Persistence of a wind-driven fire regime in Mediterranean France over the past 8200 years revealed by a marine paleoecological record

Data on paleofire activity in southeastern France during the Holocene are still lacking thus limiting our capability to anticipate fire regime shifts under climate change. Here, we present a 8.2 ky-long high-resolution time-series of microscopic charcoal (microcharcoal) particles from a marine sediment core retrieved from the Rhone prodelta, in the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean Sea). Fire frequency, episodes, size and types of burnt vegetation were determined by quantifying microcharcoal and analysing its morphometry. Our results indicate an increase in biomass burning and fire frequency combined with a decrease in the mean elongation ratio from the Northgrippian (8.2–4.2 ka) to the Meghalayan (4.2–0 ka) stage. This pattern is interpreted as reflecting a shift from the burning of graminoids in closed mesophytic forests during the Northgrippian to the burning of shrub communities in open Mediterranean habitats during the Meghalayan. We also identified 20 fire episodes over the past 8.2 ka, occasionally coinciding with human occupations. Large fires occurred during cold events and summer droughts conditions of the Northgrippian. We relate this finding to negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and increased fuel load under wet winter conditions and fuel flammability under dry and strong summer winds. Besides climate and vegetation, human activity is likely to be an additional driver of fire during the Meghalayan. Southeastern France is currently identified as a region with a high wind-driven fire risk, although its fire regime analysis is biased by intensive fire suppression. We suggest that wind-driven large fires is an inherent element of fire and weather patterns in this area rather than the result of fire suppression strategies leading to uncontrollable large fires.