East African ecosystems have been shaped by long-term socio-ecological–environmental interactions. Although much previous work on human–environment interrelationships have emphasised the negative impacts of human interventions, a growing body of work shows that there have also often been strong beneficial connections between people and ecosystems, especially in savanna environments. However, limited information and understanding of past interactions between humans and ecosystems of periods longer than a century hampers effective management of contemporary environments. Here, we present a late Holocene study of pollen, fern spore, fungal spore, and charcoal analyses from radiocarbon-dated sediment sequences and assess this record against archaeological and historical data to describe socio-ecological changes on the Laikipia Plateau in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The results suggest a landscape characterised by closed forests between 2268 years before present (cal year BP) and 1615 cal year BP when there was a significant change to a more open woodland/grassland mosaic that continues to prevail across the study area. Increased amounts of charcoal in the sediment are observed for this same period, becoming particularly common from around 900 cal year BP associated with fungal spores commonly linked to the presence of herbivores. It is likely these trends reflect changes in land use management as pastoral populations improved and extended pasture, using fire to eradicate disease-prone habitats. Implications for contemporary land use management are discussed in the light of these findings.

东非生态系统是由长期的社会-生态-环境相互作用塑造的。尽管以前关于人类与环境相互关系的许多工作都强调了人类干预的负面影响，但越来越多的工作表明，人与生态系统之间也经常存在着强大的有益联系，尤其是在热带稀树草原环境中。然而，有限的信息和对人类与生态系统之间超过一个世纪的过去相互作用的理解阻碍了对当代环境的有效管理。在这里，我们提出了一项关于花粉、蕨类孢子、真菌孢子、和木炭分析来自放射性碳年代测定的沉积物序列，并根据考古和历史数据评估该记录，以描述肯尼亚裂谷省莱基皮亚高原的社会生态变化。结果表明，在距今 2268 年（cal 年 BP）和 1615 cal 年 BP 之间，一个以封闭森林为特征的景观，当时更开放的林地/草地马赛克发生了显着变化，并继续在整个研究区域盛行。在同一时期观察到沉积物中的木炭含量增加，从大约 900 cal 年 BP 开始变得特别常见，与通常与食草动物的存在有关的真菌孢子有关。这些趋势很可能反映了土地利用管理的变化，因为牧民人口得到改善和牧场扩大，用火来消灭易发疾病的栖息地。根据这些发现讨论了对当代土地使用管理的影响。