A 560-year record of Santa Ana fires reconstructed from charcoal depositedin the Santa Barbara Basin, California

Microscopic charcoal from varved Santa Barbara Basin sediments was used to reconstruct a 560-yr record (A.D. 1425 to 1985) of Santa Ana fires. Compari son of large (>3750 mu m(2)) charcoal with documented fire records in the S anta Barbara Ranger District shows that high accumulations correspond to la rge fires (>20,000 ha) that occurred during Santa Ana conditions. The charc oal record reconstructed a minimum of 20 large fires in the Santa Barbara r egion during the study period. The average time between fires shows no dist inct change across three different land use periods: the Chumash period, ap parently characterized by frequent burning, the Spanish/Early American peri od with nominal fire control, and the 20th century with active fire suppres sion. Pollen data support the conclusion that the fire regime has not drama tically changed during the last 500 yr, Comparison of large charcoal partic le accumulation rates and precipitation reconstructed from tree rings show a strong relationship between climate and fire history, with large fires co nsistently occurring at the end of wet periods and the beginning of drought s. (C) 1999 University of Washington.