REAL

Resilience in East African Landscapes

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      • Esther Githumbi
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REAL Publications

 

This page lists an up to date, comprehensive list of publications by the REAL network. REAL members are highlighted in bold.

Peer-Reviewed Publications:

 

PUBLISHED:

Courtney-Mustaphi CJ, Rucina S, Marchant, R. 2022. Late Pleistocene montane forest fire return interval estimates from Mount Kenya. Journal of Quaternary Science. DOI:10.1002/jqs.3466 [Open Access]

van der Plas, G.W., Rucina, S.M., Hemp, A., Marchant, R.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Schüler, L. and Verschuren, D., 2021. Climate-human-landscape interaction in the eastern foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro (equatorial East Africa) during the last two millennia. The Holocene, 31(4), pp.556-569.

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Rucina, SM, King, L, Selby K, Marchant, R. 2021. A palaeovegetation and diatom record of tropical montane forest fire, vegetation and hydroseral changes on Mount Kenya from 27000-16500 cal yr BP. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. DOI:10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110625

Courtney-Mustaphi C, Kariuki R, Shoemaker A, Munishi L, Ekblom A, Marchant Rob, Lane P. 2021. Understanding land use and land cover changes in northern Tanzania. Swiss Society for African Studies SSAS [Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien SSEA – SGAS] newsletter, 2021/1, pp.20-23. [PDF]

Morrison, K.D., Hammer, E., Boles, O., Madella, M., Whitehouse, N., Gaillard, M.-J., Bates, J., Vander Linden, M., Merlo, S., Yao, A., Popova, L., Hill, A.C., Antolin, F., Bauer, A., Biagetti, S., Bishop, R.R., Buckland, P., Cruz, P., Dreslerová, D., Dusseldorp, G., Ellis, E., Filipovic, D., Foster, T., Hannaford, M.J., Harrison, S.P., Hazarika, M., Herold, H., Hilpert, J., Kaplan, J.O., Kay, A., Klein Goldewijk, K., Kolář, J., Kyazike, E., Laabs, J., Lancelotti, C., Lane, P., Lawrence, D., Lewis, K., Lombardo, U., Lucarini, G., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Marchant, R., Mayle, F., McClatchie, M., McLeester, M., Mooney, S., Moskal-del Hoyo, M., Navarrete, V., Ndiema, E., Góes Neves, E., Nowak, M., Out, W.A., Petrie, C., Phelps, L.N., Pinke, Z., Rostain, S., Russell, T., Sluyter, A., Styring, A.K., Tamanaha, E., Thomas, E., Veerasamy, S., Welton, L., Zanon, M., 2021. Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization. PLOS ONE 16, e0246662 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246662

Petek-Sargeant N, Lane PJ. in press 2021. Weathering Climate Change in Archaeology: Conceptual Challenges and an East African Case Study. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. p1-18. DOI: 10.1017/S0959774321000044

Githumbi EN, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Marchant R. 2021. Sedimentological, palynological and charcoal analysis of the hydric palustrine sediments from the Lielerai-Kimana wetlands, Kajiado, southern Kenya. Palaeoecology of Africa 35, pp.107-126.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766-8

Kariuki, RW, Munishi L, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Capitani C, Shoemaker A, Lane P, Marchant R. 2021. Integrating stakeholders’ perspectives and spatial modelling to develop scenarios of future land use and land cover change in northern Tanzania. PLoS ONE. [Open Access] Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m63xsj417

Githumbi E, Courtney Mustaphi C, Marchant R. 2021. Late Pleistocene and Holocene Afromontane vegetation variability at a headwater wetland within the Eastern Mau Forest, Kenya. Journal of Quaternary Science. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3267

Boas, I., Schapendonk, J., Blondin, S., Pas, A. 2020. Methods as Moving Ground: Reflections on the ‘Doings’ of Mobile Methodologies. Social Inclusion 8(4), 136–146. DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i4.3326 [Open Access]

Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Kinyanjui R, Shoemaker A, Mumbi C, Muiruri V, Marchant L, Rucina S, Marchant R. in press 2020. A 3000-year record of vegetation changes and fire at a high-elevation wetland on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Quaternary Research. doi: 10.1017/qua.2020.76

de Bont C, Veldwisch GJ 2020. State Engagement with Farmer-led Irrigation Development: Symbolic Irrigation Modernisation and Disturbed Development Trajectories in Tanzania. Journal of Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1746278

Funder, M., Lindegaard, L.S., Friis-Hansen, E. and Gravesen, M.L., 2020. Integrating climate change adaptation and development: Past trends and ways forward for Danish development cooperation. DIIS report. Danish Institute for International Studies.

Funder, M., Lindegaard, L.S., Friis-Hansen, E. and Gravesen, M.L., 2020. Three steps to integrate climate change adaptation and development: Addressing resilience in Danish development policy. DIIS report. Danish Institute for International Studies.

Graveson, M.L., 2020. The Contested Lands of Laikipia – Histories of Claims and Conflict in a Kenyan Landscape. African Social Studies Series, Volume: 42. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004435209

Munishi, L.K., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Marchant, R. 2020. Observation of an adult female oribi with leucistic pelage in Lobo, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology 58(1): 129-132.

Lane, P.J. 2019. Material desires, ecological anxieties, and East African elephant ivory in a long-term perspective. Environmental History 24: 688-694.

Shoemaker A, Davies MIJ. 2019 Grinding-stone implements in the eastern African Pastoral Neolithic. Azania. 54,2: 202-220.

Conolly J, Lane PJ. 2019. Vulnerability, risk, resilience: an introduction. World Archaeology 50(4), 547-553.

Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Capitani C, Boles O, Kariuki R, Newman R, Munishi L, Marchant R, Lane P. 2019. Integrating evidence of land use and land cover change for land management policy formulation along the Kenya-Tanzania borderlands. Anthropocene 28, 100228.

Probert J, Parr C, Holdo RM, Anderson TM, Archibald S, Courtney Mustaphi C, Dobson A, Donaldson JE, Hempson G, Hopcraft JGC, Morrison TA, Beale CM. 2019. Anthropogenic modifications to fire regimes in the wider Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. Global Change Biology 25(10), 3406-3423.

van der Plas GW, De Cort G, Petek-Sargeant N, Wuytack T, Colombaroli D, Lane PJ. Verschuren D. 2019. Distinct phases of natural landscape dynamics and intensifying human activity in the central Kenya Rift Valley during the past 1300 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 218, 91-106.

Gravesen ML, Kioko EM. 2019. Cooperation in the midst of violence: land deals and cattle raids in Narok and Laikipia, Kenya. Africa 89(3), 562-585.

Boles O, Shoemaker A, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Petek N, Ekblom A, Lane P. 2019. Historical ecologies of pastoralist overgrazing in Kenya: long-term perspectives on cause and effect. Human Ecology 47(3), 419–434.

Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Brahney, J., Aquino-López, M.A., Goring, S., Orton, K., Noronha, A., Czaplewski, J., Asena, Q., Paton, S.C., Brushworth, J.P., 2019. Guidelines for reporting and archiving 210Pb sediment chronologies to improve fidelity and extend data lifecycle. Quaternary Geochronology 52, 77-87.

de Bont C, Komakech H, Jan Veldwisch. 2019. Neither modern nor traditional: Farmer-led irrigation development in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. World Development 116, 15-27.

Ekblom A, Shoemaker A, Gillson L, Lane P, Lindholm K-L. 2019. Conservation through Biocultural Heritage—Examples from Sub-Saharan Africa. Land 8(1), 5.

Pas, A. 2018. Governing grazing and mobility in the Samburu Lowlands, Kenya. Land, 7(2), 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/land7020041 [Open Access]

Pellis A., Pas A, Duineveld M. 2018. The Persistence of Tightly Coupled Conflicts. The Case of Loisaba, Kenya. Conservation & Society 16, no. 4, 387-96. doi:10.4103/cs.cs_17_38.

Kariuki R, Marchant R, Willcock S (2018). Ecosystem services in Africa. In: Binns T, Lynch K and Nel E (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of African Development. Routledge, Oxford, UK.

Aleman, J.C., Hennebelle, A., Vannière, B., Blarquez, O., the Global Paleofire Working Group. 2018. Sparking New Opportunities for Charcoal-Based Fire History Reconstructions. Fire 1(1), 7. DOI: 10.3390/fire1010007

Seki HA, Shirima DD, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Marchant R, Munishi PKT. 2018. The impact of land use and land cover change on biodiversity within and adjacent Kibasira Swamp in Kilombero valley, Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology 53(6): 518-527. doi: 10.1111/aje.12488

Courtney-Mustaphi CJ, Colombaroli D, Vannière B, Adolf C, Bremond L, Aleman J, the Global Paleofire Working Group (GPWG2). 2018. African fire histories and fire ecologies. PAGES Magazine 26(2), 88.

Komakech HC, de Bont, C. 2018. Differentiated access: Challenges of equitable and sustainable groundwater exploitation in Tanzania. Water Alternatives 11(3):  A11-3-10.

de Bont, C. 2018. The continuous quest for control by African irrigation planners in the face of farmer-led irrigation development: The case of the Lower Moshi Area, Tanzania (1935-2017). Water Alternatives 11(3): A11-3-22.

Gallego-Sala A, Charman D, Brewer S, Page S, Prentice IC, Friedlingstein P, Moreton S, Amesbury M, Beilman D, Björck S, Blyakharchuk T, Bochicchio C, Booth R, Bunbury J, Camill P, Carless D, Chimner R, Clifford M, Cressey E, Courtney-Mustaphi C, De Vleeschouwer R, de Jong R, Fialkiewicz-Koziel B, Finkelstein S, Garneau M, Githumbi E, Hribjlan J, Holmquist J, Hughes P, Jones C, Jones M, Karofeld E, Klein E, Kokfelt U, Korhola A, Lacourse T, Le Roux G, Lamentowicz M, Large D, Lavoie M, Loisel J, Mackay H, MacDonald G, Makila M, Magnan G, Marchant R, Marcisz K, Martínez Cortizas A, Massa C, Mathijssen P, Mauquoy D, Mighall T, Mitchell FJG, Moss P, Nichols J, Oksanen PO, Orme L, Packalen M, Robinson S, Roland T, Sanderson N, Sannel AB, Silva-Sánchez N, Steinberg N, Swindles G, Turner TE, Uglow J, Väliranta M, van Bellen S, van der Linden M, van Geel B, Wang G, Yu Z, Zaragoza-Castells J, Zhao Y. 2018. Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming. Nature Climate Change.

Seki HA, Shirima DD, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Marchant R, Munishi PKT. 2018. The impact of land use and land cover change on biodiversity within and adjacent Kibasira Swamp in Kilombero valley, Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology 53(6): 518-527. doi: 10.1111/aje.12488

Boles O, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Richer S, Marchant R. 2018. Joining the dots of land-use and land-cover change in Eastern Africa. PAGES Past Global Changes Magazine 26(1), p.16-17.

Shipton C, Roberts P, Archer W, Armitage SJ, Bita C, Blinkhorn J, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Crowther A, Curtis R, d’ Errico F, Douka K, Faulkner P, Groucutt HS, Helm R, Herries AIR, Jembe S, Kourampas N, Lee-Thorp J, Marchant R, Mercader J, Pitarch Marti A, Prendergast ME, Rowson B, Tengeza A, Tibesasa R, White TS, Petraglia MD, Boivin N. 2018. 78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later stone age innovation in an East African tropical forest. Nature Communications 9, 1832.

Kariuki R, Willcock S, Marchant R. 2018. Rangeland Livelihood Strategies under Varying Climate Regimes: Model Insights from Southern Kenya. Land 7, 47. doi:10.3390/land7020047

Beale CM, Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Morrison TA, Archibald S, Anderson TM, Dobson AP, Donaldson JE, Hempson GP, Probert J, Parr CL. 2018. Pyrodiversity interacts with rainfall to increase bird and mammal richness in African savannas. Ecology Letters 21(4): 557–567.

Marchant R, Richer S, Capitani C, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Prendergast M, Stump D, Boles O, Lane P, Wynne-Jones S, Ferro Vázquez C, Wright D, Boivin N, Lang C, Kay A, Phelps L, Fuller D, Widgren M, Punwong P, Lejju J, Gaillard-Lemdahl M-J, Morrison KD, Kaplan J, Benard J, Crowther A, Cuní-Sanchez A, de Cort G, Deere N, Ekblom A, Farmer J, Finch J, Gillson L, Githumbi E, Kabora T, Kariuki R, Kinyanjui R, Kyazike E, Muiruri V, Mumbi C, Muthoni R, Muzuka A, Ndiema E, Nzaba C, Olago D, Onjala D, Pas Schrijver A, Petek N, Platts PJ, Rucina S, Shoemaker A, Thornton-Barnett S, van der Plas G, Watson L, Williamson D. 2018. Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews 178: 322-378

Githumbi E, Kariuki R, Shoemaker A, Courtney Mustaphi C, Chuhila M, Richer S, Lane P, Marchant R. 2018. Pollen, people and place: paleoenvironmental, archaeological, and ecological perspectives on vegetation change in the Amboseli landscape, Kenya. Frontiers in Earth Science 5 Article 113: 1-26. DOI: 10.3389/feart.2017.00113

Githumbi EN*, Courtney Mustaphi CJ*, Yun KJ, Muiruri V, Rucina SM, Marchant R. 2018. Late Holocene wetland transgression and 500 years of vegetation and fire variability in the semi-arid Amboseli landscape, southern Kenya. Ambio – A Journal of the Human Environment 47(6), pp 682–696. *equal contribution

Pfeifer M, Andrew B, Calders K, Cayuela L, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Cuní-Sanchez A, Deere N, Denu D, Gonsamo A, Gonzalez de Tanago J, Hayward R, Lau A, Macia MJ, Marchant R, Ledo A, Marshall AR, Olivier P, Paine CET, Pellikka P, Hamidu S, Shirima D, Trevithick R, Wedeux B, Wheeler C, Woodgate W, Platts PJ. 2018. Tropical forest canopies and their relationships with climate and disturbance – results from a global dataset of consistent field-based measurements. Forest Ecosystems 5: 7. doi: 10.1186/s40663-017-0118-7

Bollig, M, Anderson, D. (eds.). 2017. Resilience and Collapse in African Savannahs. Causes and Consequences of Environmental Change in eastern Africa. London. Routledge.

Lane P and Shoemaker A. 2017 Interdisciplinary perspectives on precolonial African farming and herding communities. In White D, and Davies, MIJ (ed) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.70

Bollig, M. 2017. Adaptive cycles in the savannah: pastoral specialization and diversification in northern Kenya. In: M. Bollig and D. Anderson (eds), Resilience and Collapse in African Savannahs. Causes and Consequences of Environmental Change in eastern Africa. London. Routledge. pp. 21-44.

Pas Schrijver A, Lenkaina D. 2017. Grazing management and livestock mobility in Lekiji Sesia, Kenya. Printjob: Hoogeveen, Netherlands. pp 52. ISBN PDF 978-91-87355-37-0.

Shoemaker, A.C., Davies, M.I. and Moore, H.L., 2017. Back to the Grindstone? The Archaeological Potential of Grinding-Stone Studies in Africa with Reference to Contemporary Grinding Practices in Marakwet, Northwest Kenya. African Archaeological Review, pp.1-21.

Gravesen, M, Jensen, S. 2017. Etnisk og politisk strid om jord ryster et af Afrikas mest stabile lande. Information. 18 April 2017.

Kioko, E.M., 2017. Conflict Resolution and Crime Surveillance in Kenya: Local Peace Committees and Nyumba Kumi. Africa Spectrum, 52(1), pp.3-32.

Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Gajewski K, Marchant R, Rosqvist G. 2017. A late Holocene pollen record from proglacial Oblong Tarn, Mount Kenya. PLoS One. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0184925 [Data available from open access Harvard Dataverse]

Marchant R, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Githumbi E. 2017. Entangled ecosystem-people-animal interactions: perspectives from East African savannas. Past Global Changes Magazine (PAGES), 25(2), 80-81. DOI:10.22498/pages.25.2.80

Hempson G, Parr C, Archibald S, Anderson T, Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Dobson A, Donaldson J, Morrison T, Probert J, Beale C. Accepted July 2017. Continent-level drivers of African pyrodiversity. Ecography. [Data available from Dryad]

Hawthorne D*, Courtney Mustaphi CJ*, Aleman JC*, Blarquez O, Colombaroli D, Daniau A-L, Marlon JR, Power M, Vannière B, Han Y, Hantson S, Kehrwald N, Magi B, Yue X, Carcaillet C, Marchant R, Ayodele O, Githumbi EN, Muriuki RM. Accepted in press. Global Modern Charcoal Dataset (GMCD): a tool for exploring proxy-fire linkages and spatial patterns of biomass burning. Quaternary International.
*equal contribution

Sánchez Goñi, M. F., Desprat, S., Daniau, A.-L., Bassinot, F. C., Polanco-Martínez, J. M., Harrison, S. P., Allen, J. R. M., Anderson, R. S., Behling, H., Bonnefille, R., Burjachs, F., Carrión, J. S., Cheddadi, R., Clark, J. S., Combourieu-Nebout, N., Courtney-Mustaphi, C. J., Debusk, G. H., Dupont, L. M., Finch, J. M., Fletcher, W. J., Giardini, M., González, C., Gosling, W. D., Grigg, L. D., Grimm, E. C., Hayashi, R., Helmens, K., Heusser, L. E., Hill, T., Hope, G., Huntley, B., Igarashi, Y., Irino, T., Jacobs, B., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Kawai, S., Kershaw, P., Kumon, F., Lawson, I. T., Ledru, M.-P., Lézine, A.-M., Liew, P. M., Magri, D., Marchant, R., Margari, V., Mayle, F. E., McKenzie, M., Moss, P., Müller, S., Müller, U. C., Naughton, F., Newnham, R. M., Oba, T., Pérez-Obiol, R., Pini, R., Ravazzi, C., Roucoux, K. H., Rucina, S. M., Scott, L., Takahara, H., Tzedakis, P. C., Urrego, D. H., van Geel, B., Valencia, B. G., Vandergoes, M. J., Vincens, A., Whitlock, C. L., Willard, D. A., and Yamamoto, M. 2017. The ACER pollen and charcoal database: a global resource to document vegetation and fire response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period. Earth System Science Data Discussions, doi:10.5194/essd-2017-4. [Data available from PANGEA]

Bergius, Mikael, Tor A. Benjaminsen, Mats Widgren 2017. Green economy, Scandinavian investments and agricultural modernization in Tanzania. The Journal of Peasant Studies. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2016.1260554

Armstrong CG, Shoemaker AC, McKechnie I, Ekblom A, Szabó P, Lane P, McAlvay AC, Boles OJ, Walshaw S, Petek N, Gibbons KS, Quintana-Morales E, Anderson EN, Ibragimow A, Podruczny G, Vamosi JC, Marks-Block T, LeCompte JK, Awâsis S, Nabess C, Sinclair P, Crumley CL. (2017) Anthropological contributions to historical ecology: 50 questions, infinite prospects. PLOS ONE. 12 (2) e0171883. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171883

Nik Petek, Paul Lane (2017): Ethnogenesis and surplus food production: communitas and identity building among nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ilchamus, Lake Baringo, Kenya. World Archaeology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1259583

Bollig, M. 2016 Towards an Arid Eden? Boundary making, governance and benefit sharing and the political ecology of the “new commons” of Kunene Region, Northern Namibia. In: Pastoralism and the new commons: Co-management, conflict and cooperation (Guest editors: M. Bollig and C. Lesorogol). International Journal of the Commons 10(2).

Bollig, M., Olwage, E. 2016. The political ecology of hunting in Namibia’s Kaokoveld. From Dorsland Trekkers’ elephant hunts to trophy hunting in contemporary conservancies. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 34, 61-79.

Schnegg, M., Bollig, M., Linke, T. 2016. Moral equality and success of common-pool water governance in Namibia. Ambio 45(5), pp 581–590. DOI 10 1007/s13280-016-0766-9

Ming’ate, F.L.M. and Bollig, M., 2016. Local Rules and Their Enforcement in the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve Co-Management Arrangement in Kenya. Journal of East African Natural History, 105(1), pp.1-19. DOI: 10.2982/028.105.0102

Hazard B, Adongo C. 2016. Green grabbinget modèles de conservation dans le comté de Marsabit. Cahier de l’Afrique de l’Est, No 50.

Adongo, C. 2016. From Sacred Groves to Cultural sites: the role of socio-economic dynamics in the conservation of Kaya Mudzi Muvya, Kenya. In: Marie Pierre and Sophie Blanchy (eds.) Revalorisation patrimonial des sites naturels sacrés (Kenya, Ouganda, Madagascar). Enjeaux lovaux, nationaux et internationaux. Journal des africanistes. TOME 86. ISBN 978-2-908948-44-8

Pauli J, Bedorf F. 2016. From Ultimogeniture to Senior Club. Negotiating Certainties and Uncertainties of Growing Older between Rural Mexico and Urban Chicago. In: Wonneberger, Astrid, Mijal Gandelsman-Trier; Hauke Dorsch (eds.). Migration, Networks, Skills. Anthropological Perspectives on Mobility and Transformation. Bielefeld: Transcript, 47-66.

de Bont, C., Veldwisch, G.J., Komakech, H.C. and Vos, J., 2016. The fluid nature of water grabbing: the on-going contestation of water distribution between peasants and agribusinesses in Nduruma, Tanzania. Agriculture and human values, 33(3), pp.641-654. DOI: 10.1007/s10460-015-9644-5

Finch J, Marchant R, Courtney Mustaphi CJ. 2016. Ecosystem change in the South Pare Mountain bloc, Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. The Holocene. The Holocene 27 (6), 796-810. [ScienceDaily summary]

Marlon, J. R., Kelly, R,. Daniau, A.-L., Vannière, B., Power, M. J., Bartlein, P., Higuera, P., Blarquez, O., Brewer, S., Brücher, T., Feurdean, A., Gil-Romera, G., Iglesias, V., Maezumi, S.Y., Magi, B., Courtney Mustaphi, C. J., Zhihai, T. 2016. Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment charcoal records to improve data-model comparisons. Biogeosciences 13, 3225-3244.

Githumbi, E, Courtney Mustaphi, C, Marchant R. 2016. Holocene ecosystem, social and landscape dynamics in East Africa. Quaternary International 404(B): 199–200. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.175

Courtney Mustaphi, C and Marchant, R. 2016. A Database of Radiocarbon Dates for Palaeoenvironmental Research in Eastern Africa. Open Quaternary, 2: 3, pp. 1–7. [Data CARD2.0] [Data at Harvard Dataverse]

Kehrwald, N.M., Aleman, J.C., Coughlan, M., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Githumbi, E.N., Magi, B.I., Marlon, J.R., Power, M.J. 2016. One thousand years of fires: integrating proxy and model data. Frontiers of Biogeography 8(1): 155-159.

Lane, Paul J. 2016. Mapping the Elephants of the 19th Century East African Ivory Trade with a Multi-Isotope Approach, PLoS ONE11(10): e0163606, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163606

Lane, Paul J. (2016). Places and paths of memory: archaeologies of East African pastoralist landscapes. In J. Beardsley (ed.) Cultural Heritage Landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Harvard: Harvard University Press (Dumbarton Oaks Texts in Garden & Landscape Studies), pp. 193-234.

Lane, Paul J. (2016). Entangled banks and the domestication of East African pastoralist landscapes. In F. Fernandini and L. Der (eds.) Archaeology of Entanglement. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 127-150.

Lane, Paul J. (2016). Just how long does ‘long-term’ have to be? Matters of temporal scale as impediments to interdisciplinary understanding in historical ecology. In C. Isendahl and D. Stump (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672691.013.5

Colombaroli, Daniele, Geert van der Plas, Stephen Rucina and Dirk Verschuren (2016). Determinants of savanna-fire dynamics in eastern Lake Victoria catchment (western Kenya) during the last 1200 years, Quaternary International, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.028

Chuhila, Maxmillian and Andrea Kifyasi (2016), ‘A Development Narrative of a Rural Economy: The Politics of Forest Plantations and Land Use in Mufindi and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania; 1920s to 2000s’ International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research 4, No. 3, pp. 528 – 538.

Anderson, David M. and Michael Bollig (2016). ‘Resilience and collapse: histories, ecologies, conflicts and identities in the Baringo-Bogoria basin, Kenya.’ Journal of Eastern African Studies 10, i: 1-20.

Anderson, David M. (2016). ‘The beginning of time? Evidence for catastrophic drought in Baringo in the early nineteenth century.’ Journal of Eastern African Studies 10, i: 39-61.

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Githumbi, EN, Shotter, LR, Rucina, SM, Marchant, R. 2016.  Subfossil statoblasts of Lophopodella capensis (Sollas, 1908) (Bryozoa: Phylactolaemata: Lophopodidae) in the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene sediments of a montane wetland, Eastern Mau Forest, Kenya. African Invertebrates 7(1): 39-52. doi: 10.3897/afrinvertebr.57.8191. [Data available]

Onyekuru, N.A. and Marchant, R., 2016. Assessing the economic impact of climate change on forest resource use in Nigeria: A Ricardian approach. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 220, pp.10-20.

Howard, R.J., Tallontire, A.M., Stringer, L.C. and Marchant, R.A., 2016. Which “fairness”, for whom, and why? An empirical analysis of plural notions of fairness in Fairtrade Carbon Projects, using Q methodology. Environmental Science & Policy, 56, pp.100-109.

Crowther, A., Faulkner, P., Prendergast, M.E., Quintana Morales, E.M., Horton, M., Wilmsen, E., Kotarba-Morley, A.M., Christie, A., Petek, N., Tibesasa, R. and Douka, K., 2016. Coastal subsistence, maritime trade, and the colonization of small offshore islands in eastern African prehistory. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 11(2), pp.211-237.

Simon Willcock, Oliver L. Phillips, Philip J. Platts3, Ruth D. Swetnam, Andrew Balmford, Neil D. Burgess, Antje Ahrends, Julian Bayliss, Nike Doggart, Kathryn Doody, Eibleis Fanning, Jonathan M. H. Green, Jaclyn Hall, Kim L. Howell, Jon C. Lovett, Rob Marchant, Andrew R. Marshall, Boniface Mbilinyi, Pantaleon K. T. Munishi, Nisha Owen, Elmer J. Topp-Jorgensen, Simon L. Lewis, 2016. Land cover change and carbon emissions over 100 years in an African biodiversity hotspot. Global change biology.

Nielsen, J.Ø. and Gravesen, M.L., 2015. Power of knowledge under changing conditions: lessons from a Sahelian village under climate change. In Higher Education and Capacity Building in Africa (pp. 125-141). Routledge.

Lane, Paul J. (2015). Archaeology in the age of the Anthropocene: A critical assessment of its scope and societal contributions. Journal of Field Archaeology 40: 485-498, http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/2042458215Y.0000000022.

Hazard, Benoit (2015). ‘Anthropocène’ in COP 21 Déprogrammer l’apocalypse, Sous la direction de Raymond Woessner, éditions Atlande.

Hazard, Benoit (2015). ‘Scénario du changement climatique en Afrique de l’Est’, in Cop 21. Changement climatique, impact anthropique, COP 21 Déprogrammer l’apocalypse, sous la direction de Raymond Woessner, éditions Atlande.

Adongo C, Hazard B (2015). ‘La géothermie : entre développement et énergie verte en Afrique de l’Est’, in COP 21 Déprogrammer l’apocalypse, ss. dir. de Raymond Woessner, éditions Atlande.

Adongo C. 2015. Y a-t-il des énergies vertes? Le cas de la géothermie au Kenya. In: R Woessner (ed.) Déprogrammer l’apocalypse: le passe, la présentet l’avenir du climat: Les leçons pour éviter le pire. Paris.

Hoogakker, B.A.A., Smith, R.S., Singarayer, J.S., Marchant, R., Prentice, I.C., Allen, J., Anderson, R.S., Bhagwat, S.A., Behling, H., Borisova, O. and Bush, M., et al., 2015. Terrestrial biosphere changes over the last 120 kyr and their impact on ocean δ 13C. Climate of Past Discussions, 11, pp. 1031-1091.

Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Shoemaker, A.C., Githumbi, E.N., Kariuki, R., Muriuki, R.M., Rucina, S., Marchant, R. 2015. Historical ecology perspectives of changes in Amboseli, Kenya. GLP Newsletter – Newsletter of the Global Land Project, Issue 12, November 2015: pp 26-29. [Link to full issue]

Petek, N. (2015) An Archaeological Survey of the Lake Baringo Lowlands 2014: Preliminary Results, Nyame Akuma 83: 100-111 [Link to issue]

J. R. Marlon, R. Kelly, A.-L. Daniau, B. Vannière, M. J. Power, P. Bartlein, P. Higuera, O. Blarquez, S. Brewer, T. Brücher, A. Feurdean10, G. Gil-Romera, V. Iglesias, S. Y. Maezumi, B. Magi, C. J. Courtney Mustaphi, T. Zhihai. 2015. Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment charcoal records to improve data-model comparisons. Biogeosciences Discussions 12 (22). doi:10.5194/bgd-12-18571-2015, 2015

Howard RJ, Tallontire AM, Stringer L, Marchant R (2015). Unravelling the notion of “fair carbon”: key challenges for standards development. World Development 70, 343–356

Platts PJ, Omeny PA, Marchant R (2015). AFRICLIM: high-resolution climate projections for ecological applications in Africa. African Journal of Ecology 53, 103-108 | AFRICLIM 3.0,doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.1284624

Woodroffe SA, Long AJ, Punwong P, Selby K, Bryant CL, Marchant R (2015). Radiocarbon dating of mangrove sediments to constrain Holocene relative sea-level change on Zanzibar in the southwest Indian Ocean. The Holocene 25, 820-831

JA Dearing,  B Acma,  S Bub,  FM Chambers,  X Chen,  J Cooper,  D Crook,  XH Dong,  M Dotterweich,  ME Edwards,  TH Foster,  M-J Gaillard,  D Galop,  P Gell,  A Gil,  E Jeffers,  RT Jones,  K Anupama,  PG Langdon,  R Marchant,  F Mazier,  CE McLean,  LH Nunes,  R Sukumar,  I Suryaprakash,  M Umer,  XD Yang,  R Wang,  K Zhang. 2015. Social-ecological systems in the Anthropocene: the need for integrating social and biophysical records at regional scales. The Anthropocene Review Volume: 2 issue: 3, page(s): 220-246. DOI: 10.1177/2053019615579128

Kioko, E. M., Bollig, M. (2015). Cross-cutting Ties and Coexistence: Intermarriage, Land Rentals and Changing Land Use Patterns among Maasai and Kikuyu of Maiella and Enoosupukia, Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 2(1): 1, pp. 1-16, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16993/rl.ad

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Rucina, SM, Marchant, R. 2014. Training in emerging palaeoenvironmental approaches to researchers on the dynamics of East African ecosystems. Frontiers of Biogeography volume 6 issue 4, 169-172. [PDF]

Courtney Mustaphi, C.J. and Pisaric M.F.J. 2014. A classification for macroscopic charcoal morphologies found in Holocene lacustrine sediments. Progress in Physical Geography 38: 734-754.  doi:10.1177/0309133314548886 [Data link]

Anderson, DM, Rolandsen, ØH. 2014. Violence as politics in eastern Africa, 1940–1990: legacy, agency, contingency. Journal of Eastern African Studies 8, 539-557. DOI:10.1080/17531055.2014.949402

Anderson, DM. 2014. Remembering Wagalla: state violence in northern Kenya, 1962–1991. Journal of Eastern African Studies 8, 658-676. DOI:10.1080/17531055.2014.946237

Gillson, L; Marchant, R. 2014. From myopia to clarity: sharpening the focus of ecosystem management through the lens of palaeoecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 29: 317-325.
[PDF] [DOI] [+ Abstract]

•A temporal perspective is needed for the management and conservation of variable ecosystems; palaeoecology and environmental history, alongside satellite data and climate trajectories, can inform future scenario building. •Long-term data can be embedded into the adaptive management cycle. •Although there are a range of examples showing the use of palaeo-data for ecosystem management and restoration, palaeoecological databases need to be made user-friendly for conservation managers and other stakeholders. •Long-term data can be integrated into the wider socio-environmental policy arena, through linking with key concepts such as sustainability and ecosystem services. Maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing environment requires a temporal perspective that informs realistic restoration and management targets. Such targets need to be dynamic, adaptive, and responsive to changing boundary conditions. However, the application of long-term data from palaeoecology is often hindered as the management and policy implications are not made explicit, and because data sets are often not accessible or amenable to stakeholders. Focussing on this translation gap, we explore how a palaeoecological perspective can change the focus of biodiversity management and conservation policy. We embed a long-term perspective (decades to millennia) into current adaptive management and policy frameworks, with the aim of encouraging better integration between palaeoecology, conservation management, and mainstreaming viable provision of ecosystem services.

Marchant, R, Lane, P. (2014). Past perspectives for the future: foundations for sustainable development in East Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 51:12-21.

Bollig, M. 2014. Resilience – analytical tool, bridging concept or development goal? Anthropological perspectives on the use of a border object. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 139: 253-279.

 

IN PRESS:

Kioko E.M., Okumu W. (in press 2017). Appeasing the land: local peace committees and the legitimation of traditional peacemaking in Kenya. African Solutions (AfSol) Journal.

De Bont, C. 2017. Kilimo cha umwagiliaji kwa kutumia pampu na visima katika kata ya Kahe, Kilimanjaro. (Booklet for research dissemination in Tanzania, to be published August 2017)

De Bont, C. 2017. Skimu ya umwagiliaji ya Mawala. (Booklet for research dissemination in Tanzania, to be published August 2017)

Lane, P.J., IN PRESS 2017. Domesticating East African landscapes – substantive data, theoretical frameworks and roles for archaeology in sustainable development. In N. Sanz and J-P. Vielle-Calzada (eds.) The Origin and Evolution of Food Production and its Impact on Consumption Patterns. Mexico City & Paris: UNESCO.

Eriksson, O., Ekblom, A., Lane, P.J., Lennartsson, T., and Lindholm, K-J. 2017. Developing an integrative conceptual framework for historical ecology: Niche construction and landscape domestication. In C. Crumley, T. Lennartsson and A. Westin (eds.) Essays in Historical Ecology: Is There a Future without the Past? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 145-181.

 

 

Theses from the REAL Project

van der Plas G. 2020. Climatic and anthropogenic drivers of landscape change in equatorial East Africa during the last two millennia. Universiteit Gent. Faculteit Wetenschappen.

Pas Schrijver, A. 2019. Pastoralism, mobility and conservation. Shifting rules of access and control of grazing resources in Kenya’s northern drylands. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation. University of Stockholm, Sweden.

Shoemaker A. 2018. Pastoral pasts in the Amboseli landscape: An archaeological exploration of the Amboseli ecosystem from the later Holocene to the colonial period. Phd thesis. Uppsala University.

Kariuki, RW. 2018. Interactions between Climate, Vegetation and People in East African Savannas: a Kenyan Case Study through the Post-Colonial Era. PhD thesis, University of York.  Embargoed until: 31 December 2020

Petek, Nik. 2018. Archaeological Perspectives on Risk and Community Resilience in the Baringo Lowlands, Kenya. PhD dissertation, June 2018. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University,
Series: Studies in Global Archaeology 24, ISSN 1651-1255. p. 294.

de Bont, Chris. 2018. Modernisation and farmer-led irrigation development in Africa: A study of state-farmer interactions in Tanzania. PhD thesis Stockholm University, Department of Human Geography. ISBN: 978-91-7797-224-2 (print).

Gravesen, M.L. 2018. Negotiating Access to Land in a Contested Environment-Opposing Claims and Land-use Fragmentation in Western Laikipia, Kenya. University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln).

Githumbi, E.N., 2017. Holocene Environmental and Human Interactions in East Africa. Doctoral dissertation, University of York.

Chuhila, Maxmillian J. 2016. Coming Down the Mountain A History of Land Use Change in Kilimanjaro, ca. 1920 to 2000s. PhD thesis, Oct 2016. University of Warwick, UK.

Kioko, Eric M (2016) Turning conflict into coexistence: cross-cutting ties and institutions in the agro-pastoral borderlands of Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln. Online: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/7064/

 

East African ecosystems are shaped by long-term socio-ecological interactions with a dynamic climate and increasing human interventions. Whereas in the past these have often been regarded solely in a negative light, more recent research from the perspective of historical ecology has shown that there has often been a strong beneficial connection between people and ecosystems in East Africa. These relationships are now being strained by the rapidly developing and growing population, and their associated resource needs. Predicted future climatic and atmospheric change will further impact on human–ecosystem relationships culminating in a host of challenges for their management and sustainable development, compounded by a backdrop of governance, land tenure and economic constraints. Understanding how ecosystem–human interactions have changed over time and space can only be derived from combining archaeological, historical and palaeoecological data. Although crucial gaps remain, the number and resolution of these important archives from East Africa is growing rapidly, and the application of new techniques and proxies is allowing a more comprehensive understanding of past ecosystem response to climate change to be developed. When used together, it is possible to explore how human and climate change impacts become increasingly enmeshed and so assess interactions within coupled socio-ecological factors such as increased use of fire, changing herbivore densities and increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. With forecasted environmental change it is imperative that our understanding of past human–ecosystem interactions is queried from the perspective of theories of entanglement to impart effective long term conservation and land use management strategies. Such an approach, that has its foundation in the long term, will enhance possibilities for a sustainable future for East African ecosystems and maximise the livelihoods of the populations that rely on them.

Reports:

 

Liz Storer, Anna Shoemaker, Annemiek Pas Schrijver, Geert W. van der Plas, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi (eds.). 2017. Field diary. Issue 2 Mar 2017. 45pp.

Robertson A, Githumbi E and Colombaroli, D (2016) Palaeofires and models illuminate future fire scenarios, Eos, 97,  doi:10.1029/2016EO049933 Biogeosciences 97 2016 (PDF  , 2,509kb)

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ, Marchant, R. 2016. A database of radiocarbon dates for palaeoenvironmental research in eastern Africa. Open Quaternary, 2: 3, pp. 1–7. [Map and access to data] [Data at Harvard Dataverse].

Kehrwald, N.M., Aleman, J.C., Coughlan, M., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Githumbi, E.N., Magi, B.I., Marlon, J.R., Power, M.J. 2016. One thousand years of fires: integrating proxy and model data. Frontiers in Biogography 8(1): 155-159.

Petek, Nik (2015) An Archaeological Survey of the Lake Baringo Lowlands 2014: Preliminary Results, Nyame Akuma 83: 100-111.

Esther N. Githumbi, Rebecca Kariuki, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, Rebecca Muriuki, Stephen M. Rucina, Rob Marchant. 2015. Recent environmental changes in Eastern Mau and Amboseli, Kenya. BIEA 2014-2015 annual report, pp 22.

Annemiek Pas Schrijver, Geert W. van der Plas, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi (eds.). 2015. Field diary. Issue 1 Jul 2015. 17pp. [PDF]

Petek, N. (2014) The Baringo Archaeological Survey and Human Habitation Impact Assessment. Unpublished report submitted to the British Institute in Eastern African (BIEA) and the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), Kenya

Esther N. Githumbi, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, Rob Marchant. 2014. Natural and anthropogenic causes of environmental change in the Amboseli and Mau Forest regions. BIEA 2013-2014 annual report, pp 11-12.

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ; Githumbi, E; Mutua, J; Muriuki, RM; Rucina, SM; Marchant, R. 2014. Ongoing sedimentological and palaeoecological investigations at Nyabuiyabui wetland, Kiptunga Forest Block, Eastern Mau Forest, Nakuru District, Kenya. Report to the Mau Forest Conservation Office, Kenya Forest Service, and the National Museums of Kenya Palaeobotany and Palynology Section. REAL contribution 002. 4 May 2014. 29 p.
[PDF] [+ Abstract] [Hardcopy available at the IFRA library, Kileleshwa, Nairobi, Kenya]

This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands across Kenya to understand how these systems have evolved through time. We employ sedimentological and palaeoecological approaches to physically characterise the wetland basins and to gain a deeper understanding of how these wetlands have changed in response to past variability of climate and human land use practices. Multiple wetlands exist within the Mau Forests of Kenya that are ecologically and developmentally important to the region. Hydrologically, these swamps form significant surficial reservoirs of water that drain into extensive channel networks across East Africa and are an important component of the high elevation ‘water towers’ that are crucial to water management and the political imagining of nationally-important water resources. Historically, these wetlands have been key landscape features serving wildlife, livestock, and human populations with water particularly during dry periods. Few paleoenvironmental studies have been produced on the Mau Escarpment. The purpose of this study is to investigate these wetlands and examine how these ecosystems have responded to Late Quaternary climatic variability, large wildlife herbivory, and changes in human land use patterns. Continued scientific study is needed due to the diversity of wetland ecosystems across this landscape with strong environmental gradients and to analyse the varying spatial controls influencing the environmental conditions. This is especially true considering the multiple, recent, rapid and intense landscape transformations that have occurred. Some of these transformations include the industrial management of plantation forests, channelisation of wetlands, sediment infilling, road construction, increasing human populations, and conversion of forest to farmland. This document reports ongoing scientific study of the physical wetland systems and how the sites have evolved over geological time scales in response to climatic and land-use behavioural changes.

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ; Githumbi, E; Shoemaker, A; Degefa, AZ; Petek, N; van der Plas, GW; Muriuki, RM; Rucina, SM; Marchant, R. 2014. Ongoing sedimentological and palaeoecological investigations at Lielerai Kimana and Ormakau Swamps, Kajiado District, Kenya. A report to the local authorities of Kimana and Namelok, Olive Branch Mission Africa Operations, and the National Museums of Kenya Palaeobotany and Palynology Section. REAL contribution 001. 29 April, 2014. 32 p.
[PDF] [+ Abstract] [Hardcopy available at the IFRA library, Kileleshwa, Nairobi, Kenya]

This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands in Kajiado District, southern Kenya, to understand how these systems have evolved through time. We employ sedimentological and palaeoecological approaches to physically characterise the swamp basins and to gain a deeper understanding of how these swamps have changed in response to past variability of climate and human land use practices. Multiple wetlands exist upon the semi-arid landscape of southern Kenya within the boundaries of the previous extent of Amboseli Lake that are ecologically and developmentally important to the region. Hydrologically, these swamps are recharged through groundwater flows from Mt Kilimanjaro, which are sensitive to climatic change and extraction pressure by nearby populations. Historically, these wetlands have been key landscape features serving wildlife, livestock, and human populations with water particularly during droughts. The multiple stakeholders within the area have vested and often competing interests regarding how these critical ecosystems should be managed in a sustainable framework for the future of these communities. Previous studies have shown that these wetlands are sensitive to late Holocene climatic variability, large wildlife herbivory, and changes in human land use patterns. Continued scientific study is needed due to the diversity of wetland ecosystems across this landscape and varying spatial controls influencing the environmental conditions. This is especially true considering the multiple, recent, rapid and intense landscape transformations that have occurred. Some of these transformations include the creation of societal and physical enclosures around wetlands, increasing human population, land subdivisions and tenure changes, fluctuations within the conservation and tourism industry, drainage for conversion to croplands and increases in irrigated agriculture wildlife and livestock population changes in the Amboseli basin, poaching, and declining wet montane forest cover on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. This document reports ongoing scientific study of the physical wetland systems and how the sites have evolved over geological time scales in response to climatic and land-use behavioural changes.

Posters:

Petek, N. (2015) The natural heritage of human occupation: How bomas shape the environment in Baringo, Kenya. At: African Heritage Challenges: Development and Sustainability, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 15-16 May 2015 [PDF]

Petek, N. & Lane, P.(2014) Landscape and Population Resilience in the Lake Baringo Basin, Kenya, AD 800-1750 At: 14th Congress of the Pan-African Archaeological Association, University of the Witwatersrand, 14-18 July 2014 [PDF]

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ; Deere, N; Githumbi, E; Marchant, R. 2014. Fire disturbance regimes and vegetation interactions in East Africa during the Late Quaternary [updated]. South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP) – Royal Society, London, UK, October 6-7, 2014. [PDF]  [JPEG]

Courtney Mustaphi, CJ; Deere, N; Githumbi, E; Marchant, R. 2014. Fire disturbance regimes and vegetation interactions in East Africa during the Late Quaternary. Open PAGES Focus 4 Workshop Human-Climate-Ecosystem Interactions, University of Leuven, Belgium, February 3-7, 2014.
[+ Abstract]

Human use of fire on the landscape has influenced vegetation composition, biomass abundance, and biodiversity in many ecosystems worldwide. Fire activity also has implications for carbon cycling and can result in a net carbon sink or source depending on the alteration of fire regimes and vegetation changes. The major controls of fire activity over centennial to millennial scales are dynamic and are further influenced by human land use and behavioral patterns and have shaped the modern ecosystems. It is often difficult to quantify the anthropogenic influence on biomass burning because the relative importance of natural controls of fire vary over multiple spatiotemporal scales and the analysis of detailed paleoecological data and human cultural information is necessary. Land use and burning practices have changed throughout the Holocene in East Africa and over the coming months we will be synthesizing multiple palaeoecological records of vegetation and fire activity to begin to disentangle the human influences on the environment. Modern biomass burning activity and rapid vegetation changes will be quantified using moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) land cover grids (500-m resolution). Multiple records of biomass burning activity are needed to understand the natural controls on fire, such as climate, fuel types and abundance, and topography. The rise of pastoralist societies around 4000 cal yr BP represented a major shift in human impacts on vegetation, fuels, and ignition patterns. By analyzing the natural variability alongside archeological and historical data on human societies it may be possible to characterize the ecological impacts of human burning activities. Demographic changes impacted the environment variably over space and reflected the intensity of land use and the values of those societies. Synthesis of multiple records of biomass burning can be used to understand the broad-scale controls of fire activity. Comparative analysis of fire records at sites across environmental gradients provides insights into the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic controls of fire. Examination of natural and anthropogenic variability on vegetation and disturbance regimes helps us understand the evolution of human-environmental interactions and the processes that have led to the present landscapes. This information is critical to developing sustainable trajectories for land management policy and conservation efforts crucial to the future of East African landscapes experiencing development pressure and rapid climate change.

Githumbi, E; Courtney Mustaphi, CJ; Deere, N; Marchant, R. 2014. Long Term Ecosystem and Landscape Dynamics in East Africa. University of York Environment Department Post Graduate Conference. York, UK. February, 20-21, 2014.

Laboratory Protocols:

available here.

Publications by author:

  • Colin Courtney Mustaphi
  • Robert Marchant
  • Nik Petek
  • Annemiek Pas

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REAL is a Marie Curie Actions InnovativeTraining Network (ITN), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.

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Coordinating partner

Prof. Paul Lane
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,
Uppsala University, and
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

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