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  1. Book ; Online ; E-Book: East Africa's human environment interactions

    Marchant, Rob

    historical perspectives for a sustainable future

    2021  

    Abstract: East Africa is characterised by extreme social and environmental contrasts that has undergone transformative changes over the past 300,000 years - the era of modern humans. People have left increasingly deep and pervasive footprints across the region, ... ...

    Author's details Rob Marchant
    Abstract East Africa is characterised by extreme social and environmental contrasts that has undergone transformative changes over the past 300,000 years - the era of modern humans. People have left increasingly deep and pervasive footprints across the region, resulting in the anthropogenically crafted landscape of the present. The book shows how understanding contemporary issues, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, conservation, agricultural development, and achieving the sustainable development agenda, all require an appreciation of the past. The volume explore these interactions from the origins of human species with a particular focus on the last 500 years the Anthropocene. As trade, particularly of ivory, maize, and munitions, expanded with the Asia, Europe and the Americas this shaped many of the current issues in East Africa’s society, economy, and environment. These trade links paved the way for the colonial era that started at an atypical moment in East African environmental history. The colonial impacts on society, ecosystems, Protected Areas, biodiversity conservation, and the ensuing legacy through the independent states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are explored. Given this rich, diverse, and connected past, what the future will be like for East African societies, ecosystems, and landscapes under climate change, high population growth, and rapid development? Rob Marchant is Professor of Tropical of Ecology at the University of York, UK. Much of his research is focused on East Africa, where over the past thirty years of working in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania he has developed close collaborations with the numerous University, NGO, UN and Governmental institutions that, alongside multiple conversations with individuals, have profoundly influenced and shaped the perspectives presented here. The interplay between the climate, ecosystems, cultures, livelihoods, and land uses are explore to document how the massive challenges facing the region have been created, are being addressed and future opportunities maximized.
    Keywords Environmental sciences/Social aspects ; Human ecology/Study and teaching ; Environmental geography ; Environmental management ; Human ecology/History ; Africa
    Subject code 363.70096
    Language English
    Size 1 online resource (441 pages)
    Edition 1st ed. 2021.
    Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
    Publishing place Cham
    Document type Book ; Online ; E-Book
    Remark Zugriff für angemeldete ZB MED-Nutzerinnen und -Nutzer
    ISBN 978-3-030-88987-6 ; 3-030-88987-4 ; 9783030889869 ; 9783030889883 ; 9783030889890 ; 3030889866 ; 3030889882 ; 3030889890
    DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-88987-6
    Database ZB MED Catalogue: Medicine, Health, Nutrition, Environment, Agriculture

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  2. Book ; Online: Mountains under Pressure

    Marchant, Rob / Cuni-Sanchez, Aida

    2023  

    Keywords Research & information: general ; Geography ; environmental perceptions ; land function ; rural space ; karst mountain area ; Mediterranean ; Montenegro ; mountain ; katun ; traditional architecture ; vernacular heritage ; transhumance ; extensive cattle rearing ; ecological indices ; land abandonment ; land management ; meadows ; mountain agroecosystems ; mowing tolerance ; mountain vegetation ; pastures ; spreadsheet ; fractal characteristics ; natural geographical features ; water-facing distribution ; suitable space ; rural mountain settlements ; population ; population trends ; urbanisation ; sustainable development ; deforestation ; shifting cultivation ; traditional fallow ; swiddens ; land-use change ; spatial effects ; small-scale context ; socio-economic drivers ; policy assessment ; CAP ; policy trade-offs ; mitigation policies ; gully agricultural production transformation ; rural development ; sustainable land use ; geographically and temporally weighted regression ; gully land consolidation ; farmer ; Chagga ; gender ; East Africa ; local knowledge ; Kilimanjaro ; Hehe ; Udzungwa ; wealth groups ; alpine and montane ecosystems ; austral perspective ; environmental sustainability ; global change ; long-term research ; mountain observatories ; multi-disciplinary research ; social context ; socio-ecological coupling ; Southern Africa ; model complexity ; model validation ; Landsat ; satellite data ; species distribution models ; connectivity ; fragmentation ; Maxent ; functional traits ; environmental drivers ; mycorrhizas ; fourth corner ; RLQ ; Andean forests ; alpine ; mountains ; climate change ; experimental manipulations ; PRISMA ; precipitation ; drought ; vegetation ; New Zealand ; hill country ; poplar ; kānuka ; agroforestry ; silvopasture ; soil conservation ; erosion ; ecosystem services ; alien species ; biological invasions ; citizen science ; elevation ; species abundance ; tree invasions ; woody plant encroachment ; adaptation strategies ; ethnicity ; farmers ; Itombwe Mountains ; perceptions ; wealth group ; n/a
    Language English
    Size 1 electronic resource (334 pages)
    Publisher MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
    Document type Book ; Online
    Note English
    HBZ-ID HT030381153
    ISBN 9783036581750 ; 3036581758
    Database ZB MED Catalogue: Medicine, Health, Nutrition, Environment, Agriculture

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  3. Article ; Online: Documenting a thousand years of environmental and anthropogenic changes on mangroves on the Bangkok coast, the upper Gulf of Thailand

    Punwong, Paramita / Promplin, Sureeporn / Lomchantrasilp, Charinee / Soonthornampaipong, Pornuma / Englong, Apichaya / Marchant, Rob / Selby, Katherine / Chirawatkul, Prae

    Veget Hist Archaeobot. 2023 Jan., v. 32, no. 1 p.17-34

    2023  

    Abstract: Environmental changes and human activities in a mangrove ecosystem in Bang Khun Thian, south of Bangkok, the upper Gulf of Thailand were reconstructed through the analyses of pollen, charcoal, organic carbon, carbonate, particle size, heavy metals and ... ...

    Abstract Environmental changes and human activities in a mangrove ecosystem in Bang Khun Thian, south of Bangkok, the upper Gulf of Thailand were reconstructed through the analyses of pollen, charcoal, organic carbon, carbonate, particle size, heavy metals and radiocarbon dating. The results showed that fluctuating sea levels supported mangrove establishment since at least AD 840. From AD 840 to 1240, a delta progradation from the Lower Chao Phraya river was recorded with associated dry conditions. A short period characterized by wetter conditions was recorded from AD 1050–1240. After AD 1240, mangroves were gradually replaced by terrestrial grasses indicative of a period of sea-level fall with relatively drier conditions. There was extension of the intertidal shoreline of Bang Khun Thian farther south allowing open grassland and wetland to form as a young deltaic plain until around AD 1660. During this period, intense agricultural practices, particularly paddy and orchards, expanded in the Lower Chao Phraya delta during this marine regression. From AD 1660, an upper intertidal habitat was gradually re-established, characterised by the presence of back mangroves that possibly result from sea-level rise in the last 300 years. The pollen and heavy metal data also track increasingly intensive human activities such as agriculture, aquaculture, urbanisation and industrial activity in the catchment during the last century.
    Keywords aquaculture ; carbon radioisotopes ; carbonates ; charcoal ; coasts ; grasslands ; habitats ; heavy metals ; humans ; littoral zone ; mangrove ecosystems ; organic carbon ; paddies ; particle size ; pollen ; river deltas ; rivers ; sea level ; shorelines ; urbanization ; watersheds ; wetlands ; Thailand
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2023-01
    Size p. 17-34.
    Publishing place Springer Berlin Heidelberg
    Document type Article ; Online
    ZDB-ID 1481434-1
    ISSN 1617-6278 ; 0939-6314
    ISSN (online) 1617-6278
    ISSN 0939-6314
    DOI 10.1007/s00334-022-00876-z
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  4. Article: Late Holocene environmental change and anthropogenic: Ecosystem interaction on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya

    Muiruri, Veronica / Marchant, Rob / Rucina, Stephen M. / Scott, Louis / Lane, Paul J.

    Ambio. 2022 Mar., v. 51, no. 3

    2022  

    Abstract: East African ecosystems have been shaped by long-term socio-ecological–environmental interactions. Although much previous work on human–environment interrelationships have emphasised the negative impacts of human interventions, a growing body of work ... ...

    Abstract East African ecosystems have been shaped by long-term socio-ecological–environmental interactions. Although much previous work on human–environment interrelationships have emphasised the negative impacts of human interventions, a growing body of work shows that there have also often been strong beneficial connections between people and ecosystems, especially in savanna environments. However, limited information and understanding of past interactions between humans and ecosystems of periods longer than a century hampers effective management of contemporary environments. Here, we present a late Holocene study of pollen, fern spore, fungal spore, and charcoal analyses from radiocarbon-dated sediment sequences and assess this record against archaeological and historical data to describe socio-ecological changes on the Laikipia Plateau in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The results suggest a landscape characterised by closed forests between 2268 years before present (cal year BP) and 1615 cal year BP when there was a significant change to a more open woodland/grassland mosaic that continues to prevail across the study area. Increased amounts of charcoal in the sediment are observed for this same period, becoming particularly common from around 900 cal year BP associated with fungal spores commonly linked to the presence of herbivores. It is likely these trends reflect changes in land use management as pastoral populations improved and extended pasture, using fire to eradicate disease-prone habitats. Implications for contemporary land use management are discussed in the light of these findings.
    Keywords Holocene epoch ; archaeology ; charcoal ; ecosystems ; fern spores ; fungal spores ; fungi ; grasslands ; humans ; land use planning ; landscapes ; pastoralism ; pastures ; people ; pollen ; savannas ; sediments ; woodlands ; Kenya
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-03
    Size p. 785-798.
    Publishing place Springer Netherlands
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 120759-3
    ISSN 1654-7209 ; 0044-7447
    ISSN (online) 1654-7209
    ISSN 0044-7447
    DOI 10.1007/s13280-021-01554-6
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  5. Article: Climate change and hunter-gatherers in montane eastern DR Congo

    Batumike, Rodrigue / Bulonvu, Franklin / Imani, Gérard / Akonkwa, Desiré / Gahigi, Aimable / Klein, Julia A. / Marchant, Rob / Cuni-Sanchez, Aida

    Climate and development. 2022 May 28, v. 14, no. 5

    2022  

    Abstract: Mountain environments experience more rapid changes in temperature than lower elevations. However, little is known about the climatic changes already observed in African mountains, or the adaptation strategies used by hunter-gatherer communities. Semi- ... ...

    Abstract Mountain environments experience more rapid changes in temperature than lower elevations. However, little is known about the climatic changes already observed in African mountains, or the adaptation strategies used by hunter-gatherer communities. Semi-structured interviews were administered to 100 Twa hunter-gatherers living around Mt Kahuzi in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). We also organized 10 focus-group discussions with Tembo farmers living in the same area and we gathered historical data from Kamembe meteorological station. Twa respondents perceived reduced rainfall and fog, and increased temperatures. They also reported several impacts including reduced crop yields and abundance of forest products (caterpillars, mushrooms, honey). Tembo perceptions of climatic changes and impacts agreed with the Twa. Meteorological data available shows reduced rainfall and increased temperatures – but there are no records on fog. Despite being aware of climatic changes and impacts, Twa are not using any adaptation strategy, while Tembo farmers are using some (as they own land for farming or animal rearing, and are more business minded). For the Twa, their socioeconomic condition create high sensitivity to climate change and constrain adaptive capacity. For the Twa, we recommend the use of ‘science with society’ (SWS) participatory approach.
    Keywords animals ; climate ; climate change ; forests ; honey ; meteorological data ; rain ; temperature ; Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2022-0528
    Size p. 431-442.
    Publishing place Taylor & Francis
    Document type Article
    ISSN 1756-5537
    DOI 10.1080/17565529.2021.1930987
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  6. Article: Freshwater swamp forest use in the Niger Delta: perception and insights

    Igu, Nwabueze I / Marchant, Rob

    Journal of forest research. 2017 Jan. 2, v. 22, no. 1

    2017  

    Abstract: Forest ecosystems are increasingly seen as vital resources and elements for the sustenance of households across the African continent. However, the dynamics surrounding the forest use and consequent degradation are poorly understood across the different ... ...

    Abstract Forest ecosystems are increasingly seen as vital resources and elements for the sustenance of households across the African continent. However, the dynamics surrounding the forest use and consequent degradation are poorly understood across the different forest ecosystems in the Niger Delta region and Africa as a whole. These relationships still remain a challenge to the management and sustainable use of the Freshwater swamp forest in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. This study presents an examination of the determinants and socioecological processes of forest use from 243 household surveys within 12 communities across the Niger Delta region. The results showed that the communities derived a major part of their sustenance from the forests and used the forests mainly for provisioning services. Since the households and communities varied in their socioeconomic statuses, levels of remoteness, availability of alternative sources of livelihood, they were found to vary at the landscape level in their degrees of dependence on the forests and consequently, their patterns of degradation.
    Keywords forests ; freshwater ; landscapes ; livelihood ; research ; river deltas ; swamps ; Nigeria
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2017-0102
    Size p. 44-52.
    Publishing place Taylor & Francis
    Document type Article
    Note NAL-AP-2-clean
    ZDB-ID 2104467-3
    ISSN 1610-7403 ; 1341-6979
    ISSN (online) 1610-7403
    ISSN 1341-6979
    DOI 10.1080/13416979.2017.1280887
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  7. Article: Assessing the impacts of land use and climate interactions on beekeeping livelihoods in the Taita Hills, Kenya

    Newman, Rebecca Jo Stormes / Marchant, Rob / Enns, Charis / Capitani, Claudia

    Development in practice. 2021 May 19, v. 31, no. 4

    2021  

    Abstract: Beekeeping is commonly adopted as an additional livelihood activity that can help smallholder farmers diversify and enhance their livelihoods. However, it is unclear whether it is resilient to environmental shocks and stresses. This article investigates ... ...

    Abstract Beekeeping is commonly adopted as an additional livelihood activity that can help smallholder farmers diversify and enhance their livelihoods. However, it is unclear whether it is resilient to environmental shocks and stresses. This article investigates beekeepers’ experiences and perceptions about challenges to beekeeping in the Taita Hills Mountains, Kenya. Key findings demonstrated that beekeeping has the capacity to substantially increase household income, but there are several challenges which affect beekeeping’s sustainability considering predictions around climate and land use change. Bee population decline due to pesticide use was seen as a major challenge across the altitudinal range. In the highland areas deforestation, land use conflicts and cold weather were key issues; whereas in the lowlands water availability and the associated impacts on floral availability were the primary concerns of beekeepers.
    Keywords altitude ; apiculture ; bees ; climate ; cold ; deforestation ; household income ; land use change ; livelihood ; pesticides ; population dynamics ; weather ; Kenya
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2021-0519
    Size p. 446-461.
    Publishing place Routledge
    Document type Article
    Note NAL-AP-2-clean
    ZDB-ID 1484991-4
    ISSN 1364-9213 ; 0961-4524
    ISSN (online) 1364-9213
    ISSN 0961-4524
    DOI 10.1080/09614524.2020.1854689
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  8. Article: A palaeovegetation and diatom record of tropical montane forest fire, vegetation and hydroseral changes on Mount Kenya from 27,000–16,500 cal yr BP

    Courtney Mustaphi, Colin J. / Rucina, Stephen M. / King, Lydia / Selby, Katherine / Marchant, Rob

    Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology. 2021 Nov. 01, v. 581

    2021  

    Abstract: Fire is an important ecological disturbance in moist tropical forests influencing vegetation composition and structure. Contemporary and historical records of forest fires in mountain forests of Kenya are limited to the past decades and have a strong ... ...

    Abstract Fire is an important ecological disturbance in moist tropical forests influencing vegetation composition and structure. Contemporary and historical records of forest fires in mountain forests of Kenya are limited to the past decades and have a strong anthropogenic influence for ignition patterns and fire suppression activities. Palaeoenvironmental geoarchives provide the temporal depth to investigate long-term (multidecadal-to-millennial) changes in fire activity. Here we use a sediment record from the Rumuiku wetland, located in a volcanic crater on the eastern flank of Mount Kenya that was radiocarbon dated and analysed for diatom, pollen and charcoal subfossils to produce a highly resolved time series of local hydroclimatic change, vegetation, and fire; respectively. This study focuses on the time during and following the global Last Glacial Maximum, a time of rapid warming and changing regional hydroclimate with relatively stable atmospheric CO₂ and not yet intensive anthropogenic modification of ecosystems. Charcoal and pollen data support associated changes in vegetation-fire centred around 21,500 cal yr BP when Afromontane forests with predominant abundances of Juniperus, Podocarpus and other montane forest trees changed to Hagenia-dominated forests that are relatively more open and adapted to burn more frequently but with less intense fires.These transitions in ecosystem composition, distribution and structure support the important role of fire in driving and maintaining forest composition in the watershed and contributing to the spatial complexity of forests around the mountain. These changes in composition, structure and biomass occurred during a time of rapid Late Pleistocene climate warming, regional hydroclimatic drying, and slowly rising atmospheric CO₂ from 27,000 to 16,500 cal yr BP, during and following the conditions of the global Last Glacial Maximum. Temperature, hydroclimate and atmospheric CO₂ are well-known drivers of montane vegetation change in the tropics and the role of fire is shown here to be a contributing driver to the spatial heterogeneity of forest patches at long time scales. Vegetation modelling at spatial scales relevant to land management and conservation should include retrospective evidence of the range of drivers of ecological disturbance regimes.
    Keywords Bacillariophyceae ; Juniperus ; Pleistocene epoch ; Podocarpus ; anthropogenic activities ; biomass ; botanical composition ; carbon dioxide ; carbon radioisotopes ; charcoal ; ecological imbalance ; ecosystems ; fire suppression ; forest fires ; land management ; montane forests ; palaeogeography ; paleoclimatology ; paleoecology ; pollen ; sediments ; spatial variation ; temperature ; time series analysis ; watersheds ; wetlands ; Kenya
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2021-1101
    Publishing place Elsevier B.V.
    Document type Article
    ZDB-ID 417718-6
    ISSN 0031-0182
    ISSN 0031-0182
    DOI 10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110625
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  9. Article: Aboveground carbon storage in a freshwater swamp forest ecosystem in the Niger Delta

    Igu, Nwabueze I / Marchant, Rob

    Carbon management. 2016 July 3, v. 7, no. 3-4

    2016  

    Abstract: Tropical forests are important stores of carbon but the contribution of freshwater swamp forests to this store is largely unquantified. This study provides detail on the aboveground carbon (AGC) store of freshwater swamp forests and the transition zones ... ...

    Abstract Tropical forests are important stores of carbon but the contribution of freshwater swamp forests to this store is largely unquantified. This study provides detail on the aboveground carbon (AGC) store of freshwater swamp forests and the transition zones into mangrove forests in the Niger Delta. We present taxonomic data of tree stems ≥ 10 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) from 24 1-ha plots established across different disturbance gradients and transition zone and terrestrial forest. The AGC ranged widely around a mean value of 228 t/ha (bootstrapped 95% confidence interval (CI) 168, 288) in intact forests, to 104 t/ha (bootstrapped 95% CI: 64, 144) in disturbed freshwater forests and 100 t/ha (bootstrapped 95% CI: 60, 141) in forests transitional into mangrove characterized by decreased disturbance. Our study suggests that the variations in AGC of West African swamp forests are mainly a function of the differences in stand structure and stem sizes of the trees in each forest that relate largely to historical use and current management of the forest resources. Conserving disturbed forests alongside other intact forests will help to increase not only the carbon budget of the region but also its diverse biodiversity and other ecosystem services.
    Keywords administrative management ; biodiversity ; carbon ; carbon sequestration ; confidence interval ; forest ecosystems ; freshwater ; global carbon budget ; river deltas ; stand structure ; swamps ; tree and stand measurements ; trees
    Language English
    Dates of publication 2016-0703
    Size p. 137-148.
    Publishing place Taylor & Francis
    Document type Article
    Note NAL-AP-2-clean
    ZDB-ID 2590249-0
    ISSN 1758-3012 ; 1758-3004
    ISSN (online) 1758-3012
    ISSN 1758-3004
    DOI 10.1080/17583004.2016.1165355
    Database NAL-Catalogue (AGRICOLA)

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  10. Article ; Online: Late Holocene environmental change and anthropogenic: Ecosystem interaction on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya.

    Muiruri, Veronica / Marchant, Rob / Rucina, Stephen M / Scott, Louis / Lane, Paul J

    Ambio

    2021  Volume 51, Issue 3, Page(s) 785–798

    Abstract: East African ecosystems have been shaped by long-term socio-ecological-environmental interactions. Although much previous work on human-environment interrelationships have emphasised the negative impacts of human interventions, a growing body of work ... ...

    Abstract East African ecosystems have been shaped by long-term socio-ecological-environmental interactions. Although much previous work on human-environment interrelationships have emphasised the negative impacts of human interventions, a growing body of work shows that there have also often been strong beneficial connections between people and ecosystems, especially in savanna environments. However, limited information and understanding of past interactions between humans and ecosystems of periods longer than a century hampers effective management of contemporary environments. Here, we present a late Holocene study of pollen, fern spore, fungal spore, and charcoal analyses from radiocarbon-dated sediment sequences and assess this record against archaeological and historical data to describe socio-ecological changes on the Laikipia Plateau in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The results suggest a landscape characterised by closed forests between 2268 years before present (cal year BP) and 1615 cal year BP when there was a significant change to a more open woodland/grassland mosaic that continues to prevail across the study area. Increased amounts of charcoal in the sediment are observed for this same period, becoming particularly common from around 900 cal year BP associated with fungal spores commonly linked to the presence of herbivores. It is likely these trends reflect changes in land use management as pastoral populations improved and extended pasture, using fire to eradicate disease-prone habitats. Implications for contemporary land use management are discussed in the light of these findings.
    MeSH term(s) Charcoal ; Ecosystem ; Fires ; Forests ; Humans ; Kenya
    Chemical Substances Charcoal (16291-96-6)
    Language English
    Publishing date 2021-06-16
    Publishing country Sweden
    Document type Journal Article
    ZDB-ID 120759-3
    ISSN 1654-7209 ; 0044-7447
    ISSN (online) 1654-7209
    ISSN 0044-7447
    DOI 10.1007/s13280-021-01554-6
    Database MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE

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