Montane rainforest dynamics under changes in climate and human impact during the past millennia in northern Madagascar
Although it is well known that humans substantially altered the Malagasy ecosystems, the timing of the human arrival as well as the extension of their environmental impact is yet not well understood. This research aims to study the influence of early human impact and climate change on rainforests and wildlife in northern Madagascar during the past millennia. Results obtained from the lake sediment in a montane environment showed significant changes in vegetation within the lake catchment associated with a major drought that started approximately 1100 years ago. Human impact, revealed by fires, began at roughly the same time and occurred outside the lake catchment. Although this does not dismiss the impacts that humans had at a regional scale, this result demonstrates that the late Holocene natural drought also significantly impacted the ecosystems independently of anthropogenic activities. At a regional scale, a review of species demographic history revealed a substantial number of population bottlenecks during the last millennia, probably resulting from this combination of human-related impact and natural climate changes. This research highlights the importance of a multi-site and multi-proxy comparison for deciphering the nature and succession of environmental changes.
Authors
- Charly Favier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1126-6950)
- Ute Radespiel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0814-2404)
- Hermann Behling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5843-8342)
- Fabien Arnaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8706-9902)
- Helena Teixeira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9032-4575)
- Sylvie Rouland
- Laurent Brémond
- Thomas Kasper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9675-1241)
- Gerhard Daut (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7414-1103)
- Vincent Montade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8518-2610)
- Elysée Rasoamanana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1247-6818)
- Perle Ramavovolona
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Antananarivo (MG)
- Ifremer (FR)
- École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR)
- University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation (DE)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- Universität Greifswald (DE)
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (FR)
- Écologie Marine Tropicale des Océans Pacifique et Indien (RE)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Université Savoie Mont Blanc (FR)
- University of Göttingen (DE)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Royal Society Open Science
- Published
- 2024-08-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230930
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 15.65
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique