近日，美国布朗大学Russell, James M.团队报道了21世纪中非山区高山火灾的出现。2026年5月13日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。
野火是一种日益加剧的全球性灾害，威胁着生态系统、空气质量和社会。尽管热带高山通常被认为过于凉爽潮湿而不易燃烧，但近期在非洲最高山脉上发生的高海拔野火表明，一种新的、可能带来变革性影响的威胁正在显现。这些环境中缺乏火灾的历史记录，限制了学界对于火灾活动、其环境影响以及非洲山地生态系统恢复力的理解。
研究组表明，在非洲中部的鲁文佐里山脉，一场21世纪的火灾是过去1.2万年来首次影响到非洲高山海拔（海拔3800米以上）的事件。在中海拔地区（海拔2990米），火灾在大约2000年前突然增加，这与区域上人类活动变化的证据相吻合，随后是以竹子为主的生态系统扩张。该结果突显了人类作为非洲山地火灾活动重要驱动因素的作用，并表明热带非洲高山的高海拔火灾是21世纪新出现的一种干扰，可能改变高海拔热带生态系统。
附：英文原文
Title: Twenty-first century emergence of alpine fire in Central African mountains
Author: Mason, Andrea L., Pereboom, Eleanor M. B., Ivory, Sarah J., Vachula, Richard S., Kelly, Meredith A., Nakileza, Bob, Russell, James M.
Issue&Volume: 2026-05-13
Abstract: Wildfires are an escalating global hazard that threaten ecosystems, air quality and societies1,2. Although tall tropical mountains have generally been considered too cool and moist to burn3, the recent occurrence of high-elevation wildfires on Africa’s highest mountains suggests the emergence of a new and potentially transformative threat. A lack of historical records of fire in these environments limits our understanding of fire activity, its environmental impacts and the resilience of Afromontane ecosystems. Here we show that a twenty-first century fire was the first to affect Afroalpine elevations (>3,800m above sea level (a.s.l.)) over the past 12thousand years in the Rwenzori Mountains, Central Africa. At mid-elevations (2,990ma.s.l.), fire increased abruptly around 2thousand years ago, coincident with regional evidence for changing human activity4, and this was followed by an increase in bamboo-dominated ecosystems. Our results highlight the role of humans as an important driver of Afromontane fire activity and show that high-elevation tropical Afroalpine fire is a new twenty-first century disturbance that could transform high-elevation tropical ecosystems.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10511-w