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Global Paleofire WG scientific goals
The Global Charcoal Database
This database, created in 2006, was the key product of the GPWG. It emerged as a result of discussions during the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Fast-Track Initiative on Fire.
Project funding, through the QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding Earth Systems) program of the UK Natural Environment Research Council, enabled the GPWG to put together a global database of sedimentary charcoal records. A year later in 2007 the GPWG was part of the IGBP Cross-Project Initiative on Fire.
The aim of the Global Charcoal Database (GCD) is to provide the scientific community with a global palaeofire dataset for research and archiving sedimentary records of fire.
Global syntheses have enabled the examination of broad-scale patterns in palaeofire activity, created a framework for exploring the linkages among fire, climate and vegetation at centennial-to-multi-millennial time scales and allows evaluation of fire model simulations at regional to global scales.