caa a22 4500 445359250 CHVBK 20180317142910.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00334-010-0276-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00334-010-0276-9 A palaeoecological investigation into the role of fire and human activity in the development of montane grasslands in East Africa [Elektronische Daten] [Jemma Finch, Rob Marchant] Human activity has been widely implicated in the origin and expansion of montane grasslands in East Africa, yet little palaeoecological evidence exists to test whether these grasslands are natural or secondary. Pollen and charcoal data derived from two Holocene records in the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania are used as a case study to investigate the supposed secondary nature of montane grasslands in Africa. Fossil pollen data are used to detect vegetation change, and charcoal analysis is used to reconstruct fire history. The pollen data are characterised by stable proportions of local taxa suggesting permanence of grasslands throughout the past ~13,000years. Recent increases in fire adapted taxa such as Morella point towards the development of a grassland/forest patch mosaic possibly associated with burning. However, robust evidence of human activity is absent from the records, which may be attributed to the late human occupation of the mountains. The records indicate long-term persistence of grasslands which, coupled with a lack of evidence of human activity, suggests that these grasslands are not secondary. These data support the hypothesis that grasslands are an ancient and primary component of montane vegetation in Africa, but that they experienced some expansion during the late Holocene as a result of changing fire regime. Springer-Verlag, 2010 Eastern Arc mountains nationallicence Uluguru mountains nationallicence Secondary grassland nationallicence Pollen nationallicence Charcoal nationallicence Finch Jemma York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK aut Marchant Rob York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK aut Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Springer-Verlag 20/2(2011-03-01), 109-124 0939-6314 20:2<109 2011 20 334 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-010-0276-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-010-0276-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Finch Jemma York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Marchant Rob York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Dynamics (KITE), Environment Department, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Springer-Verlag 20/2(2011-03-01), 109-124 0939-6314 20:2<109 2011 20 334 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer