Palaeoecology: pollen analysis and ecological history of the Bale Mountains

花粉、木炭、真菌孢子和植物大型化石分析是重建贝尔山脉过去植被和人类影响的核心，以验证人类长期占据贝尔山脉非洲高山地带并通过燃烧和放牧影响植被的假说。与现代植被监测的密切合作将使花粉-植被-气候校准成为可能，通过来自植被地块和指示人类影响的分类群的地表孢子数据。来自九个潜在核心地点的高分辨率花粉和木炭地层将有助于确定人类占领的时间、持续时间和强度，以及人为干扰，特别是燃烧干扰，可以在多大程度上区别于过去的自然干扰。来自共生真菌的孢子可以估计过去家畜和本土哺乳动物的相对丰度。通过与岩芯中的多个古替代物(XRF地球化学、稳定同位素、硅藻、鞘翅目化石)进行比较进行解释，加上与考古学、古气候学和人类溶胶调查的数据相结合，将对模拟巴尔山环境的长期动态至关重要。

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.