Albacete and Provinces of Salamanca, respectively. The sampling of sediment containment dikes and the analysis of the different soil layers (clay, sand or ash) are part of erosion and transport after fire. In this case, the ash layers serve as dating and the accumulation of sediments in upper layers allows us to know the loss of soil that occurred after the fire event. The different restoration measures that have been taken after the fire will cause the sedimentary aggradation in the dike to be different. Finally, in areas where the dry-stone walls have been built with the same intention as the dikes, it is possible to reconstruct the history of the fires from the sedimentary carbon; this technique is widely used in paleoenvironmental studies and, in this case, would provide information about the forest response at different climatic moments during the Holocene.