Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Savanna ecosystems were the landscapes for human evolution and are vital to modern Sub-Saharan African food security, yet the fundamental drivers of climate and ecology in these ecosystems remain unclear. Here we generate plant-wax isotope a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148110 |
| _version_ | 1811088654050787328 |
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| author | O’Mara, Nicholas A Skonieczny, Charlotte Winckler, Gisela Bory, Aloys J-M Bradtmiller, Louisa I Malaizé, Bruno Polissar, Pratigya J Mcgee, David |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences O’Mara, Nicholas A Skonieczny, Charlotte Winckler, Gisela Bory, Aloys J-M Bradtmiller, Louisa I Malaizé, Bruno Polissar, Pratigya J Mcgee, David |
| author_sort | O’Mara, Nicholas A |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Savanna ecosystems were the landscapes for human evolution and are vital to modern Sub-Saharan African food security, yet the fundamental drivers of climate and ecology in these ecosystems remain unclear. Here we generate plant-wax isotope and dust flux records to explore the mechanistic drivers of the Northwest African monsoon, and to assess ecosystem responses to changes in monsoon rainfall and atmospheric pCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>. We show that monsoon rainfall is controlled by low-latitude insolation gradients and that while increases in precipitation are associated with expansion of grasslands into desert landscapes, changes in pCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> predominantly drive the C<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>/C<jats:sub>4</jats:sub> composition of savanna ecosystems.</jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:05:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/148110 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:05:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1481102024-05-15T02:36:30Z Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation O’Mara, Nicholas A Skonieczny, Charlotte Winckler, Gisela Bory, Aloys J-M Bradtmiller, Louisa I Malaizé, Bruno Polissar, Pratigya J Mcgee, David Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Savanna ecosystems were the landscapes for human evolution and are vital to modern Sub-Saharan African food security, yet the fundamental drivers of climate and ecology in these ecosystems remain unclear. Here we generate plant-wax isotope and dust flux records to explore the mechanistic drivers of the Northwest African monsoon, and to assess ecosystem responses to changes in monsoon rainfall and atmospheric pCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>. We show that monsoon rainfall is controlled by low-latitude insolation gradients and that while increases in precipitation are associated with expansion of grasslands into desert landscapes, changes in pCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> predominantly drive the C<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>/C<jats:sub>4</jats:sub> composition of savanna ecosystems.</jats:p> 2023-02-17T17:47:01Z 2023-02-17T17:47:01Z 2022 2023-02-17T17:43:07Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148110 O’Mara, Nicholas A, Skonieczny, Charlotte, McGee, David, Winckler, Gisela, Bory, Aloys J-M et al. 2022. "Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation." Nature Communications, 13 (1). en 10.1038/S41467-022-31120-X Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | O’Mara, Nicholas A Skonieczny, Charlotte Winckler, Gisela Bory, Aloys J-M Bradtmiller, Louisa I Malaizé, Bruno Polissar, Pratigya J Mcgee, David Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title | Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title_full | Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title_fullStr | Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title_short | Pleistocene drivers of Northwest African hydroclimate and vegetation |
| title_sort | pleistocene drivers of northwest african hydroclimate and vegetation |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148110 |
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