Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40549892›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Onset of extensive human fire use 50,000 y ago.

Shoushu Jiang, Debo Zhao, Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, Luc Beaufort, Hua Tu, Zhengyao Lu, Zhongjing Cheng, Shanjia Zhang, Yi Zhong, Xiudong Hao and 6 more

Abstract readHistorical Article
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. The role of fire on Earth.Bioscience · 2025
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Shoushu Jiang *Key Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.ORCID 0009-0007-7267-5954
Debo Zhao *Key Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.ORCID 0000-0002-4406-8985
Stefanie Kaboth-BahrDepartment of Earth Sciences, Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 14195, Germany.
Luc BeaufortAix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence 13090 Cedex 07, France.
Hua TuInstitute of Marine Sciences, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Protection, College of Science, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
Zhengyao LuDepartment of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Lund SE-22100, Sweden.
Zhongjing ChengState Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Shanjia ZhangCollege of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Yi ZhongDepartment of Ocean Science and Engineering, Centre for Marine Magnetism, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.ORCID 0000-0002-4298-8737
Xiudong HaoKey Laboratory of Environment Change and Resource Use in Beibu Gulf, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530299, China.ORCID 0000-0002-2584-2162
Wenqiang PeiSchool of Geographical Sciences, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China.
Guangqiang CuiOceanographic Data Center, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
Yifei YangKey Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.ORCID 0009-0005-4493-3018
Anni LinKey Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
Jie HuangKey Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
Shiming WanKey Laboratory of Ocean Observation and Forecasting, Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.ORCID 0000-0001-9335-2248

Funding

MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 42176063Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China XDB40010100
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Fire is a pivotal aspect of human involvement in the carbon cycle. However, the precise timing of the large-scale human fire use remains uncertain. Here, we report a pyrogenic carbon record of East Asian fire history over the past 300,000 y from the East China Sea. This record suggests a rapid increase in fire activity since approximately 50,000 y ago, indicating a decoupling from the monsoon climate, and this pattern is consistent with fire histories in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea-Australia regions. By integrating extensive archaeological data, we propose that the intensified global expansion of modern human and population growth, coupled with the rising demand for fire use during cold glacial periods, resulted in a significant increase in fire utilization from 50,000 y onward. This suggests that a measurable human imprint on the carbon cycle via fire likely predates the Last Glacial Maximum.

Indexed as

FiresArchaeologyCarbon CycleHistory, AncientHumansEast Asian monsoonhuman dispersalhuman fire useIODPpyrogenic carbon

Identifiers

PMID40549892
PMCPMC12260520

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.