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Orbital controls on eastern African hydroclimate in the Pleistocene

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Emma PearsonORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

Understanding eastern African paleoclimate is critical for contextualizing early human evolution, adaptation, and dispersal, yet Pleistocene climate of this region and its governing mechanisms remain poorly understood due to the lack of long, orbitally-resolved, terrestrial paleoclimate records. Here we present leaf wax hydrogen isotope records of rainfall from paleolake sediment cores from key time windows that resolve long-term trends, variations, and high-latitude effects on tropical African precipitation. Eastern African rainfall was dominantly controlled by variations in low-latitude summer insolation during most of the early and middle Pleistocene, with little evidence that glacial–interglacial cycles impacted rainfall until the late Pleistocene. We observe the influence of high-latitude-driven climate processes emerging from the last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5) to the present, an interval when glacial–interglacial cycles were strong and insolation forcing was weak. Our results demonstrate a variable response of eastern African rainfall to low-latitude insolation forcing and high-latitude-driven climate change, likely related to the relative strengths of these forcings through time and a threshold in monsoon sensitivity. We observe little difference in mean rainfall between the early, middle, and late Pleistocene, which suggests that orbitally-driven climate variations likely played a more significant role than gradual change in the relationship between early humans and their environment.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Lupien RL, Russell JM, Pearson EJ, Castañeda IS, Asrat A, Foerster V, Lamb HF, Roberts HM, Schäbitz F, Trauth MH, Beck C, Feibel CS, Cohen AS

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Scientific Reports

Year: 2022

Volume: 12

Online publication date: 24/02/2022

Acceptance date: 07/02/2022

Date deposited: 25/02/2022

ISSN (electronic): 2045-2322

Publisher: Springer Nature

URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06826-z

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06826-z


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
57444011
EAR 1123942
BCS 1241859
EAR 1338553
EAR 1826938
NE/K014560/1Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
TR 419/8
SCHA 472/13
SCHA 472/18
TR 419/10

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