A stalagmite from a Western Australian (WA) cave has revealed that prior to European settlement in the state, low-intensity bushfires were quite frequent, whereas, from the late 1800’s infrequent but high-intensity bushfires have become common.
The stalagmite studied was extracted from Yonderup Cave in WA, and preserved a record of climate conditions and fires, enabling researchers to link-local fires with climatic precursors.
This is the first study to examine a stalagmite’s geochemistry in order to understand historical bushfires, and researchers speculate that this change in frequency and intensity of fires is associated with changes in land management practices.
Dr Liza McDonough from Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and lead author of the study, which was conducted with the University of New South Wales and other universities, said in a release on Thursday that the largest fire event in the stalagmite record occurred in 1897 and coincided with a drought which had lasted for decades.
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