ECOFIT

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ECOFIT is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional paleoecology and ecological program started in Lima in 1992. Its goal is the study of ecology and paleo-ecology of Inter Tropical Forests, mainly in Atlantic Central Africa and in South America, during the Holocene and in present times. Pollen, soil isotopic analysis, diatoms, fossil and charcoal are among the indicators which are used to reconstruct the history of the ecosystems and the species distribution.

The first years of the program showed evidence of dry episodes with forests withdrawing c. 6000 BC in South America, and c. 2800 BC in Africa: the lack of correlation in timing between the continents is explained by changes in the intensity of north Atlantic trade winds. Such perturbations led to the opening up of savannas, with some remnants of rain forests in wet zones - these remnants probably acting as refugia for forest species.

An important effort in modelling allows an interpretation of the ecological data and an understanding of the different time scales of forest-savanna transgressions: anemochorous (seeds spread by wind) tree species are the first to spread widely after a dry episode, while the repartition of slow-growing species with heavy seeds can take thousands of years to recover. One example studied by ECOFIT is the palm Astrocaryum sciophilum in the Guyana. Molecular analysis of this species is underway to reconstruct the structure of the refugial regions in greater detail. Independent indications of the refugia are searched for in the biodiversity of undergrowth plants, and in the speciation of small mammals (for which molecular analysis is also a valuable tool). Human impact, in the past and today, also has a very important effect on the forest-savanna interface and ECOFIT also serves to restrict the impact of humans on natural landscape.

The group continues to grow in its work particularly in South America.