Number of participants : 12
Overview :
The aim of the Global Palaeofire Working Group (GPWG) is to provide the scientific community with a global charcoal dataset (GCD) to facilitate research on fire in the Earth system. Analysis and synthesis of the data have enabled the identification and explanation of spatiotemporal patterns in palaeofire activity, created a framework for exploring the linkages among fire, climate and vegetation at centennial-to-multi-millennial time scales and allowed evaluation of fire model simulations at regional to global scales. Science emerging from the GCD includes the creation of a public-access database and an international research community with multiple-authored papers describing observed spatiotemporal changes in fire at global and regional scales (e.g. time series and maps).
Aims :
1. Test-drive and improve a new statistical toolkit using the R software language. The toolkit is being developed specifically to synthesize multiple records from the global charcoal database. During the workshop, we will develop vignettes and tutorials for the GCD user community.
2. Analyse data from GCD version 3 using statistical analyses in R in order to track regional fire events and discuss their forcing factors as well as their spatial and temporal variability.
3. Finalize the 4th version of the Global charcoal database that will be improved by more than 200 additional sediment records. The updated database will be published in spring 2014 and a new synthesis paper describing its contents will be initiated at the workshop.
Schedule :
Oct 2nd / day 1 : Arrival and dinner with participants
Oct 3rd / day 2 : Oral presentations (8)
Oct 4th / day 3 : GCD & paleofiRe R-package training (how to use)
Oct 5th / day 4 : Discussion on scientific plans in progress or new ones
Oct 6th / day 5 : Departure
Confirmed participants :
Olivier Blarquez, Québec University, Montréal, Canada
Simon Brewer, Utah University, Salt-Lake-City, USA
Anne-Laure Daniau, CNRS, Bordeaux, France
Jennifer Marlon, Yale University, New Haven, USA
Mitchell Power, Utah University, Salt-Lake-City, USA
Boris Vannière, CNRS, Besançon, France
Hosting institution :
Chrono-environnement lab. CNRS - University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
To Apply :
Please send before July 22th 2013 an Email to paleofire chez gmail.com containing your name, email address, affiliation, available funding source and amount, and one paragraph explaining why you would like to attend the workshop, what you hope to gain from it, and what you hope to contribute to the synthesis effort.
Limited financial support from PAGES and University of Franche-Comté are available to supplement junior participant accommodations and travel support for transportation to and from Besançon.
