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Fire and montane vegetation dynamics through successive phases of human occupation in the northern Drakensberg, South Africa by Jemma M. Finch; Trevor R. Hill; Michael E. Meadows; Jared Lodder; Luke Bodmann is a Earth and Planetary Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Fire and montane vegetation dynamics through successive phases of human occupation in the northern Drakensberg, South Africa about?

Palaeoecological evidence is compared with the existing archaeological record to understand how changing human activity, over the past two millennia, impacted fire regimes and vegetation dynamics in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. Sediment cores from two wetland sites in the Cathedral Peak area of the northern Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal are dated using accelerator mass spectrometry to chronologically support biological proxy data. Fossil pollen analysis is used to detect changes in vegetation composition, and macroscopic charcoal to reconstruct changing fire regimes. Charcoal accumulation rates (CHAR) are used as a proxy for burned biomass, and charcoal width-to-length ratio (W/L) as a proxy for dominant fuel type, whether grassy or woody. Results indicate an increase in CHAR, coincident with the appearance of cereal-type grasses (>40 μm) c. 550 cal BP, suggesting a change in fire regimes associated with the arrival of early agropastoralists. A notable decline in charcoal W/L at this time indicates a shift towards a more grassy fuel type. This is consistent with a seasonal shift in the timing of ignitions from high intensity late season lightning fires to low intensity ear

Who reads Fire and montane vegetation dynamics through successive phases of human occupation in the northern Drakensberg, South Africa?

Author

Jemma M. Finch; Trevor R. Hill; Michael E. Meadows; Jared Lodder; Luke Bodmann

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Published

2022

Language

EN

Field

Earth and Planetary Sciences (Physical Sciences)