P3 Ecology, Paleoecology, and Evolutionary Ecology

项目P3 -生态学，古生态学和进化生态学-RU 2358的重点是非洲最大的高山生态系统的干扰生态学，埃塞俄比亚南部的Bale山高地及其火破碎的Erica灌木丛，全年牲畜放牧，以及土壤啮齿动物的生态工程。高度特有性证实了进化时间尺度上的生态稳定性。过去15，000年的连续火灾记录显示了埃里卡灌丛的防火能力，我们可以假设，至少45，000年以来，中石器时代猎人的职业已被证实，在高山矮灌木丛、欧石楠灌丛和土丘中留下了火灾足迹。确定高山人类世年龄的目标包括解开木炭和花粉记录中的气候和文化信号，并增加火起源的可能性。接下来的工作包是（1）利用湖泊沉积物和蹄兔贝，借助木炭和花粉分析以及景观水平上的古DNA，将古档案从晚冰期扩展到第一次人类入侵的时代，（2）追踪生态干扰的时空模式，利用（3）评估非洲高山埃里卡前哨站，包括开花状态，幼苗，干旱危害、营养物取样评价以及鼠土丘特有植物群的植被动态。

Project P3 - Ecology, Paleoecology and Evolutionary Ecology - of RU 2358 has its focus on the disturbance ecology of Africa’s largest alpine ecosystem, the southern Ethiopian Bale Mountain highlands with its fire-fragmented Erica-thickets, all-year round livestock-grazing, and the landscape-engineering of soil-dwelling rodents. High endemism corroborates ecological stability in evolutionary time scales. The continuous fire record of the last 15.000 years showed the fire-resilience of the Erica thickets and we can assume that the proven occupation of Middle Stone Age hunters since at least 45.000 years has left its fire-footprint in the pattern of alpine dwarf shrublands, Erica-thickets, and mounds of soil-dwelling rodents. The goal, to determine the age of the alpine Anthropocene includes to disentangle the climate and the cultural signal in the charcoal- and pollen-record and to increase plausibility of the origin of fire. The next work packages are (1) extending the paleo-archive beyond the Late Glacial into the times of the first human intrusion, using lake sediments and hyrax middens with the help of charcoal- and pollen analyses and ancient DNA on the landscape level, (2) tracing the spatio-temporal pattern of ecological disturbance, using (3) the assessment of the afroalpine Erica outposts including flowering status, seedlings, drought damages, and sampling for nutrient assessment, and the vegetation dynamics of the endemic flora of rodent’s mounds.