Fire and human management of late Holocene ecosystems in southern Africa
Fire and human management of late Holocene ecosystems in southern Africa
复制标题
南部非洲全新世晚期生态系统的火灾和人类管理
DOI：
10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107600
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发表时间：
2022
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Faith, J. Tyler
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Davies, Benjamin;Power, Mitchell J.;Braun, David R.;Douglass, Matthew J.;Mosher, Stella G.;Quick, Lynne J.;Esteban, Irene;Sealy, Judith;Parkington, John;Faith, J. Tyler
在全球范围内，火是通过人类和自然系统的长期耦合来改变环境的主要因素。在南部非洲，自中更新世晚期以来，人类对火的控制就已被记录在案，尽管目前还不清楚人为燃烧何时或是否导致该地区火机制的根本变化。为了确定大规模人为燃烧的潜在时期，我们分析了整个南部非洲的全新世木炭序列，我们将其与古气候记录和考古数据进行比较。我们显示气候一致的变化，在全新世中期火在次大陆的大部分。然而，增加区域火灾活动在晚全新世（2000 BP）与考古学的变化，特别是引进和加强整个地区的粮食生产。这种火灾的增加并不容易用气候变化来解释，而是反映了一种利用火灾作为管理过去景观的工具的新方法，其结果取决于区域生态系统特征。
Globally, fire is a primary agent for modifying environments through the long-term coupling of human and natural systems. In southern Africa, control of fire by humans has been documented since the late Middle Pleistocene, though it is unclear when or if anthropogenic burning led to fundamental shifts in the region's fire regimes. To identify potential periods of broad-scale anthropogenic burning, we analyze aggregated Holocene charcoal sequences across southern Africa, which we compare to paleoclimate records and archaeological data. We show climate-concordant variability in mid-Holocene fire across much of the subcontinent. However, increased regional fire activity during the late Holocene (∼2000 BP) coincides with archaeological change, especially the introduction and intensification of food production across the region. This increase in fire is not readily explained by climate changes, but rather reflects a novel way of using fire as a tool to manage past landscapes, with outcomes conditioned by regional ecosystem characteristics.