A new study site on the inaccessible Mount Lico, Mozambique, explores the history of forest fire disturbances to the drier leeward forests over the past 7000 years. Evidence from charcoal in the soil pit and current tree demographics suggests that fire activity has recently increased during the past few hundred to 1000 years ago. We thank Erica Tovela and the Museu de História Natural de Maputo that endorsed and permitted this research (Autorização n°8/2018). The expedition was funded by the Transglobe Expedition Trust, Biocensus, the African Butterfly Research Institute, Grain Media, Marmot Tents, DMM Climbing and the Bayliss family. The laboratory analyses were supported by Bangor University, University of York and Geoecology at the University of Basel. Colin Courtney-Mustaphi benefitted from the African Resilience to Climate Change project led by Paul Lane and administered through Uppsala University, Sweden, through the Sustainability and Resilience: Tackling Climate and Environmental Changes programme funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Sida and Formas (2016-06355). Open access publication was funded by the University of York.
References
Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Platts PJ, Willcock S, Timberlake JR, Osborne J, Matimele H, Summer Osgood H, Muiruri V, Gehrels M, Bayliss J, Marchant R. 2025. Tree demographics and soil charcoal evidence of fire disturbances in an inaccessible forest atop the Mount Lico inselberg, Mozambique. Plants, People, Planet 7(1): 229–244. [CC BY 4.0 Open Access]
Data citation: Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Platts PJ, Willcock S, Timberlake JR, Osborne J, Matimele H, Summer Osgood H, Muiruri V, Gehrels M, Bayliss J, Marchant R. 2024. Soil pit data for ‘Tree demographics and soil charcoal evidence of fire disturbances in an inaccessible forest atop the Mount Lico inselberg, Mozambique’. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EZIWDT [CC BY 4.0 Open Access]