Comment on "Intensifying weathering and land use in Iron Age Central Africa"

Science. 2012 Aug 31;337(6098):1040; author reply 1040. doi: 10.1126/science.1221747.

Abstract

Bayon et al. (Reports, 9 March 2012, p. 1219) interpreted unusually high aluminum-potassium ratio values in an Atlantic sediment core as indicating anthropogenic deforestation around 2500 years before the present (B.P.). We argue that there is no terrestrial evidence for forest destruction by humans and that the third millennium B.P. rainforest crisis can be clearly attributed mostly to climatic change.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture / history*
  • Climate Change*
  • Conservation of Natural Resources*
  • Geologic Sediments / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Trees*