Prehistoric Charcoals as Evidence of Former Vegetation, Soil and Climate

Godwin, H.; Tansley, A. G.

doi:10.2307/2256222

Cited by 52 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Godwin and Tansley (1941) were highly critical of Salisbury and Jane's (1940) analysis from Maiden Castle in Dorset. Salisbury and Jane (1940) had used the Maiden Castle charcoal assemblage to produce a proportional reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment.…”

Section: Palaeoenvironmental Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Salisbury and Jane (1940) had used the Maiden Castle charcoal assemblage to produce a proportional reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment. Godwin and Tansley (1941) questioned the accuracy of this approach. The core of this debate was whether the observed frequencies in the charcoal assemblage accurately reflected the actual proportions in the past environment (Asouti and Austin 2005:1).…”

Section: Palaeoenvironmental Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regime change: an anthracological assessment of fuel selection and management at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II), Mirarr country, Australia

Carah¹

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Australian anthracology is an informative yet under-developed field despite the fact that it can reveal valuable information about fuel wood selection, anthropogenic woodland management, and the palaeoenvironment. Fuel wood selection and management is assessed through the application of anthracology (wood charcoal analysis) at the rock shelter site of Madjedbebe, Mirarr country, Northern Territory, Australia. Madjedbebe provides a sequence of fourteen hearths unrivalled in Australian anthracology for their number and temporal span (240-7 years cal BP -c.55,000). These hearth charcoals are identified using a bespoke collection of reference woods constructed for this study. Each of the hearths is sampled to 200 fragments of charcoal or 100% of the available charcoal fragments. The Madjedbebe hearths are used to assess hypothesised fuel wood selection strategies including 1) the principle of least effort, 2) localised preferential selection, and 3) non-local selection. This investigation finds fuel wood selection remained locally focused over the past 20,000 years. The inhabitants of Madjedbebe consistently targeted two vegetation communities, openEucalypt woodland and monsoon vine forest for their fuel wood, with minor contributions from a third -Grevillea/Banksia shrubland. There is a clear diachronic change in the taxonomic composition of the hearths from Acacia sp. dominance to increased taxon richness. This shift does not align with any major shifts in climate or woodland composition and is probably due to a change in anthropogenic selection preferences.In addition to assessing fuel wood selection strategies the Madjedbebe charcoal assemblage also allows for the provenance of 'matrix charcoal' (charcoal found in the sedimentary matrix of the site, outside of a defined context) to be determined to some degree. The provenance and therefore interpretative value of matrix charcoal has until now remained uncertain.

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Section: Palaeoenvironmental Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Palaeoenvironmental Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regime change: an anthracological assessment of fuel selection and management at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II), Mirarr country, Australia

Carah¹

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“…Az eredményeiket Harry Godwin és Sir Arthur Tansley a cikkre adott válaszukban megkérdőjelezték. A fajok elérhetősége szempontjából az ökológiai változókra (növénytársulások szerkezete és faj fiziológia) és a kulturális paraméterekre (szelekció) hívták fel a figyelmet, valamint hangsúlyozták az egyes fajok égésre adott eltérő reakcióját is (Godwin-Tansley, 1941). Annak ellenére, hogy ezt a vitát 60 évvel ezelőtt indították el a régészeti szenült famaradványok vegetáció rekonstrukcióra való alkalmasságáról, bizonyos fokig még ma is tart és megosztja a kutatókat.…”

Section: A Faanatómia éS Szenült Famaradvány Határozás Tudománytörténunclassified

“…A legjelentősebb probléma a fajok relatív gyakoriságának értelmezésére vonatkozik, miszerint a régészeti szenült faállomány fajgyakorisága a múltbeli természetes arányukat tükrözi-e vissza (Salisbury-Jane, 1940;Godwin-Tansley, 1941 (Chabal, 1988), melyben azt állítja, hogy a faszenek, függetlenül a taxonális hovatartozástól töredezni fognak, vagyis a töredezettség nem fajra, fafajtára vonatkozó tulajdonság, mert valamennyi szenült famaradvány kisebb és nagyobb számú töredékre fog szétesni. A tömegcsökkenés és a töredezés két különböző folyamat, ezért a szenült faanyag tömege (súlya) és a fragmentumok száma (db) korrelálható, és pozitív lineáris korreláció van a kettő között.…”

Section: A Szenült Faanyag Határozás éS Az Adatok Kiértékelésének Prounclassified

Régészeti lelőhelyek szenült faanyagának határozása és értékelése a geoarcheológiai kutatásokban

Náfrádi¹

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“…Macro charcoal analysis is not without its limitations, as for example charcoal fragments are derived from wood that has undergone incomplete combustion, and any successive fires are likely to have burnt charcoal deposits in the soil, thus removing records of previous fire events at the local scale (Waito et al 2015) Fire intensity will also have potential effects of differential wood combustion on the different taxon (Godwin and Tansley 1941).…”

Section: Background and Gaps In Present State On Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Stewart¹

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The focus of the study is to investigate regional and local past, present and future changes in fire regimes of tropical and subtropical Queensland and shifts in vegetation composition and structure. Fire has been shown to be a significant driver of ecosystem evolution, composition and distribution through its impact on biota. Within Australia fire has long played a role in shaping the landscape, with increased fire frequency, associated with heightened aridity, over the last five million years promoting the expansion of fire adapted sclerophyll vegetation across the continent. Evidence of anthropogenic fires date back to approximately 50 ka (thousand years ago) with the advent of Aboriginal occupation and fire-stick practices, however with the arrival of Europeans there was a decline in fire frequencies, related to fire exclusion that observes an increase in fire intensity and severity.A review of the introduction of tropical African perennial grasses to improve grazing in tropical and semi-arid regions of northern Australia was also undertaken. This introduction has resulted in some exotic grass species such as Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), Mission grass (Cenchrus polystachios syn. Pennisetum polystachion) and Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus syn. Panicum maximum Jacq. var. trichoglume) becoming invasive pests. Invasion by these exotic grasses has serious implications for ecosystem function, altering fire regime dynamics through increasing the distribution and abundance of fine fuels. With increased fine fuels there is a serious danger that there will be an increase in fire frequency and intensity resulting in higher severity burns and higher vegetation mortality, with possible local species extinctions and habitat modification or change.Macro charcoal and pollen records were used from Fraser Island, subtropical eastern Australia to identify fire and vegetation histories, which show substantial temporal and spatial changes in past fire frequencies and vegetation composition for the last 24,000 years. Pollen records show pyrophobic rainforest taxa dominated and then declined while pyrogenic sclerophyll arboreal taxa increased correlating with an increase in fire frequencies, and a dryer climate. This was followed by a dramatic increase in Restionaceae values at the beginning of the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) that dropped off as a marked peak in mangroves, primarily the Rhizophoraceae and Melaleuca iii occurred, possibly linked with sea level rise approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago, which was also associated with lower fire frequencies. Restionaceae then recovered from around 2 ka to the European settlement period, when a dramatic change in fire frequency occurred linked to fire suppression and was followed by vegetation thickening (i.e. increase in arboreal taxa) in the mid to late 20 th century. Identifying past and present fire regimes and vegetation composition are important for fire modelling as this provides possible scenario based probabilities for changes in fire frequency and intensity....

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Prehistoric Charcoals as Evidence of Former Vegetation, Soil and Climate

Cited by 52 publications

References 4 publications

Regime change: an anthracological assessment of fuel selection and management at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II), Mirarr country, Australia

Regime change: an anthracological assessment of fuel selection and management at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II), Mirarr country, Australia

Régészeti lelőhelyek szenült faanyagának határozása és értékelése a geoarcheológiai kutatásokban

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

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