The significance of pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Borneo peat core for the reconstruction of fire history

Sher-Rine Kong; Masanobu Yamamoto; Hasrizal Shaari; Ryoma Hayashi; Osamu Seki; Norhayati Mohd Tahir; Muhammad Fais Fadzil; Abdullah Sulaiman

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256853

The significance of pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Borneo peat core for the reconstruction of fire history

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 8;16(9):e0256853. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256853. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Sher-Rine Kong^{1

2}, Masanobu Yamamoto^{2

3}, Hasrizal Shaari¹, Ryoma Hayashi⁴, Osamu Seki^{2

5}, Norhayati Mohd Tahir⁶, Muhammad Fais Fadzil⁶, Abdullah Sulaiman⁷

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁴ Lake Biwa Museum, Kusatsu, Japan.
⁵ Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁶ Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
⁷ Department of Mineral and Geoscience, Kedah, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

Abstract

The reconstruction of fire history is essential to understand the palaeoclimate and human history. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been extensively used as a fire marker. In this work, the distribution of PAHs in Borneo peat archives was investigated to understand how PAHs reflect the palaeo-fire activity. In total, 52 peat samples were analysed from a Borneo peat core for the PAH analysis. Pyrogenic PAHs consist of 2-7 aromatic rings, some of which have methyl and ethyl groups. The results reveal that the concentration of pyrogenic PAHs fluctuated with the core depth. Compared to low-molecular-weight (LMW) PAHs, the high-molecular-weight (HMW) PAHs had a more similar depth variation to the charcoal abundance. This finding also suggests that the HMW PAHs were mainly formed at a local fire near the study area, while the LMW PAHs could be transported from remote locations.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Borneo
Charcoal / analysis
Environmental Biomarkers
Fires / history*
Geologic Sediments / analysis*
History, 15th Century
History, 16th Century
History, 17th Century
History, 18th Century
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
History, Ancient
History, Medieval
Humans
Molecular Weight
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / analysis*
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / chemistry
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / classification
Soil / chemistry*

Substances

Environmental Biomarkers
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Soil
Charcoal

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (UMT/RMIC/FRGS/2/14/59356) from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and a grant from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (nos. 15H05210 and JPMXS05R2900001 to MY). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.