Solar and anthropogenic imprints on the Lake Masoko (southern Tanzania) during the last 500 years

The Masoko crater-lake in southern Tanzania provides a continuous record of environmental changes covering the last 500 years. Multi-proxy studies were performed on a 52 cm sediment core retrieved from the deepest part of the lake. Magnetic, organic carbon, geochemical proxies and pollen assemblages indicate a dry climate during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (AD 1550– 1850), confirming that the LIA in eastern Africaresulted in marked and synchronous hydrological changes. However, the direction of response varies between different African lakes (low versus high lake-levels), indicating strong regional contrasts that prevent the clear identification of climate trends over eastern Africa at this time. Inferred changes in Masoko lake-levels closely resemble the record of solar activity cycles, indicating a possible control of solar activity on the climate in this area. This observation supports previous results from East African lakes, and extends this relationship southward. Finally, anthropogenic impact is observed in the Masoko sediments during the last 60 years, suggesting that human disturbance significantly affected this remote basin during colonial and post-colonial times.

Keywords

Africa, Tropics, Lake, Paleoclimate, Little Ice Age, Solar activity, Anthropogenic disturbances

Citation

Yannick Garcin, David Williamson, Laurent Bergonzini, Olivier Radakovitch, Annie Vincens, Guillaume Buchet, Joel Guiot, Simon Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Mathe and Amos Majule. (2006). Solar and anthropogenic imprints on the Lake Masoko (southern Tanzania) during the last 500 years. J Paleolimnol, Springer DO1 10.1007/s10933-006-9033-6

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/476

Collections

Institute of Resource Assessment

Full item page