ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6034-5807
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13232
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16112
Abstract: Rainforests are the Earth's largest terrestrial carbon sinks and are rapidly shrinking due to unprecedented human impact, especially tropical rainforests, which host ~50% of global bio ersity. Understanding what makes rainforests resilient on a long-term basis is key to preserving global rainforests and their ecological services. Here, using estimates of rates of change (RoC) in fossil pollen records, an indicator for temporal compositional change (turnover) in vegetation, we show that accelerating trends in global rainforest changes (increasing RoC/turnover) during the last 12,000 years were mainly driven by intensive agricultural practices, and the highly erse and productive tropical rainforests were the most impacted. Management/conservation strategies aimed at the effective management of human impact will help promote rainforest health and ersity and increase resilience under projected climate change.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-09-2023
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-07-2021
DOI: 10.1177/09596836211033198
Abstract: Understanding long-term (centennial–millennial scale) ecosystem stability and dynamics are key to sustainable management and conservation of ecosystem processes under the currently changing climate. Fossil pollen records offer the possibility to investigate long-term changes in vegetation composition and ersity on regional and continental scales. Such studies have been conducted in temperate systems, but are underrepresented in the tropics, especially in Africa. This study attempts to synthesize pollen records from Nigeria (tropical western Africa) and nearby regions to quantitatively assess Holocene regional vegetation changes (turnover) and stability under different climatic regimes for the first time. We use the squared chord distance metric (SCD) to assess centennial-scale vegetation turnover in pollen records. Results suggest vegetation in most parts of Nigeria experienced low turnover under a wetter climatic regime (African Humid Period), especially between ~8000 and 5000 cal year BP. In contrast, vegetation turnover increased significantly under the drier climatic regime of the late-Holocene (between ~5000 cal year BP and present), reflecting the imp role of moisture changes in tropical west African vegetation dynamics during the Holocene. Our results are consistent with records of vegetation and climatic changes in other parts of Africa, suggesting the Holocene pattern of vegetation change in Nigeria is a reflection of continental-scale climatic changes.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-08-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14255
Abstract: The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains an enigmatic period in southeast Australia due to the limited spatial and temporal resolution of its palaeoclimatic records. A major feature of the LGM landscape was the existence of the Bassian Land Bridge, joining Tasmania with the mainland of Australia during periods of low sea level, and potentially facilitating increased biotic movement between these regions. To better understand biogeographical changes on the land bridge and in southeast Australia generally during the LGM, we present a 35 ka‐year palaeoecological record from one of the larger islands of Bass Strait. Bass Strait, southeast Australia. Eucalyptus , Poaceae, Monotoca , Myriophyllum , Zygnemataceae, Botryococcus , Pediastrum . Pollen, charcoal, and non‐pollen palynomorphs were analysed in a 1.75‐m sediment core from truwana/Cape Barren Island, Bass Strait, to reconstruct changes in vegetation, fire regimes and lake levels on the Bassian Land Bridge. Results were then compared to existing palaeoenvironmental studies in the region to develop a broader context of the prevailing land bridge environment and the potential influence on biotic dispersals in Australia during the last glacial period. Results suggest a major vegetation shift on the Bassian Land Bridge in response to the establishment of the LGM climate, with grassland expansion at the expense of woodland from ~29–11 ka. Floristic richness, biomass burned and lake levels also markedly decreased through this period, with the driest interval being ~25–18 ka. Dryland herbaceous taxa dispersed between the mainland and Tasmania when the landbridge was fully exposed. In agreement with previous studies, our results show that the dry grassland that dominated southeast Australia (and Southern Hemisphere mid‐latitude areas) during the LGM also extended across the Bassian Land Bridge. The prevailing environment on the land bridge is likely to have exerted a selective influence on biotic dispersals in Australia during glacial periods.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14057
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-11-2021
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-03-2021
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE4020017
Abstract: Indigenous land use and climate have shaped fire regimes in southeast Australia during the Holocene, although their relative influence remains unclear. The archaeologically attested mid-Holocene decline in land-use intensity on the Furneaux Group islands (FGI) relative to mainland Tasmanian and SE Australia presents a natural experiment to identify the roles of climate and anthropogenic land use. We reconstruct two key facets of regional fire regimes, biomass (vegetation) burned (BB) and recurrence rate of fire episodes (RRFE), by using total charcoal influx and charcoal peaks in palaeoecological records, respectively. Our results suggest climate-driven biomass accumulation and dryness-controlled BB across southeast Australia during the Holocene. Insights from the FGI suggest people elevated the recurrence rate of fire episodes through frequent cultural burning during the early Holocene and reduction in recurrent Indigenous cultural burning during the mid–late Holocene led to increases in BB. These results provide long-term evidence of the effectiveness of Indigenous cultural burning in reducing biomass burned and may be effective in stabilizing fire regimes in flammable landscapes in the future.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13518
Abstract: Owing to its erse bioclimatic zones, long human history and intense anthropogenic impacts, Africa provides a model system for studying how global terrestrial ecosystems might respond to accelerated socio‐environmental stress. Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change and human impact, and insufficient baseline data h er current environmental management efforts. Using palaeoecological data, we seek to identify the timing, pace and drivers of change in African biomes on a long‐term scale to inform current ecosystem management frameworks on the continent. Africa. 0–12 ka. African biomes. Sixty‐four pollen records across Africa and nearby sites were retrieved from multiple databases/sources and grouped into biomes. Turnover (quantified using the squared chord distance dissimilarity metric) and rarefaction analyses were conducted on pollen records in each biome group to reconstruct regional temporal vegetation turnover and richness. Reconstructed vegetation turnover and richness were compared with independent records of climate, fire and human activity to identify possible drivers of change. We found that the most stable biomes were those with the greatest floristic richness. Southern Africa's mediterranean‐type (SAM) ecosystems were the most stable and northern Africa's mediterranean‐type (NAM) ecosystems were the most unstable (mainly owing to fire). Tropical savannas (TS) and SAM ecosystems expressed the most sensitivity to climatic shifts from ≥6 ka, whereas tropical forests (TF) were relatively stable before human activities intensified from c . 2 ka. Floristic richness also declined across the tropics from c . 2 ka. Our analysis pinpoints NAM ecosystems as undergoing the fastest acceleration in turnover on the continent in response to fire, whereas TF and TS have been undergoing unprecedented changes in bio ersity in the last 2,000 years. We expect further changes in bio ersity where climate becomes warmer and drier and where human impacts are novel and rapid in comparison to long‐term baselines.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-01-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-09-2021
DOI: 10.1177/20530196211044630
Abstract: The rapid increase in severe wildfires in many parts of the world, especially in temperate systems, requires urgent attention to reduce fires’ catastrophic impacts on human lives, livelihoods, health and economy. Of particular concern is southeast Australia, which harbours one of the most flammable vegetation types on Earth. While previous studies suggest climate and European activities drove changes in southeast Australian fire regimes in the last 200 years, no study has quantitatively tested the relative roles of these drivers. Here, we use a Generalized Linear Modelling to identify the major driver(s) of fire regime change in the southeast Australian mainland during and prior to European colonization. We use multiple charcoal and pollen records across the region and quantitatively compare fire history to records of climate and vegetation change. Results show low levels of biomass burned before colonization, when landscapes where under Indigenous management, even under variable climates. Biomass burned increased markedly due to vegetation/land-use change after colonization and a major decline in regional precipitation about 100 years later. We conclude that Indigenous-maintained open vegetation minimized the amount of biomass burned prior to colonization, while European-suppression of Indigenous land management has lified biomass accumulation and fuel connectivity in southeast Australian forests since colonization. While climate change remains a major challenge for fire mitigation, implementation of a management approach similar to the pre-colonial period is suggested to ameliorate the risk of future catastrophic fires in the region.
No related grants have been discovered for Matthew Adeleye.