The Burning Question: How did fire shape Eastern Africa’s paleo-ecosystem?

亟待解决的问题：火是如何塑造东非的古生态系统的？

• 批准号: 537649111
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Fachrichtung Paläontologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/537649111?language=en
• 关键词: Burning; Question; How; did; fire

This project's scope is to explore the foundational role of fire in shaping Eastern Africa's ecosystem dynamics. For this purpose, the project uses the 280-meter-long composite sedimentary sequence of Chew Bahir Lake (Ethiopia), spanning c. 620,000 years. The analytical framework examines and quantifies fossil macro and micro-charcoal particles, enabling insights into fire severity and frequency across orbital to sub-millennial scales. Morphometric analyses of the charcoal particles will further allow us to gain insights into the vegetational composition of the region bordering Chew Bahir. This would be a significant advancement due to the poor pollen preservation in the lake record. Additionally, we will apply the novel technique of microscope-enabled FTIR spectroscopy on charcoal particles, enabling the reconstruction of fire temperature.The charcoal abundance and vegetation records will allow us to decipher the relationships between fire occurrences, vegetal compositions, and potential anthropogenic interactions, thus yielding a comprehensive understanding of ecological resilience mechanisms and early human adaptations. Using statistical techniques will enable us to comprehensively investigate the relationship between charcoal records and potential climate forcings (e.g., CO2 or insolation changes). We further aim to explore the possible presence of non-linear relationships that might indicate increasing human activities within the region. Combining this with existing East African charcoal records will provide a comprehensive spatiotemporal understanding of the historical fire dynamics in the area.To further advance the novel technique of fire temperature reconstruction, we will generate a reference database of representative vegetation samples collected during a fieldwork campaign in the region of Chew Bahir. The collected specimens will be combusted under controlled conditions and subsequently serve as a benchmark for reconstructing fire temperatures across the entire record. Understanding fire temperatures is crucial for reconstructing past wildfire regimes (e.g., "cold" smoldering fires vs. "hot" forest fires), providing insights into the intensity and behavior of historical fires and their potential impact on ecosystems and climate change.In summary, this project will provide the longest and temporally highest-resolved terrestrial charcoal records from tropical Eastern Africa and its first fire temperature record. By advancing methodologies for examining fire histories globally, this project will offer novel insights into the ecological impact of fire on ecosystems over time, relevant to future projected changes and the development of our species.

该项目的范围是探索火在塑造东非生态系统动态方面的基本作用。为此，该项目使用Chew Bahir湖（埃塞俄比亚）280米长的复合沉积序列，跨越c。62万年该分析框架检查和量化化石宏观和微观木炭颗粒，使人们能够深入了解火灾的严重程度和频率跨越轨道到亚千年的尺度。木炭颗粒的形态分析将进一步使我们能够深入了解与Chew Bahir接壤的地区的植被组成。这将是一个重大的进步，由于穷人的花粉保存在湖泊记录。此外，我们将应用显微镜支持的FTIR光谱新技术对木炭颗粒，使火灾温度的重建。木炭丰度和植被记录将使我们能够破译火灾发生，植物成分和潜在的人为相互作用之间的关系，从而产生对生态恢复机制和早期人类适应的全面理解。使用统计技术将使我们能够全面调查木炭记录与潜在气候强迫之间的关系（例如，CO2或日照变化）。我们的进一步目标是探索可能存在的非线性关系，可能表明该地区内人类活动的增加。将其与现有的东非木炭记录相结合，将提供一个全面的时空理解的历史火灾动力学在该地区，为了进一步推进火灾温度重建的新技术，我们将产生一个参考数据库的代表性植被样本收集期间在该地区的Chew Bahir的实地考察活动。收集的样本将在受控条件下燃烧，随后作为整个记录中重建火灾温度的基准。了解火灾温度对于重建过去的野火状况至关重要（例如，“冷”阴燃火与“热”森林火灾），提供历史火灾的强度和行为及其对生态系统和气候变化的潜在影响的见解。总之，该项目将提供热带东非最长和时间上最高分辨率的陆地木炭记录及其第一个火灾温度记录。通过推进研究全球火灾历史的方法，该项目将为火灾对生态系统的生态影响提供新的见解，这些影响与未来的预测变化和我们物种的发展有关。