This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Marchant, R. Articles by Taylor, D. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Dynamics of montane forest in central Africa during the late Holocene: a pollen-based record from western Uganda

Research Institute for Environmental Science & Management, Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK

David Taylor

Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260

According to the results from a number of palaeoecology-based studies, montane forest appears to have been present across a broad range of altitudes in western Uganda throughout much of the Holocene (before increased levels of human impact over the past 2000 years or so resulted in extensive clearance). Critically for pollen-based studies of vegetation history, clearance has limited investigations into the late-Holocene history of montane forest, and thus the impact of small amplitude, sub-Milankovich variations in climate and low levels of human activity. Mubwindi Swamp in the Rukiga Highlands of southwest Uganda is today surrounded by dense stands of moist lower montane forest. The uppermost 5 m of organic-rich deposits from Mubwindi Swamp are dated to the last 2100 years, and thus provide an opportunity, so far unique for Uganda, to record variations in the composition of lower montane forest during the late Holocene. Results of analyses of pollen indicate that lower montane forest has been present in the catchment for Mubwindi Swamp throughout the last 2100 years. A transition to a more open, and possibly drier, form of forest is apparent from around 710 BP. It seems likely that this transition was at least partly driven by climate. There is an increased occurrence of pollen from plants presently associated with areas of degraded forest from around 200 BP and a decrease in pollen from important sources of timber. These changes could be interpreted as representing slightly increased humidity. However, in view of the nature of these changes, a low level of human impact was probably the most important causal factor. The gazetting of Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest as a Forest Reserve in the early 1930s may have facilitated a recovery of timber trees during the present century.

Key Words: Vegetation history • climatic change • human impact • montane forest • tropical forest • pollen analysis • late Holocene • Africa

The Holocene, Vol. 8, No. 4, 375-381 (1998)
DOI: 10.1191/095968398672993971


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. M. Kiage and K.-b. Liu Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in East Africa: a review of multiproxy evidence from palynology, lake sediments, and associated records Progress in Physical Geography, October 1, 2006; 30(5): 633 - 658. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Taylor, D. Taylor, P. Robertshaw, and R. A. Marchant Environmental change and political-economic upheaval in precolonial western Uganda The Holocene, May 1, 2000; 10(4): 527 - 536. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. E. Meadows Biogeography: changing places, changing times Progress in Physical Geography, June 1, 1999; 23(2): 257 - 270. [PDF]