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Historical climate‐human‐ecosystem interaction in East Africa: a review
Author(s) -
Gelorini Vanessa,
Verschuren Dirk
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
african journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.499
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1365-2028
pISSN - 0141-6707
DOI - 10.1111/aje.12045
Subject(s) - ecosystem , climate change , resilience (materials science) , geography , natural (archaeology) , psychological resilience , ecosystem management , environmental resource management , ecology , environmental science , biology , psychology , physics , archaeology , psychotherapist , thermodynamics
Abstract The palaeoecological visibility of historical human impact on natural ecosystems in tropical E ast A frica is strongly impeded by an overriding dominant signature of climate change at decadal‐to‐millennial time scales. Better knowledge of the relative magnitude and timing of present and past human impact and climate variability is, however, instrumental to properly assess the resilience, and recovery potential, of E ast A frica's natural ecosystems. Here, we briefly review comprehensive previous attempts to assess past ecosystem responses to climate change and human impact. We further discuss some key issues of climate‐human‐ecosystem relationships in a multidisciplinary framework and address some future challenges and outcomes, which may pave the way to a better understanding of past climate‐human‐ecosystem interaction‐ in tropical A frica.