Fossil charcoal as an indicator of palaeoatmospheric oxygen level

Charcoal results from incomplete combustion of plant material. It is produced naturally by wildfire, and being relatively tough and unbiodegradable it may be transported and incorporated into a variety of sedimentary environments. Wildfire requires adequate atmospheric oxygen for the combustion of plant fuel (wood, leaf litter). Fossil charcoal from the Devonian onwards suggests that the oxygen level in the atmosphere has not fallen below 13% in this interval. Further, the extreme flammability of even wet plant fuel at oxygen levels above 35% makes this the highest figure compatible with the occurrence of terrestrial vegetation.

[1]  R. Berner,et al.  Gas Bubbles in Fossil Amber as Possible Indicators of the Major Gas Composition of Ancient Air , 1988, Science.

[2]  W. A. Patterson,et al.  Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire , 1987 .

[3]  W. G. Chaloner,et al.  Three growth in the Mesozoic and Early Tertiary and the reconstruction of palaeoclimates , 1985 .

[4]  John G. Dennis,et al.  Tundra Fire Regimes in the Noatak River Watershed, Alaska: 1956-83 , 1985 .

[5]  D. Russell,et al.  Fossil charcoal and the palaeoatmosphere , 1981, Nature.

[6]  M. Cope,et al.  Fossil charcoal and the palaeoatmosphere (reply) , 1981, Nature.

[7]  T. M. Harris.  Burnt ferns from the English Wealden , 1981 .

[8]  W. G. Chaloner,et al.  Fossil charcoal as evidence of past atmospheric composition , 1980, Nature.

[9]  M. Cope.  Physical and chemical properties of coalified and charcoalified phytoclasts from some British Mesozoic sediments: An organic geochemical approach to palaeobotany , 1980 .

[10]  J. Lovelock,et al.  Methanogenesis, fires and the regulation of atmospheric oxygen. , 1978, Bio Systems.

[11]  A. Cohen,et al.  Phytogenic Organic Sediments and Sedimentary Environments in the Everglades Mangrove Complex of Florida, Part 3: Alteration of Plant Material In Peat , 1980 .

[12]  J. M. Schopf.  Modes of fossil preservation , 1975 .

[13]  H. Tappan.  Primary production, isotopes, extinctions and the atmosphere , 1968 .

[14]  D. Rasbash,et al.  Burning of wood in atmospheres of reduced oxygen concentration , 1968 .

[15]  P. Barclay-Smith,et al.  The World Wildlife Fund , 1962, Nature.

[16]  T. M. Harris.  FOREST FIRE IN THE MESOZOIC , 1958 .

[17]  M. Stopes.  On the Four Visible Ingredients in Banded Bituminous Coal: Studies in the Composition of Coal, No. 1 , 1919 .