Madagascar’s baobab trees have been keeping score for centuries.
In a piece for The Conversation, researchers said core samples from four baobab trees in southwestern Madagascar let them reconstruct a 700-year rainfall pattern. The study, published in PLOS One, points to lessons for conservation, warming temperatures and land management.
The authors said the findings show both people and climate shifts reshaped the region. They said that challenges the idea that the island was once covered in lush forest before colonisation.
Instead, the baobab trees and other local samples showed the region went through a “prolonged and brutal dry spell” from 1600 to 1750. The authors said that period led to the mix of drought and heat that still persists today.
During that drought, grass replaced trees that needed more water. The authors said people then maintained the increasingly grassy areas through land management.
They also described a shift from hunter-gatherer life to agriculture and livestock as communities adapted to lower rainfall. At the same time, drought-resistant native plants became established in the area.
The researchers said the record shows people and nature have long adapted together to changing weather. They said the work could help give leaders a broader view of how to respond to rising modern pressures.
The article said Madagascar appears to have gone through periods of rising temperatures and drought across many centuries. The authors suggested combining their findings with similar research in Southern Africa to fill gaps in the regional climate record.
They said that could help inform climate policy aimed at conserving biodiversity and combating poverty.
“The past has a great deal to teach us , if we take the time to decode and read it,” the authors concluded.
Read more from The Conversation.
