Reduced interannual rainfall variability in East Africa during the last Ice Age
- Interannual rainfall variations in equatorial East Africa are tightly linked to the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with more rain and flooding during El Nino and droughts in La Nina years, both having severe impacts on human habitation and food security. Here we report evidence from an annually laminated lake sediment record from southeastern Kenya for interannual to centennial-scale changes in ENSO-related rainfall variability during the last three millennia and for reductions in both the mean rate and the variability of rainfall in East Africa during the Last Glacial period. Climate model simulations support forward extrapolation from these lake sediment data that future warming will intensify the interannual variability of East Africa's rainfall.
| Author details: | Christian Michael WolffORCiDGND, Gerald H. Haug, Axel Timmermann, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damste, Achim BrauerORCiDGND, Daniel M. Sigman, Mark A. Cane, Dirk Verschuren |
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| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1203724 |
| ISSN: | 0036-8075 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Science |
| Publisher: | American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science |
| Place of publishing: | Washington |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2011 |
| Publication year: | 2011 |
| Release date: | 2017/03/26 |
| Volume: | 333 |
| Issue: | 6043 |
| Number of pages: | 5 |
| First page: | 743 |
| Last Page: | 747 |
| Funding institution: | European Science Foundation; DFG; Leibniz Center for Earth Surface Process and Climate Studies; NSF [AGS-1010869]; Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) |
| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Geowissenschaften |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
