Isolated savannas enclosed by forest are especially abundant in the eastern part of the Congolese Mayombe. They are about 3000 years old, and were more extensive some centuries ago. The boundary between forest and savanna is very abrupt, as a consequence of the numerous savanna fires lit by hunters. Floristic composition and vegetation structure data, organic carbon ratios, 14C and 13C measurements presented here show that forest is spreading over savanna at the present time and suggest that the rate of forest encroachment is is currently between 14 and 75 m per century, and more probably about 20–50 m per century. As most savannas are less than 1 km across, such rates mean, assuming there are no changes in environmental conditions, that enclosed savannas could completely disappear in the Mayombe in about 1000–2000 years.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329710Altmetric score:
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Publication year
1996
Authors
Schwartz D; de Foresta H; Mariotti A; Balesdent J; Massimba J P; Girardin C
Language
English
Keywords
pedology, forests
Geographic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
