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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Late Quaternary changes in ecosystems and carbon cycling on Mt. Kenya, East Africa: a landscape-ecological perspective based on multi-proxy lake-sediment influxes
Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 26, No. 13-14, Year 2007
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Description
The degree to which different lakes within a landscape respond coherently (in unison) to external drivers such as climate change and soil development is uncertain. Presentation of multi-proxy, geochemical and palaeoecological data from individual lakes in the form of fluxes minimizes distortions resulting from variable sedimentation rates and changes in sediment composition. We use the accumulation rates of magnetic minerals, total organic C and N, terrestrial and aquatic biomarkers, graminoid epidermis, pollen, green algae, diatoms and diatom C in four small lakes, situated between 2350 and 4595 m a.s.l. on the NE flank of Mt. Kenya, East Africa, to reconstruct changes in C cycling over the last 38 ka. The results conflict with earlier models of landscape and lake development, showing: (1) that glacial-interglacial changes in vegetation cannot be interpreted as simple, altitudinal shifts in the modern vegetation belts; and (2) that limnological changes were not coherent. Rapid variations in climate, water level, erosion and nutrient input overwhelmed long-term, successional trends in lake sedimentation and C accumulation since the Last Glacial Maximum. The results also reveal previously unrecognized features of the palaeoenvironmental record, such as the rapid degradation of organic matter in diatoms and the occurrence of a productive, fire-prone montane grassland during the highly seasonal, monsoonal climate of the Lateglacial and early Holocene. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Street-Perrott, F. Alayne
United Kingdom, Swansea
Swansea University
Barker, Philip A.
United Kingdom, Lancaster
Lancaster Environment Centre
Swain, David L.
Australia, Geelong
Csiro Livestock Industries
Ficken, Katherine J.
United Kingdom, Swansea
Swansea University
Wooller, Matthew J.
United States, Fairbanks
Institute of Marine Science
Olago, Daniel Ochieng
Kenya, Nairobi
University of Nairobi
Huang, Yongsong
United States, Providence
Brown University
Statistics
Citations: 46
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.02.014
ISSN:
02773791
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Locations
Multi-countries
Kenya