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Wiley InterScience | ||||||||||||||||||||
  Global Change BiologyVolume 11 Issue 7, Pages 1013 - 1023 Published Online: 9 Jun 2005 © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 2827K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  Climate change-driven forest fires marginalize the impact of ice cap wasting on Kilimanjaro Copyright © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd KEYWORDS alpine vegetation • climate change • East Africa • Erica • forest fires • montane and subalpine cloud forest • vegetation change • vegetation zones Abstract
The disappearing glaciers of Kilimanjaro are attracting broad interest. Less conspicuous but ecologically far more significant is the associated increase of frequency and intensity of fires on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, which leads to a downward shift of the upper forest line by several hundred meters as a result of a drier (warmer) climate since the last century. In contrast to common belief, global warming does not necessarily cause upward migration of plants and animals. Here, it is shown that on Kilimanjaro the opposite trend is under way, with consequences more harmful than those due to the loss of the showy ice cap of Africa's highest mountain. Received 10 May 2004; revised version received 7 January 2005 and accepted 28 January 2005 | 
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