Climate and Fire History of the past approximately 10000 years in central Labrador based on sediments from Canoe and 'Big Beer' Lakes

Fire plays a critical ecological role in the boreal forest. The long-term history of fire and link(s) to climate change remain understudied in the eastern boreal forest of present-day Labrador. Here we provide a new data set based on short sediment cores extracted from two lakes (Canoe and “Big Beer”) in eastern Labrador in 2013. Age-depth models were constructed for each core based on corrected Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Carbon 14 dates. Charcoal (area and counts) was used to reconstruct fire histories, and changes in climate were inferred from analysis of sediment loss-on-ignition, magnetics (susceptibility, isothermal remanent magnetization and anhysteretic remanent magnetization), stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) and biogenic silica. Charcoal data suggested markedly different fire histories for the two lakes. Fire appears to be largely absent in the area around Big Beer Lake except for two possible fire events prior to ~6900 Before Present (BP). Fire was more common at Canoe Lake as indicated by higher concentrations of charcoal overall and multiple distinct peaks, especially after 4000 BP.