New palaeoecological evidence for the potential role of fire in the Gran Sabana, Venezuelan Guayana, and implications for early human occupation

The neotropical Gran Sabana region of Venezuela is dominated by apparently anomalous vegetation types, treeless savannas and savanna-forest mosaics, considering the present-day warm and wet bioclimatic conditions. Past climatic changes and fire have been proposed as the more probable causes. Recent palynological studies show that savanna vegetation has been present since the beginning of the Holocene, but the earliest fires recorded so far only go back to 3,800 cal years b.p. This paper uses pollen and charcoal analyses to show the existence of early Holocene regional fires in the Gran Sabana, and to show the intimate connection between the proxies for fire (charcoal) and savanna vegetation (pollen) throughout the Holocene. Although the cause of such fires is not yet known, the possibility of early Holocene human occupation of the Gran Sabana is suggested.