Establishment and functioning of the savanna marshes of the Lopé National Park in Gabon since the termination of the African humid period and the arrival of humans 2500 years ago

Holocene paleoecological studies in tropical Africa are rare because most lakes either dried out at the termination of African Humid Period or have since filled up. However, sedge marshes can be an alternative to perform long-term ecological studies. The Lopé National Park (LNP) Gabon is a mosaic forest and savanna enclosed equatorial forest, where open areas facilitated development peat accumulating several-meter-thick sediment. In order reconstruct historical dynamic these through local regional point view, we compared sedimentological, continuous X-ray fluorescence, stable isotopic analyses on sediment cores from six herbaceous LNP. A reliable chronological frame was based 50 14 C dates, over last 2500 years sites, reaching 9000 one marsh. We show that origin major hydrological change, 3450 2300 ago, affected entire region, almost concomitantly with diffusion Iron Age population. sedimentation within homogenous low intra-site variability. contrast, high inter-sites variability evidences functioning marsh itself exerts much more significant influence than lakes. event recorded between 1400 800 concurrently archeological trace hiatus throughout hinterland West Central Africa.