Resilience modes of an ancient mountain valley grassland in South Africa indicated by palaeoenvironmental methods
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15550445 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abraham Dabengwa (0000-0002-1568-5482, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Lindsey Gillson (0000-0001-9607-6760, University of Cape Town, corresponding author), William J Bond (0000-0002-3441-2084, University of Cape Town) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 055002-055002 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/abdf87 |
| OpenAlex | W3125930114 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 57 |
Grassland ecosystems supporting wildlife and livestock populations have undergone significant transformation in the last millennium. Climate, herbivory, fire, and people are identified as important drivers of ecosystems dynamics; however, grassland resilience has been rarely explored in landscapes with mixed grazing histories. Here we analyse ecosystems states from a South African mountain valley grassland in the last 1250 years using palaeoenvironmental proxies. Our results suggest that a tallgrass phase maintained by climate, people and fire replaced a shortgrass phase driven by indigenous herbivores after ca. 690 cal BP. Furthermore, the tallgrass phase had unpalatable grasses and disturbed soil. We suggest these ecological changes were linked to climate change and arrival of pastoralists in the region. Therefore, our results indicate that human activities may undermine resilience of grasslands and that reversing some changes may be difficult
Agroforestry · Biology · Climate change · Ecosystem · Geography · Grassland · Grassland ecosystem · Grazing · Herbivore · Livestock · Pastoralism · Psychological resilience · Environmental Science · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Ecology · Forestry
Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments
International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature 1.0
Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago
Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire
Phytolith indices as proxies of grass subfamilies on East African tropical mountains
Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences
Phytoliths of East African grasses
Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems
Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems
Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments
Coniss
C3 Poaceae and Restionaceae phytoliths as potential proxies for reconstructing winter rainfall in South Africa
Evidence for Holocene sea level change at Verlorenvlei, Western Cape, South Africa
Climate Variability and Societal Dynamics in Pre-Colonial Southern African History (AD 900-1840)
Late-Holocene environmental variability at Munsa archaeological site, Uganda
Landscape change and resilience theory
Siliceous microfossils as late-Quaternary paleo-environmental indicators at Braamhoek wetland, South Africa
Comparison of pollen-slide and sieving methods in lacustrine charcoal analyses for local and regional fire history
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Years of grassland evolution in the summer rainfall region of South Africa
Optimal counting limit for fungal spore abundance estimation using Sporormiella as a case study
Modern and fossil non-pollen palynomorphs from the Basque mountains (western Pyrenees, France)
Simultaneous Extraction of Phytoliths, Pollen and Spores from Sediments
The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock into Southern Africa
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |