TY - JOUR
T1 - Paleo-ENSO influence on African environments and early modern humans
AU - Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie
AU - Gosling, William D.
AU - Vogelsang, Ralf
AU - Bahr, André
AU - Scerri, Eleanor M.L.
AU - Asrat, Asfawossen
AU - Cohen, Andrew S.
AU - Düsing, Walter
AU - Foerster, Verena
AU - Lamb, Henry F.
AU - Maslin, Mark A.
AU - Roberts, Helen M.
AU - Schäbitz, Frank
AU - Trauth, Martin H.
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. S.K.-B. received funding from an Open Topic Postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Potsdam and acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through Grant KA 4757/3-1. Support for Chew Bahir drilling was provided by DFG through the Priority Program SPP 1006 International Continental Drilling Program, as well as through NSF Grant NSF-EAR1338553 to A.S.C. F.S. acknowledges further funding from the DFG through Grants SCHA 472/13 and SCHA 472/18. M.H.T. acknowledges funding from the DFG through Grants TR 419/8, TR 419/10, and TR 419/16. In addition, F.S. acknowledges funding from the Collaborative Research Centre 806 Research Project “Our way to Europe”—Project Number 57444011. H.F.L. and H.M.R. were funded by Grant NE/K014560/1 from the UK Natural Environment Research Council. This is publication No. 36 of the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project. All data used in the analysis are available through their respective references. The results of the pwPCA is appended as supporting information.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/8
Y1 - 2021/6/8
N2 - In this study, we synthesize terrestrial and marine proxy records, spanning the past 620 ky, to decipher pan-African climate variability and its drivers and potential linkages to hominin evolution. We find a tight correlation between moisture availability across Africa to El Niño Southern Ocean oscillation (ENSO) variability, a manifestation of the Walker Circulation, that was most likely driven by changes in Earth's eccentricity. Our results demonstrate that low-latitude insolation was a prominent driver of pan-African climate change during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. We argue that these low-latitude climate processes governed the dispersion and evolution of vegetation as well as mammals in eastern and western Africa by increasing resource-rich and stable ecotonal settings thought to have been important to early modern humans.
AB - In this study, we synthesize terrestrial and marine proxy records, spanning the past 620 ky, to decipher pan-African climate variability and its drivers and potential linkages to hominin evolution. We find a tight correlation between moisture availability across Africa to El Niño Southern Ocean oscillation (ENSO) variability, a manifestation of the Walker Circulation, that was most likely driven by changes in Earth's eccentricity. Our results demonstrate that low-latitude insolation was a prominent driver of pan-African climate change during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. We argue that these low-latitude climate processes governed the dispersion and evolution of vegetation as well as mammals in eastern and western Africa by increasing resource-rich and stable ecotonal settings thought to have been important to early modern humans.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85107336711
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85107336711#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2018277118
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2018277118
M3 - Article
C2 - 34074756
AN - SCOPUS:85107336711
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 118
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 23
M1 - e2018277118
ER -
SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 14 Life Below Water