Aboriginal landscape burning and its impact on the summer monsoon of northern Australia

作者：Wyrwoll Karl Heinz^*; Notaro Michael

来源：Australian Archaeology, 2014, 79(79): 109-115.

DOI：10.1080/03122417.2014.11682026

The question of the impact of Aboriginal burning practices on vegetation in Australia has long been a concern of palaeoenvironmental and related archaeological studies and is embedded in wider discussions of human impacts on the environment. But, despite the large volume of work and some very firm claims, doubt has emerged in the recent literature as to the importance of traditional Aboriginal burning practices on vegetation patterns. We consider this issue in the context of the hypothesis: 'If Aboriginal burning practices created a more open grassland savanna environment, could this have altered the climate regime of the summer monsoon region of northern Australia?'. The results of recent climate modelling experiments suggest that the replacement of woodland by more 'open' grassland would have influenced the climate of the pre-monsoon season by delaying the onset of the monsoon, but would have had little impact on the 'full' monsoon. While the results of the modelling experiment clearly show that regional savanna climates would be affected by vegetation changes, it is not at all clear that Aboriginal burning practices led to extensive modification of savanna vegetation. We place the results of the climate experiment into a wider discussion of the identification of Aboriginal 'signatures' on fire histories and question whether this issue can ever be resolved.

• 出版日期2014-12