ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2016
The deforestation story: testing for anthropogenic origins of Africa's flammable grassy biomes.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Small fire refugia in the grassy matrix and the persistence of Afrotemperate forest in the Drakensberg mountains.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Tree cover in Central Africa: determinants and sensitivity under contrasted scenarios of global change.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Fire effects on soils: the human dimension.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- The interaction of fire and mankind: Introduction.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Africa has the most extensive C4 grassy biomes of any continent. They are highly flammable accounting for greater than 70% of the world's burnt area. Much of Africa's savannas and grasslands occur in climates warm enough and wet enough to support closed forests. The combination of open grassy systems and the frequent fires they support have long been interpreted as anthropogenic artefacts caused by humans igniting frequent fires. True grasslands, it was believed, would be restricted to climates too dry or too cold to support closed woody vegetation. The idea that higher-rainfall savannas are anthropogenic and that fires are of human origin has led to initiatives to 'reforest' Africa's open grassy systems paid for by carbon credits under the assumption that the net effect of converting these system to forests would sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gases and mitigate global warming. This paper reviews evidence for the antiquity of African grassy ecosystems and for the fires that they sustain. Africa's grassy biomes and the fires that maintain them are ancient and there is no support for the idea that humans caused large-scale deforestation. Indicators of old-growth grasslands are described. These can help distinguish secondary grasslands suitable for reforestation from ancient grasslands that should not be afforested.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.