Letter abstract
Nature Geoscience 1, 670 - 675 (2008)
Published online: 7 September 2008 | Corrected online: 18 September 2008 | doi:10.1038/ngeo289
Subject Category: Palaeoclimate and palaeoceanography
Coherent high- and low-latitude control of the northwest African hydrological balance
Rik Tjallingii1,7, Martin Claussen2,3, Jan-Berend W. Stuut1, Jens Fohlmeister4, Alexandra Jahn5, Torsten Bickert1, Frank Lamy6 & Ursula Röhl1
The evolution of the northwest African hydrological balance throughout the Pleistocene epoch influenced the migration of prehistoric humans1. The hydrological balance is also thought to be important to global teleconnection mechanisms during Dansgaard–Oeschger and Heinrich events2. However, most high-resolution African climate records do not span the millennial-scale climate changes of the last glacial–interglacial cycle1, 3, 4, 5, or lack an accurate chronology6. Here, we use grain-size analyses of siliciclastic marine sediments from off the coast of Mauritania to reconstruct changes in northwest African humidity over the past 120,000 years. We compare this reconstruction to simulations of palaeo-humidity from a coupled atmosphere–ocean–vegetation model. These records are in good agreement, and indicate the reoccurrence of precession-forced humid periods during the last interglacial period similar to the Holocene African Humid Period. We suggest that millennial-scale arid events are associated with a reduction of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and that millennial-scale humid events are linked to a regional increase of winter rainfall over the coastal regions of northwest Africa.
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MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Stra
e, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
- Meterological Institute, University of Hamburg, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
- Heidelberg Academy of Science, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, H3A2K6 Montreal, Québec, Canada
- Alfred Wegener Institute für Polar and Marine Research, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany
- Present address: Institute for Geosciences, University of Kiel, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
Correspondence to: Rik Tjallingii1,7 e-mail: rtj@gpi.uni-kiel.de
Correspondence to: Martin Claussen2,3 e-mail: martin.claussen@zmaw.de
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