Aleman J.C. auteur aut IRD Blarquez O. auteur aut IRD Bentaleb I. auteur aut IRD Bonté P. auteur aut IRD Brossier B. auteur aut IRD Carcaillet C. auteur aut IRD Gond V. auteur aut IRD Gourlet-Fleury S. auteur aut IRD Kpolita A. auteur aut IRD Lefèvre I. auteur aut IRD Oslisly Richard auteur aut IRD Power M.J. auteur aut IRD Yongo O. auteur aut IRD Bremond L. auteur aut IRD Favier C. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access Fires have played an important role in creating and maintaining savannas over the centuries and are also one of the main natural disturbances in forests. The functional role of fires in savannas and forests can be investigated through examining sedimentary charcoal in order to reconstruct long-term fire history. However, the relationship between charcoal and vegetation structure in tropical grassy ecosystems remains to be elucidated. Here, we compared recent charcoal records from lake sediments in three tropical ecosystems (forest, savanna, and forestsavanna mosaic) with land cover inferred from remote-sensing images. Charcoal width-to-length (W/L) ratio is a good proxy for changes in fuel type. At one of the lakes, a significant W/L modification from values >0.5 (mainly wood) to <0.5 (grass) was recorded simultaneously with changes in land cover. Indeed, a significant deforestation was recorded around this lake in the remote-sensing imagery between 1984 and 1994. The results also indicate that a riparian forest around a lake could act as a physical filter for charcoal accumulation; we used the mean charcoal size as a proxy to evaluate this process. Charcoal Accumulation Rates (CHAR), a burned biomass proxy, were combined with W/L ratio and the mean charcoal size to investigate the land-use history of the landscapes surrounding the study sites. This combined approach allowed us to distinguish between episodic slash-and-burn practices in the forest and managed fields or pastures burning frequently. specialized PALEOENVIRONNEMENT COUVERT VEGETAL SAVANE FORET MOSAIQUE FORET SAVANE SEDIMENTATION LACUSTRE CHARBON IMAGE SATELLITE UTILISATION DU SOL HOLOCENE INCENDIE FEU ZONE TROPICALE CENTRAFRIQUE 064SEDIM 112ARCHEO02 23 12 1853-1862 2013 0959-6836 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010060197 10.1177/0959683613508159 0959-6836 [F B010060197] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010060197 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/depot/2013-12-03/010060197.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2013-12-03 2025-11-04 fdi:010060197 fre