Abstract
A pollen diagram from Oursi in Burkina Faso is compared with anthracological (charcoal analysis) results from three sites in northeast Nigeria (Konduga, Gajiganna, Lantewa). The present-day vegetation at all four sites is Sahelian or Sahelo-Sudanian and under heavy human impact. At Oursi, a closed grassland with only few trees and almost no Sudanian elements can be reconstructed for the middle Holocene. At the Nigerian sites, on the other hand, Sudanian woody plants were present during this period. We assume that the Sahel was not a uniform zone during the middle Holocene but rather a mosaic of different vegetation types according to local site conditions. In the light of these results, a simple model of latitudinally shifting vegetation zones is not applicable. Around 3000 B.P. the closed grassland at Oursi was opened by agro-pastoral activities, and at Gajiganna, plants characteristic of pasture lands can be directly related with the presence of cattle. Human impact seems to have been the dominant factor in the vegetation history of the Sahel from 3000 B.P. until today, masking possible effects of climatic change.
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Ballouche, A., Neumann, K. A new contribution to the Holocene vegetation history of the West African Sahel: pollen from Oursi, Burkina Faso and charcoal from three sites in northeast Nigeria. Veget Hist Archaebot 4, 31–39 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198613
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198613