Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara
The Past 6000 Years
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23339201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | S Kröpelin (University of Cologne, corresponding author), Dirk Verschuren (0000-0002-9116-5446, Meise Botanic Garden), Anne‐marie Lézine (0000-0002-3555-5124, Meise Botanic Garden), A-M Lézine (University of Cologne), Hilde Eggermont (Meise Botanic Garden), Christine Cocquyt (0000-0002-0047-4180, Meise Botanic Garden), Pierre Francus (0000-0001-5465-1966, Meise Botanic Garden), Jean-Pierre Cazet (Meise Botanic Garden), M Fagot (University of Cologne), B Rumes (0000-0001-8549-6743, University of Cologne), James M Russell (0000-0002-4835-7696, Meise Botanic Garden), Frank Darius (Meise Botanic Garden), Daniel J Conley (0000-0001-9668-9284, Meise Botanic Garden), M Schuster (0000-0002-4412-8685, University of Cologne), Hans Von Suchodoletz (0000-0002-4366-9383, Meise Botanic Garden), D R Engstrom (University of Cologne) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 320 |
| Issue | 5877 |
| Pages | 765-768 |
| Publication date | 2008-05-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0036-8075 • E-ISSN: 0193-4511 |
| Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1126/science.1154913 |
| PMID | 18467583 |
| OpenAlex | W2014574812 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 96 |
| References cited | 39 |
Desiccation 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 climate.
Archaeology · Arid · Climate change · Climatology · Ecological succession · Ecosystem · Geography · Holocene · Monsoon · Natural (archaeology) · Physical geography · Aeolian processes and effects · Ecology · Environmental Science · Geological and Geophysical Studies Worldwide · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Oceanography
Seasonality change and the third millennium BP rainforest crisis in southern Cameroon (Central Africa)
Megalakes in the Sahara? A Review
Abrupt or gradual? Change point analysis of the late Pleistocene–Holocene climate record from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia
Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens
Modern and late Quaternary clay mineral distribution in the area of the SE Mediterranean Sea
Geochemical composition of Tanzanian shelf sediments indicates Holocene climatic and sea-level changes
Holocene palaeohydrological changes in the northern Mediterranean borderlands as reflected by the lake-level record of lake ledro, northeastern Italy
What the past can say about the present and future of fire
Lowland forest collapse and early human impacts at the end of the African Humid Period at Lake Edward, equatorial East Africa
Vegetation dynamics in Dhofar, Oman, from the Late Holocene to present inferred from rock hyrax middens
The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant
Quantifying the impact of Great Green Wall and Corporate plantations on tree density and biomass in Sahelian Senegal
Human impact on low-land Vellayani Lake, south India
Pastoralist appropriation of landscape by means of rock art in Ennedi Highlands, Chad
Adaptation or Aesthetic Alleviation
Environment and Rock Art in the Jebel Ousselat, Atlas Mountains, Tunisia
Evaluating Nubian Population Structure from Cranial Nonmetric Traits
Ancient Local Evolution of African mtDNA Haplogroups in Tunisian Berber Populations
Of Bugs and Beads
The Nile Basin
The Nile: Natural and Cultural Landscape in Egypt
The Meroitic Heartland
Frontier Animal Husbandry in the Northeast and East African Neolithic
North–south palaeohydrological contrasts in the central Mediterranean during the Holocene
Anthropogenic land use estimates for the Holocene – Hyde 3.2
The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara
Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara
The Hyde 3.1 spatially explicit database of human‐induced global land‐use change over the past 12,000 years
Linking primary production, climate and land use along an urban–wildland transect
Green Sahara tipping points in transient climate model simulations of the Holocene
The Greening of the Sahara
Did climate change make Homo sapiens innovative, and if yes, how? Debated perspectives on the African Pleistocene record
Saharan Rock Art
Mapping Food Production in Hyper-Arid and Arid Saharan Africa in the Holocene—A View from the Present
Périodisation et chronologie des images rupestres du Sahara central
Provenance of clay used in Garamantian ceramics from Jarma, Fazzan region (south-west Libya)
Atlantis
Echoes of the Past
Towards an understanding of hunting equipment used by early Holocene foragers of the Egyptian Southwestern Desert
Peuples et évolution climatique en Afrique nord-tropicale, de la fin du Néolithique à l’aube de l’époque moderne
Patterns, processes, and impacts of abrupt climate change in a warm world
Analyzing abrupt and nonlinear climate changes and their impacts
Holocene hyrax dung deposits in the afroalpine belt of the Bale Mountains (Ethiopia) and their palaeoclimatic implication
Changing Plant-based Subsistence Practices among Early and Middle Holocene Communities in Eastern Maghreb
The Middle Stone Age of the Central Sahara
Diatom-based indications of an environmental regime shift and droughts associated with seasonal monsoons during the Holocene in Biển Hồ maar lake, the Central Highlands, Vietnam
Early- and middle-Holocene wood exploitation in the Fayum basin, Egypt
Rock varnish record of the African Humid Period in the Lake Turkana basin of East Africa
A dramatic climatic transition at ~4000 cal. yr BP and its cultural responses in Chinese cultural domains
Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way
Speleothem records of changes in tropical hydrology over the Holocene and possible implications for atmospheric methane
Multi-proxy evidence for an arid shift in the climate and vegetation of the Banni grasslands of western India during the mid- to late-Holocene
Hydrological response of an east-Saharan palaeolake (NW Sudan) to early-Holocene climate
The concept of socio-environmental transformations in prehistoric and archaic societies in the Holocene
Phytolith taphonomy in the middle- to late-Holocene fluvial sediments of Ounjougou (Mali, West Africa)
Possible complexity of the climatic event around 4300—3800 cal. BP in the central and western Mediterranean
A marine/terrestrial integration for mid-late Holocene vegetation history and the development of the cultural landscape in the Po valley as a result of human impact and climate change
Paleoenvironmental context of archaeological sites, implications for subsistence strategies under Holocene climate change, northern Kenya
Runoff in two semi‐arid watersheds in a geoarcheological context
Holocene large lake development and desiccation
Mid‐Holocene environmental change and human occupation at Sai Island, Northern Sudan
Reconstructing the holocene depositional environments in the western part of Ancient Karnak temples complex (Egypt)
A question of timing
Urban geoarchaeology and environmental history at the Lost City of the Pyramids, Giza
African Palaeoclimate and Human Response
Senorady/Mohelno – „Boleniska“
The Late Quaternary Hominins of Africa
A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period
Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic changes
High resolution multi-proxy analyses document Mid to Late-Holocene environmental change in arid Marsabit County, northern Kenya, East Africa
Datations directes et indirectes des images rupestres en Ahaggar, dans la Tasili-n-Ajjer et l’Atlas saharien
Late Holocene Climate Change and the Origin of the “Figurine Complex” In Grand Canyon, Arizona
Late-Holocene dust accumulation within the ancient town of Marea (coastal zone of the South Mediterranean Sea, N Egypt)
Aridification of the Egyptian Sahara 5000–4000 cal BP revealed from x-ray fluorescence analysis of Nile Delta sediments at Kom al-Ahmer/Kom Wasit
Mid-Holocene occupation of Egypt and global climatic change
The oxygen and carbon isotopic records in Holocene freshwater mollusc shells from the faiyum paleolakes, egypt
Palynological evidence of cultural and environmental connections in Sudanese Nubia during the Early and Middle Holocene
Climatic change recorded in the sediments of the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, during the last 45,000 years
Late Holocene morphosedimentary and palaeoenvironmental study of the Middle Drâa river basin (southeastern Morocco)
Climate forcing and shifts in water management on the Northwest Arabian Peninsula (mid-Holocene Rasif wetlands, Saudi Arabia)
A multiproxy lake record from Inner Mongolia displays a late Holocene teleconnection between Central Asian and North Atlantic climates
Geoarchaeology of Egypt and the Mediterranean
Dune ages in the sand deserts of the southern Sahara and Sahel
Coring Lake Fati and Settlement Archaeology of the Middle Niger Lakes Region
Holocene Supra-Regional Environmental Changes as Trigger for Major Socio-Cultural Processes in Northeastern Africa and the Sahara
The 4.2 ka BP Climate Event in Egypt
Lakeside View
Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Dongodien, Lake Turkana, Kenya and OSL Dating of Site Occupation During Late Holocene Climate Change
Developing a Chronology Integrating Archaeological and Environmental Data from Different Contexts
The End of the “Green Oasis”
Stable isotope study on ancient populations of central sudan
Fuel selection during long-term ancient iron production in Sudan
Il Sahara centro-orientale
Impact of farming on African landscapes
Domestication Processes and Morphological Change
Late Quaternary Climate and Vegetation of the Sudanian Zone of Northeast Nigeria
Holocene Forcing of the Indian Monsoon Recorded in a Stalagmite from Southern Oman
Abrupt Climate Change
Abrupt onset and termination of the African Humid Period
Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years
Southward Migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone Through the Holocene
The Holocene Asian Monsoon
Climatic Changes of the Last 18,000 Years
Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems
Determinants of woody cover in African savannas
The Bodélé depression
Simulation of the Holocene climate evolution in Northern Africa
Dust-Storm Source Areas Determined by the Total Ozone Monitoring Spectrometer and Surface Observations
| Unique citing works | 96 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,33 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 78 |