A paper this week from the University of Wisconsin announces a predictable conclusion to readers of the Tusk: The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene is characterized by soil signatures of fire on a continental scale. The author’s geochemical analysis is helpful and welcome, but my children would have a pretty good shot at guessing what happened in olden days by simply looking at the photo above — Looks like there was a big fire, dad.
Equally obvious to me (perhaps not the kids) is the conspicuous absence of any citation to the Firestone papers. It would seem that multiple major journal publications providing much more detailed evidence of frightful temperatures and horrendous fires within the period of Marin-Spiotta et al.’s own study of the same region would merit a reference in support of their hypothesis. But alas and for shame it does not.
[su_document url=”https://cosmictusk.com/wp-content/uploads/Long-term-stabilization-of-deep-soil-carbon-by-fire-and-burial-during-early-Holocene-climate-change.pdf”]