IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_s41467-017-01454-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rapid termination of the African Humid Period triggered by northern high-latitude cooling

Author

Listed:
  • James A. Collins

    (Section 5.1 Geomorphology, Organic Surface Geochemistry Lab
    AWI-Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
    University of Bremen)

  • Matthias Prange

    (University of Bremen)

  • Thibaut Caley

    (EPOC, CNRS, University of Bordeaux)

  • Luis Gimeno

    (Facultade de Ciencias, Universidad de Vigo)

  • Britta Beckmann

    (University of Bremen)

  • Stefan Mulitza

    (University of Bremen)

  • Charlotte Skonieczny

    (UMR CNRS 8148, Université de Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay)

  • Didier Roche

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    CEA/CNRS-INSU/UVSQ)

  • Enno Schefuß

    (University of Bremen)

Abstract

The rapidity and synchrony of the African Humid Period (AHP) termination at around 5.5 ka are debated, and it is unclear what caused a rapid hydroclimate response. Here we analysed the hydrogen isotopic composition of sedimentary leaf-waxes (δDwax) from the Gulf of Guinea, a proxy for regional precipitation in Cameroon and the central Sahel-Sahara. Our record indicates high precipitation during the AHP followed by a rapid decrease at 5.8–4.8 ka. The similarity with a δDwax record from northern East Africa suggests a large-scale atmospheric mechanism. We show that northern high- and mid-latitude cooling weakened the Tropical Easterly Jet and, through feedbacks, strengthened the African Easterly Jet. The associated decrease in precipitation triggered the AHP termination and combined with biogeophysical feedbacks to result in aridification. Our findings suggest that extratropical temperature changes, albeit smaller than during the glacial and deglacial, were important in triggering rapid African aridification during the Holocene.

Suggested Citation

  • James A. Collins & Matthias Prange & Thibaut Caley & Luis Gimeno & Britta Beckmann & Stefan Mulitza & Charlotte Skonieczny & Didier Roche & Enno Schefuß, 2017. "Rapid termination of the African Humid Period triggered by northern high-latitude cooling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01454-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01454-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01454-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-017-01454-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jérôme Kaiser & Enno Schefuß & James Collins & René Garreaud & Jan-Berend W. Stuut & Nicoletta Ruggieri & Ricardo Pol-Holz & Frank Lamy, 2024. "Orbital modulation of subtropical versus subantarctic moisture sources in the southeast Pacific mid-latitudes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01454-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.