Early anthropogenic impact on Western Central African rainforests 2,600 y ago

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Yannick GarcinDirk Sachse

Abstract

A potential human footprint on Western Central African rainforests before the Common Era has become the focus of an ongoing controversy. Between 3,000 y ago and 2,000 y ago, regional pollen sequences indicate a replacement of mature rainforests by a forest-savannah mosaic including pioneer trees. Although some studies suggested an anthropogenic influence on this forest fragmentation, current interpretations based on pollen data attribute the ''rainforest crisis'' to climate change toward a drier, more seasonal climate. A rigorous test of this hypothesis, however, requires climate proxies independent of vegetation changes. Here we resolve this controversy through a continuous 10,500-y record of both vegetation and hydrological changes from Lake Barombi in Southwest Cameroon based on changes in carbon and hydrogen isotope compositions of plant waxes. [Formula: see text]13C-inferred vegetation changes confirm a prominent and abrupt appearance of C4 plants in the Lake Barombi catchment, at 2,600 calendar years before AD 1950 (cal y BP), followed by an equally sudden return to rainforest vegetation at 2,020 cal y BP. [Formula: see text]D values from the same plant wax compounds, however, show no simultaneous hydrological change. Bas...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 10, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yannick GarcinDirk Sachse
Aug 29, 2019·Biology Letters·Julie C AlemanA Carla Staver
Jul 5, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·P GiresseH Elenga
Jul 5, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yannick GarcinDirk Sachse
May 10, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Bernard ClistDirk Seidensticker
Mar 20, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yadvinder Malhi
Oct 29, 2020·Communications Biology·Madeleine BleasdalePatrick Roberts
Mar 7, 2021·Communications Biology·Jack D LesterMimi Arandjelovic
Aug 10, 2021·Evolutionary Anthropology·Robert PatalanoJulio Mercader

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