Scarce fire activity in north and north-western Amazonian forests during the last 10,000 years

Background Fire is known to affect forest biodiversity, carbon storage, and public health today; however, comparable fire histories from across regions in Amazonia are lacking. Consequently, the degree which past fires could have preconditioned modern resilience remains unknown.Aim We characterised long-term (multi-millennial) history of forests determine spatial temporal differences regimes.Methods collated standardised all available charcoal data extracted continuously deposited lake sediments (n = 31) reconstruct a ca. 10,000-year for: (i) north north-western, (ii) south-western, (iii) eastern parts Amazonia.Results Charcoal was found Amazonia, but it less abundant north-western regions. Regionally distinct periods elevated deposition were identified at between 4000 1500 (eastern), 3000–1000 (south-western) 2500–2000 (north north-western) years ago.Conclusions Forests south-western been exposed activity over recent millennia, while grown under conditions largely free activity. we hypothesise that be relatively more resilient threat increased