The circumpolar boreal forest covers large areas of the high northern latitudes, and is important for feedbacks between land surface and atmosphere. Large carbon stores, fires and a dynamic ecotone with tundra mean that altered disturbance regimes in the boreal system are likely to have major impacts on climate via feedback mechanisms affecting the surface energy budget and atmospheric chemistry. Using radiocarbon-dated sedimentary records with the temporal focus on two key vegetative transitions (deciduous-Picea and Picea-Pinus) and a climatic transition (cold and dry to moister), high resolution time series of charcoal-peak frequencies from lake sediments are used as a proxy of the local fire regime. Modern observations lead to multiple [...]
