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Soil charcoal to assess the impacts of past human disturbances on tropical forests

PloS one, 2014-11, Vol.9 (11), p.e108121-e108121 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

2014 Vleminckx et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;2014 Vleminckx et al 2014 Vleminckx et al ;ISSN: 1932-6203 ;EISSN: 1932-6203 ;DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108121 ;PMID: 25391134

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Title:
Soil charcoal to assess the impacts of past human disturbances on tropical forests
Author: Vleminckx, Jason ; Morin-Rivat, Julie ; Biwolé, Achille B ; Daïnou, Kasso ; Gillet, Jean-François ; Doucet, Jean-Louis ; Drouet, Thomas ; Hardy, Olivier J
Hérault, Bruno
Subjects: Abundance ; Agriculture ; Archaeology ; Archéologie ; Arts & humanities ; Arts & sciences humaines ; Biology and Life Sciences ; Blurring ; Calibration ; Cameroon ; Central Africa ; Charcoal ; Charcoal - analysis ; Correlation ; Disturbances ; Ecology ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences ; Environmental factors ; Environmental sciences & ecology ; Fires ; Forest fires ; Forests ; Geography ; Gravity ; Guilds ; Human disturbances ; Humans ; Laboratories ; Life sciences ; Light ; Light-demanding tree species ; Pennisetum glaucum ; Radiocarbon dating ; Radiometric Dating ; Rainforests ; Regeneration ; Relative abundance ; Science ; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie ; Sciences du vivant ; Shifting cultivation ; Slash and burn ; Soil - chemistry ; Soil charcoal ; Soil layers ; Soil sciences ; Soils ; Species classification ; Species composition ; Specific gravity ; Trees ; Tropical Climate ; Tropical forests ; Vegetation ; Wood
Is Part Of: PloS one, 2014-11, Vol.9 (11), p.e108121-e108121
Description: The canopy of many central African forests is dominated by light-demanding tree species that do not regenerate well under themselves. The prevalence of these species might result from ancient slash-and-burn agricultural activities that created large openings, while a decline of these activities since the colonial period could explain their deficit of regeneration. To verify this hypothesis, we compared soil charcoal abundance, used as a proxy for past slash-and-burn agriculture, and tree species composition assessed on 208 rainforest 0.2 ha plots located in three areas from Southern Cameroon. Species were classified in regeneration guilds (pioneer, non-pioneer light-demanding, shade-bearer) and characterized by their wood-specific gravity, assumed to reflect light requirement. We tested the correlation between soil charcoal abundance and: (i) the relative abundance of each guild, (ii) each species and family abundance and (iii) mean wood-specific gravity. Charcoal was found in 83% of the plots, indicating frequent past forest fires. Radiocarbon dating revealed two periods of fires: "recent" charcoal were on average 300 years old (up to 860 BP, n = 16) and occurred in the uppermost 20 cm soil layer, while "ancient" charcoal were on average 1900 years old (range: 1500 to 2800 BP, n = 43, excluding one sample dated 9400 BP), and found in all soil layers. While we expected a positive correlation between the relative abundance of light-demanding species and charcoal abundance in the upper soil layer, overall there was no evidence that the current heterogeneity in tree species composition can be explained by charcoal abundance in any soil layer. The absence of signal supporting our hypothesis might result from (i) a relatively uniform impact of past slash-and-burn activities, (ii) pedoturbation processes bringing ancient charcoal to the upper soil layer, blurring the signal of centuries-old Human disturbances, or (iii) the prevalence of other environmental factors on species composition.
Publisher: United States: Public Library of Science
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 1932-6203
EISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108121
PMID: 25391134
Source: GFMER Free Medical Journals
MEDLINE
PubMed Central
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
ProQuest Central
DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals

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Soil charcoal to assess the impacts of past human disturbances on tropical forests

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