Long-term fire resilience of the Ericaceous Belt, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Research reveals that the Ericaceous Belt in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains has exhibited long-term resilience to fire, with a positive feedback loop between Erica vegetation and wildfire operating since approximately 14,000 years ago. This finding challenges assumptions about the vulnerability of this tropical African montane ecosystem to human-induced disturbances like fire and grazing. The study employed pollen and charcoal analysis from Lake Garba Guracha (3950 m.a.s.l.) to reconstruct millennial-scale fire history, identifying periods of intense burning, particularly during the early Holocene (10.8-6.0 cal ka BP). The results suggest that controlled burning could be a viable strategy for landscape management in Bale Mountains National Park, promoting ecosystem resilience while mitigating negative impacts from modern human activities.

Gil-Romera, G., Adolf, C., Benito, B. M., Bittner, L., Johansson, M. U., Grady, D. A., Lamb, H. F., Lemma, B., Fekadu, M., Glaser, B., Mekonnen, B., Sevilla-Callejo, M., Zech, M., Zech, W., & Miehe, G. (2019). Long-term fire resilience of the Ericaceous Belt, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. Biology Letters, 15(7), 20190357. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0357