Holocene changes in African vegetation: Tradeoff between climate and water availability

Although past climate change is well documented in West Africa through instrumental records, modeling activities, and paleo-data, little is known about regional-scale ecosystem vulnerability and long-term impacts of climate on plant distribution and biodiversity. Here we use paleohydrological and paleobotanical data to discuss the relation between available surface water, monsoon rainfall and vegetation distribution in West Africa during the Holocene. The individual patterns of plant migration or community shifts in latitude are explained by differences among tolerance limits of species to rainfall amount and seasonality. Using the probability density function methodology, we show here that the widespread development of lakes, wetlands and rivers at the time of the "Green Sahara" played an additional role in forming a network of topographically defined water availability, allowing for tropical plants to migrate north from 15 to 24° N (reached ca. 9 cal ka BP). The analysis of the spatio-temporal changes in biodiversity, through both pollen occurrence and richness, shows that the core of the tropical rainbelt associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone was centered at 15-20° N during the early Holocene wet period, with comparatively drier/more seasonal climate conditions south of 15° N. © 2014 Author(s)

Pleistocene and Holocene aeolian facies along the Huelva coast (southern Spain): Climatic and neotectonic implications

The stratigraphic relationships, genesis and chronology, including radiocarbon dating, of the Quaternary sandy deposits forming the El Asperillo cliffs (Huelva) were studied with special emphasis on the influence of neotectonic activity, sea-level changes and climate upon the evolution of the coastal zone. The E-W trending normal fault of Torre del Loro separates two tectonic blocks. The oldest deposits occur in the upthrown block. They are Early to Middle Pleistocene fluviatile deposits, probably Late Pleistocene shallow-marine deposits along an E-W trending shoreline, and Late Pleistocene and Holocene aeolian sands deposited under prevailing southerly winds. Three Pleistocene and Holocene aeolian units accumulated in the downthrown block. Of these, Unit 1, is separated from the overlying Unit 2 by a supersurface that represents the end of the Last Interglacial. Accumulation of Unit 2 took place during the Last Glacial under more arid conditions than Unit 1. The supersurface separating Units 2 and 3 was formed between the Last Glacial maximum at 18 000 14C yr BP and ca. 14 000 14C yr BP, the latter age corresponding to an acceleration of the rise of sea level. Unit 3 records wet conditions. The supersurface separating Units 3 and 4 fossilised the fault and the two fault blocks. Units 4 (deposited before the 4th millennium BC), 5 (> 2700 14C yr BP to 16th century) and 6 (16th century to present) record relatively arid conditions. Prevailing wind directions changed with time from W (Units 2-4) to WSW (Unit 5) and SW (Unit 6)

Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara : the past 6000 years

International audienceDesiccation of the Sahara since the middle Holocene has eradicated all but a few natural archives recording its transition from a "green Sahara" to the present hyperarid desert. Our continuous 6000-year paleoenvironmental reconstruction from northern Chad shows progressive drying of the regional terrestrial ecosystem in response to weakening insolation forcing of the African monsoon and abrupt hydrological change in the local aquatic ecosystem controlled by site-specific thresholds. Strong reductions in tropical trees and then Sahelian grassland cover allowed large-scale dust mobilization from 4300 calendar years before the present (cal yr B.P.). Today's desert ecosystem and regional wind regime were established around 2700 cal yr B.P. This gradual rather than abrupt termination of the African Humid Period in the eastern Sahara suggests a relatively weak biogeophysical feedback on climat