P3 Ecology, Paleoecology, and Evolutionary Ecology

RU 2358的P3项目--生态、古生态和进化生态学--的重点是非洲最大的高山生态系统的干扰生态，埃塞俄比亚南部的贝尔山脉高地有火成碎片的灌木丛，全年以牲畜为食，以及土壤中栖息的啮齿动物的景观工程。高度的地方性证实了进化时间尺度上的生态稳定性。过去15.000年的连续火灾记录表明了埃里卡灌木丛的耐火能力，我们可以假设，至少45.000年来被证明占领石器时代中期的猎人已经在高山矮灌木丛、埃里卡灌木丛和成堆的土栖啮齿类动物的模式中留下了火印。确定高山人类世的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，并增加火灾起源的可信性。接下来的工作包是：(1)将古档案从冰川晚期延伸到第一次人类入侵的时代，利用湖泊沉积物和水母，并在景观水平上进行木炭和花粉分析以及古代DNA，(2)追踪生态干扰的时空模式，利用(3)对非洲高山地区Erica前哨的评估，包括开花状况、幼苗、干旱损害、用于营养评估的采样，以及啮齿动物丘陵特有植物区系的植被动态。

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.