In vast areas of Central African forests, the upper canopy is presently dominated by light‐demanding tree species. Here, we confront three hypotheses to explain this dominance: (a) these species have expanded their distribution because of widespread past slash‐and‐burn activities, as suggested by important charcoal amounts recorded in the soils of the region; (b) their abundance is rather explained by soil properties, as this guild establishes preferentially on favourable physico‐chemical conditions for rapid growth; (c) soil properties have been substantially influenced by past human disturbances and those two effects cannot be disentangled.

中文翻译：

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过去的人类干扰和土壤肥力都影响中非热带森林中对光需求树木的分布

在中非森林的广大地区，上层冠层目前主要是对光有需求的树种。在这里，我们面对三个假设来解释这种优势：（a）由于该地区土壤中记录的重要木炭量表明过去的刀耕火种活动，这些物种的分布有所扩大；（b）它们的丰度用土壤特性来解释，因为该行会优先建立有利于快速生长的理化条件；（c）过去的人为干扰已经大大影响了土壤的性质，而这两种影响是无法消除的。