Radiocarbon ages of macroscopic charcoal fragments found in Hawaiian drylands

This data publication contains radiocarbon ages (RCA) of charcoal fragments obtained from five soil pits excavated to a depth of ≤ 1.5 meters on the leeward flanks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii. Fragments were collected and radiocarbon-dated between 2012 and 2015. RCA of fragments ranged from less than 200 years RCA (2 pieces) to 7,730 years RCA (1 piece), with 13 pieces greater than 1,500 years RCA. We also obtained genus identities for four macroscopic charcoal fragments. Data also include measurements such as charcoal weight, depth below the surface, Δ¹³C, Δ¹⁴C, and Δ¹⁴C age. These findings indicate the existence of fires before humans are known to have occupied the Hawaiian archipelago and contributes to our understanding of prehistoric fires in shaping primary succession in Hawaiian drylands.Primary succession in forests is characterized by stages of ecosystem development and decline, whereby systems accumulate biomass and vertical stature early in primary succession, but then enter a stage of long-term decline during which biomass and vertical stature are lost. The most typical cause of these changes is persistent phosphorus (P) limitation that occurs with substrate aging. Available P increases soon after the formation of parent material due to geochemical weathering, but later becomes limiting and decreases when demand and losses due to leaching outstrip supply. However, few studies of primary succession and ecosystem development have been conducted in drylands–those receiving For more information about these data, see Kinney et al. (2015).