MikropaläontologieThe pace of East African monsoon evolution during the Holocene

4. Juni 2014, von Tom Jaeppinen

African monsoon precipitation experienced a dramatic change in the course of the Holocene. The pace with which the African monsoon shifted from a strong early to middle to a weak late Holocene is controversially debated. On the basis of planktonic foraminiferal Ba/Ca time series from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, we generated a proxy record of Nile River runoff that provides a spatially integrated measure of changes in East African monsoon (EAM) precipitation. The runoff record indicates a markedly gradual middle to late Holocene EAM transition that lasted over 3500 years. The timing and pace of runoff change parallels those of insolation and vegetation changes over the Nile basin, indicating variation of insolation as the main EAM forcing.

 Read: Syee Weldeab, Valerie Menke, Gerhard Schmiedl, 2014. The pace of East African monsoon evolution during the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters 41, doi:10.1002/2014GL059361.

 Online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL059361/full