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A High-Resolution 11,400-Yr Diatom Record from Lake Victoria, East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J.Curt Stager ,
Brian Cumming  and
Loren Meeker
J.Curt Stager
Affiliation:
Math/Science Division, Paul Smiths College, Paul Smiths, New York, 12970; and Climate Change Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824-3525
Brian Cumming
Affiliation:
P.E.A.R.L. Biology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada
Loren Meeker
Affiliation:
Climate Change Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824-3525
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Abstract

Fine-interval (∼30–45 yr) sampling of a core from Lake Victoria's Damba Channel shows that numerous abrupt changes in the lake's diatom assemblages have occurred in response to climatic fluctuations over the past 11,40014C yr. Four distinct climatic phases bounded by sudden transitions are inferred: (1) variably dry ∼11,400–10,000 yr B.P., (2) humid ∼10,000–7200 yr B.P., (3) more seasonal ∼7200–2200 yr B.P., and (4) more arid ∼2200–0 yr B.P., with a dry “Little Ice Age” event ∼600–200 yr B.P. The diatom-inferred paleoclimatic history for northern Lake Victoria closely resembles that inferred from a well-dated pollen record from Pilkington Bay. Spectral analysis of the diatom record reveals strong periodicities including globally distributed ∼2360–2550, ∼1400, ∼1030–1130, and ∼500 cal-yr cycles. Repeated, rapid shifts betweenAulacoseira- andNitzschia-dominated diatom assemblages suggest that post-1960 changes in the lake's phytoplankton communities have had earlier, climate-driven analogs.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 81 - 89
Copyright
University of Washington

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