Biofuels reserve controlled wildfire regimes since the last deglaciation: a record from Gonghai Lake, North China

<b>Wildfire activity is an important factor in the evolution of vegetation. However, our knowledge of the response of wildfire to dry-wet climate and environmental changes during the past ~11,600 years (the Holocene) is still debatable. We conducted a study of the black carbon record of a sediment core spanning the last 14.8 kyr from Gonghai Lake, located in North China. We observed a close relationship between the timing of wildfire activity and vegetation development that driven by summer monsoon intensity.On multi-millennial timescale, suitable climatic conditions provid a sufficient biofuels reserve to sustain wildfire. The regional potential biofuels reserve is shown to be an important control on regional wildfire activity in the monsoon region of China, under natural conditions. It can be inferred that with strengthening of global warming and East Asian summer monsoon, incidence of wildfire in monsoon region of China may be higher in future. </b>