Sand dunes are not an obvious place to find high-quality fire records. For a start, anyone who walks on the forested sand dunes of South-East Queensland will be impressed by the intensity of ant activity at their feet. The ant nests extend at least 2 metres below the surface. As the ants move materials around their nests, any charcoal from past fires that’s preserved in the sand would be severely disturbed.
Somewhat surprisingly, though, soil pits dug at the bottom of the slope of dune front walls (the leading edge of a dune) revealed different sediment layers are preserved there. This shows ant activity is not intense on the foot slopes. It’s possible for undisturbed charcoal records to be recovered from this part of the dune.
