Palaeoecology: pollen analysis and ecological history of the Bale Mountains

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Pollen, charcoal, fungal spore, and plant macrofossil analyses are central to reconstructing past vegetation and human impact in the Bale Mountains, to test the hypothesis that humans have long occupied the Afro-alpine zone of the Bale Mts, and impacted the vegetation through burning and grazing. Close co-operation with present-day vegetation monitoring will allow pollen-vegetation-climate calibration via surface palynospore data from vegetation plots and indicator taxa for human impact. High-resolution pollen and charcoal stratigraphies from nine potential core sites will assist in determining the timing, duration and intensity of human occupation, and the degree to which anthropogenic disturbance, especially burning, can be distinguished from past natural disturbances. Spores derived from coprophilous fungi may allow estimates of past relative abundance of domestic livestock and indigenous mammals. Interpretation by comparison with multiple paleo-proxies (XRF geochemistry, stable isotopes, diatoms, coleopteran remains) in the cores, plus integration with data from archeological, paleoclimatological and anthrosol investigations, will be essential in modelling the long-term dynamics of the Bale Mountain environment.