Articles | Volume 19, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5357-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5357-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
A Holocene temperature (brGDGT) record from Garba Guracha, a high-altitude lake in Ethiopia
Lucas Bittner
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Heisenberg Chair of Physical Geography with focus on paleoenvironmental research, Institute of Geography, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Cindy De Jonge
Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Graciela Gil-Romera
Plant Ecology and Geobotany, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain
Henry F. Lamb
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
James M. Russell
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Michael Zech
Heisenberg Chair of Physical Geography with focus on paleoenvironmental research, Institute of Geography, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Related authors
Lucas Bittner
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 73, 135–137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-135-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-135-2024, 2024
Jakob Labahn, Lucas Bittner, Philip Hirschmann, Christopher-Bastian Roettig, Diana Burghardt, Bruno Glaser, Slobodan B. Marković, and Michael Zech
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 71, 83–90, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-83-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-83-2022, 2022
Fabian Seemann, Michael Zech, Maren Jenrich, Guido Grosse, Benjamin M. Jones, Claire Treat, Lutz Schirrmeister, Susanne Liebner, and Jens Strauss
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3727, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
Short summary
Short summary
Arctic coastal landscapes, like those in northernmost Alaska, often contain saline sediments that are more prone to thawing. We studied six sediment cores to understand how thawing and salinity affect organic carbon breakdown and land change. Our results show that salinity speeds up organic matter loss when permafrost thaws. This highlights the overlooked risk of salinity in shaping Arctic landscapes and carbon release as the climate continues to warm.
Biagio Giaccio, Bernd Wagner, Giovanni Zanchetta, Adele Bertini, Gian Paolo Cavinato, Roberto de Franco, Fabio Florindo, David A. Hodell, Thomas A. Neubauer, Sebastien Nomade, Alison Pereira, Laura Sadori, Sara Satolli, Polychronis C. Tzedakis, Paul Albert, Paolo Boncio, Cindy De Jonge, Alexander Francke, Christine Heim, Alessia Masi, Marta Marchegiano, Helen M. Roberts, Anders Noren, and the MEME team
Sci. Dril., 33, 249–266, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-33-249-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-33-249-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
A total of 42 Earth scientists from 14 countries met in Gioia dei Marsi, central Italy, on 23 to 27 October 2023 to explore the potential for deep drilling of the thick lake sediment sequence of the Fucino Basin. The aim was to reconstruct the history of climate, ecosystem, and biodiversity changes and of the explosive volcanism and tectonics in central Italy over the last 3.5 million years, constrained by a detailed radiometric chronology.
Lucas Bittner
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 73, 135–137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-135-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-135-2024, 2024
Mengmeng Liu, Yicheng Shen, Penelope González-Sampériz, Graciela Gil-Romera, Cajo J. F. ter Braak, Iain Colin Prentice, and Sandy P. Harrison
Clim. Past, 19, 803–834, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-803-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-803-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We reconstructed the Holocene climates in the Iberian Peninsula using a large pollen data set and found that the west–east moisture gradient was much flatter than today. We also found that the winter was much colder, which can be expected from the low winter insolation during the Holocene. However, summer temperature did not follow the trend of summer insolation, instead, it was strongly correlated with moisture.
Yicheng Shen, Luke Sweeney, Mengmeng Liu, Jose Antonio Lopez Saez, Sebastián Pérez-Díaz, Reyes Luelmo-Lautenschlaeger, Graciela Gil-Romera, Dana Hoefer, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Heike Schneider, I. Colin Prentice, and Sandy P. Harrison
Clim. Past, 18, 1189–1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1189-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1189-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present a method to reconstruct burnt area using a relationship between pollen and charcoal abundances and the calibration of charcoal abundance using modern observations of burnt area. We use this method to reconstruct changes in burnt area over the past 12 000 years from sites in Iberia. We show that regional changes in burnt area reflect known changes in climate, with a high burnt area during warming intervals and low burnt area when the climate was cooler and/or wetter than today.
Marcel Lerch, Julia Unkelbach, Florian Schneider, Michael Zech, and Michael Klinge
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 71, 91–110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-91-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-91-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Charcoals and leaf waxes from vegetation accumulate in the soil and provide information about past vegetation because they are mostly resistant against physical and biological degradation. Analyzing and comparing ratios of both element types helped us to improve the evidence for vegetation reconstruction. We found that the accumulation processes and preservation of these elements depend on different environmental conditions at forest- and steppe-dominated sites in the Mongolian forest–steppe.
Jakob Labahn, Lucas Bittner, Philip Hirschmann, Christopher-Bastian Roettig, Diana Burghardt, Bruno Glaser, Slobodan B. Marković, and Michael Zech
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 71, 83–90, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-83-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-83-2022, 2022
Sandy P. Harrison, Roberto Villegas-Diaz, Esmeralda Cruz-Silva, Daniel Gallagher, David Kesner, Paul Lincoln, Yicheng Shen, Luke Sweeney, Daniele Colombaroli, Adam Ali, Chéïma Barhoumi, Yves Bergeron, Tatiana Blyakharchuk, Přemysl Bobek, Richard Bradshaw, Jennifer L. Clear, Sambor Czerwiński, Anne-Laure Daniau, John Dodson, Kevin J. Edwards, Mary E. Edwards, Angelica Feurdean, David Foster, Konrad Gajewski, Mariusz Gałka, Michelle Garneau, Thomas Giesecke, Graciela Gil Romera, Martin P. Girardin, Dana Hoefer, Kangyou Huang, Jun Inoue, Eva Jamrichová, Nauris Jasiunas, Wenying Jiang, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Piotr Kołaczek, Niina Kuosmanen, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Martin Lavoie, Fang Li, Jianyong Li, Olga Lisitsyna, José Antonio López-Sáez, Reyes Luelmo-Lautenschlaeger, Gabriel Magnan, Eniko Katalin Magyari, Alekss Maksims, Katarzyna Marcisz, Elena Marinova, Jenn Marlon, Scott Mensing, Joanna Miroslaw-Grabowska, Wyatt Oswald, Sebastián Pérez-Díaz, Ramón Pérez-Obiol, Sanna Piilo, Anneli Poska, Xiaoguang Qin, Cécile C. Remy, Pierre J. H. Richard, Sakari Salonen, Naoko Sasaki, Hieke Schneider, William Shotyk, Migle Stancikaite, Dace Šteinberga, Normunds Stivrins, Hikaru Takahara, Zhihai Tan, Liva Trasune, Charles E. Umbanhowar, Minna Väliranta, Jüri Vassiljev, Xiayun Xiao, Qinghai Xu, Xin Xu, Edyta Zawisza, Yan Zhao, Zheng Zhou, and Jordan Paillard
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1109–1124, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1109-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1109-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We provide a new global data set of charcoal preserved in sediments that can be used to examine how fire regimes have changed during past millennia and to investigate what caused these changes. The individual records have been standardised, and new age models have been constructed to allow better comparison across sites. The data set contains 1681 records from 1477 sites worldwide.
Marcel Lerch, Tobias Bromm, Clemens Geitner, Jean Nicolas Haas, Dieter Schäfer, Bruno Glaser, and Michael Zech
Biogeosciences, 19, 1135–1150, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1135-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1135-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Faecal biomarker analyses present a useful tool in geoarcheological research. For a better understanding of the lives of our ancestors in alpine regions, we investigated modern livestock faeces and Holocene soils at the prehistorical encampment site of Ullafelsen in the Fotsch Valley, Stubai Alps, Austria. Initial results show a high input of livestock faeces and a negligible input of human faeces for this archeological site. Future studies will focus on mire archives in the Fotsch Valley.
Michael Zech, Marcel Lerch, Marcel Bliedtner, Tobias Bromm, Fabian Seemann, Sönke Szidat, Gary Salazar, Roland Zech, Bruno Glaser, Jean Nicolas Haas, Dieter Schäfer, and Clemens Geitner
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 70, 171–186, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-70-171-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-70-171-2021, 2021
Nora Richter, James M. Russell, Johanna Garfinkel, and Yongsong Huang
Clim. Past, 17, 1363–1383, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1363-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1363-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present a reconstruction of winter–spring temperatures developed using organic proxies preserved in well-dated lake sediments from southwest Iceland to assess seasonal temperature changes in the North Atlantic region over the last 2000 years. The gradual warming trend observed in our record is likely influenced by sea surface temperatures, which are sensitive to changes in ocean circulation and seasonal insolation, during the winter and spring season.
Ana Moreno, Miguel Bartolomé, Juan Ignacio López-Moreno, Jorge Pey, Juan Pablo Corella, Jordi García-Orellana, Carlos Sancho, María Leunda, Graciela Gil-Romera, Penélope González-Sampériz, Carlos Pérez-Mejías, Francisco Navarro, Jaime Otero-García, Javier Lapazaran, Esteban Alonso-González, Cristina Cid, Jerónimo López-Martínez, Belén Oliva-Urcia, Sérgio Henrique Faria, María José Sierra, Rocío Millán, Xavier Querol, Andrés Alastuey, and José M. García-Ruíz
The Cryosphere, 15, 1157–1172, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1157-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1157-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Our study of the chronological sequence of Monte Perdido Glacier in the Central Pyrenees (Spain) reveals that, although the intense warming associated with the Roman period or Medieval Climate Anomaly produced important ice mass losses, it was insufficient to make this glacier disappear. By contrast, recent global warming has melted away almost 600 years of ice accumulated since the Little Ice Age, jeopardising the survival of this and other southern European glaciers over the next few decades.
Christopher Lüthgens, Daniela Sauer, and Michael Zech
E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 69, 261–262, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-69-261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-69-261-2021, 2021
Cited articles
Alley, R. B.: The Younger Dryas cold interval as viewed from central Greenland, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 19, 213–226, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00062-1, 2000.
Baxter, A. J., Hopmans, E. C., Russell, J. M., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Bacterial GMGTs in East African lake sediments: Their potential as palaeotemperature indicators, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 259, 155–169, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.05.039, 2019.
Berke, M. A., Johnson, T. C., Werne, J. P., Grice, K., Schouten, S., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Molecular records of climate variability and vegetation response since the Late Pleistocene in the Lake Victoria basin, East Africa, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 55, 59–74, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.08.014, 2012a.
Berke, M. A., Johnson, T. C., Werne, J. P., Schouten, S., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: A mid-Holocene thermal maximum at the end of the African Humid Period, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 351–352, 95–104, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.07.008, 2012b.
Bini, M., Zanchetta, G., Perşoiu, A., Cartier, R., Català, A., Cacho, I., Dean, J. R., Di Rita, F., Drysdale, R. N., Finnè, M., Isola, I., Jalali, B., Lirer, F., Magri, D., Masi, A., Marks, L., Mercuri, A. M., Peyron, O., Sadori, L., Sicre, M.-A., Welc, F., Zielhofer, C., and Brisset, E.: The 4.2 ka BP Event in the Mediterranean region: an overview, Clim. Past, 15, 555–577, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-555-2019, 2019.
Bittner, L.: PCA_code, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7233768, 2022a.
Bittner, L.: Data_Bittner et al., 2022, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7233983, 2022b.
Bittner, L., Bliedtner, M., Grady, D., Gil-Romera, G., Martin-Jones, C., Lemma, B., Mekonnen, B., Lamb, H. F., Yang, H., Glaser, B., Szidat, S., Salazar, G., Rose, N. L., Opgenoorth, L., Miehe, G., Zech, W., and Zech, M.: Revisiting afro-alpine Lake Garba Guracha in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia: rationale, chronology, geochemistry, and paleoenvironmental implications, J. Paleolimnol., 64, 293–314, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-020-00138-w, 2020.
Bittner, L., Gil-Romera, G., Grady, D., Lamb, H. F., Lorenz, E., Weiner, M., Meyer, H., Bromm, T., Glaser, B., and Zech, M.: The Holocene lake-evaporation history of the afro-alpine Lake Garba Guracha in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, based on δ18O records of sugar biomarker and diatoms, Quaternary Res., 105, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2021.26, 2021.
Blom, R. G., Farr, T. G., Feynmann, J., Ruzmaikin, A., and Paillou, P.: The green Sahara: Climate change, hydrologic history and human occupation, IEEE Rad. Conf., 2009, 1–4, https://doi.org/10.1109/RADAR.2009.4977129, 2009.
Bonnefille, R., Chalié, F., Guiot, J., and Vincens, A.: Quantitative estimates of full glacial temperatures in equatorial Africa from palynological data*, Clim. Dynam., 6, 251–257, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193538, 1992.
Castañeda, I. S., Schouten, S., Pätzold, J., Lucassen, F., Kasemann, S., Kuhlmann, H., and Schefuß, E.: Hydroclimate variability in the Nile River Basin during the past 28 000 years, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 438, 47–56, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.12.014, 2016.
Cheddadi, R., Lamb, H. F., Guiot, J., and van der Kaars, S.: Holocene climatic change in Morocco: a quantitative reconstruction from pollen data, Clim. Dynam., 14, 883–890, https://doi.org/10.1007/s003820050262, 1998.
Chevalier, M. and Chase, B. M.: Southeast African records reveal a coherent shift from high- to low-latitude forcing mechanisms along the east African margin across last glacial–interglacial transition, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 125, 117–130, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.07.009, 2015.
Costa, K., Russell, J., Konecky, B., and Lamb, H.: Isotopic reconstruction of the African Humid Period and Congo Air Boundary migration at Lake Tana, Ethiopia, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 83, 58–67, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.10.031, 2014.
Damsté, J. S. S., Hopmans, E. C., Pancost, R. D., Schouten, S., and Geenevasen, J. A. J.: Newly discovered non-isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids in sediments, Chem. Commun., 2000, 1683–1684, https://doi.org/10.1039/b004517i, 2000.
De Jonge, C., Hopmans, E. C., Zell, C. I., Kim, J.-H., Schouten, S., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Occurrence and abundance of 6-methyl branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils: Implications for palaeoclimate reconstruction, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 141, 97–112, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2014.06.013, 2014.
De Jonge, C., Radujković, D., Sigurdsson, B. D., Weedon, J. T., Janssens, I., and Peterse, F.: Lipid biomarker temperature proxy responds to abrupt shift in the bacterial community composition in geothermally heated soils, Org. Geochem., 137, 103897, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2019.07.006, 2019.
De Jonge, C., Kuramae, E. E., Radujković, D., Weedon, J. T., Janssens, I. A., and Peterse, F.: The influence of soil chemistry on branched tetraether lipids in mid- and high latitude soils: Implications for brGDGT-based paleothermometry, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 310, 95–112, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.06.037, 2021.
Dearing Crampton-Flood, E., Tierney, J. E., Peterse, F., Kirkels, F. M. S. A., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: BayMBT: A Bayesian calibration model for branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils and peats, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 268, 142–159, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.09.043, 2020.
Dee, S. G., Morrill, C., Kim, S. H., and Russell, J. M.: Hot Air, Hot Lakes, or Both? Exploring Mid-Holocene African Temperatures Using Proxy System Modeling, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, e2020JD033269, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033269, 2021.
deMenocal, P., Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Adkins, J., Sarnthein, M., Baker, L., and Yarusinsky, M.: Abrupt onset and termination of the African Humid Period:, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 19, 347–361, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00081-5, 2000.
Eggermont, H., Wondafrash, M., Van Damme, M., Lens, K., and Umer M. H.: Bale Moluntains Lakes: Ecosystems under pressure of global change?, Walia, 2011, 171–180, https://hdl.handle.net/10520/AJA00837059_148 (last access: 24 October 2022), 2011.
Eggermont, H., Heiri, O., James, A., Ae, R., Vuille, M., Leen, A., Ae, A., and Verschuren, D.: Paleotemperature reconstruction in tropical Africa using fossil Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera), J. Paleolimnol., 43, 413–435, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-009-9339-2, 2010.
Garelick, S., Russell, J. M., Dee, S., Verschuren, D., and Olago, D. O.: Atmospheric controls on precipitation isotopes and hydroclimate in high-elevation regions in Eastern Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 567, 116984, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2021.116984, 2021.
Garelick, S., Russell, J., Richards, A., Smith, J., Kelly, M., Anderson, N., Jackson, M. S., Doughty, A., Nakileza, B., Ivory, S., Dee, S., and Marshall, C.: The dynamics of warming during the last deglaciation in high-elevation regions of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 281, 107416, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107416, 2022.
Gasse, F.: Hydrological changes in the African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 19, 189–211, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00061-X, 2000.
Gil-Romera, G., Adolf, C., Benito Blas, M., Bittner, L., Johansson, M. M. U., Grady, D. D. A., Lamb, H. H. F., Lemma, B., Fekadu, M., Glaser, B., Mekonnen, B., Sevilla-Callejo, M., Zech, M., Zech, W., and Miehe, G.: Long-term fire resilience of the Ericaceous Belt, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, Biol. Lett.-UK, 15, 20190357, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0357, 2019.
Gil-Romera, G., Fekadu, M., Opgenoorth, L., Grady, D.,
Lamb, H. F., Bittner, L., Zech, M., and Miehe, G.: The new Garba
Guracha palynological sequence: Revision and data expansion, in:
Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics – The African Pollen Database,
edited by: Runge, J., Gosling, W. D., Lézine, A.-M., and Scott, L., CRC Press, London, 442, https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766, 2021.
Groos, A. R., Akçar, N., Yesilyurt, S., Miehe, G., Vockenhuber, C., and Veit, H.: Nonuniform Late Pleistocene glacier fluctuations in tropical Eastern Africa, Science Advances, 7, eabb6826, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6826, 2021a.
Groos, A. R., Niederhauser, J., Wraase, L., Hänsel,
F., Nauss, T., Akçar, N., and Veit, H.: The enigma of relict
large sorted stone stripes in the tropical Ethiopian Highlands,
Earth Surf. Dynam., 9, 145–166, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-145-2021,
2021b.
Halamka, T. A., McFarlin, J. M., Younkin, A. D., Depoy, J., Dildar, N., and Kopf, S. H.: Oxygen limitation can trigger the production of branched GDGTs in culture, Geochemical Perspectives Letters, 19, 36–39, 2021.
Hillman, J.: The Bale Mountains National Park Area, Southeast Ethiopia, and Its Management, Mountain Research and Development, 253 pp., https://doi.org/10.2307/3673456, 1988.
Hopmans, E. C., Weijers, J. W. H., Schefuß, E., Herfort, L., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., and Schouten, S.: A novel proxy for terrestrial organic matter in sediments based on branched and isoprenoid tetraether lipids, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 224, 107–116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2004.05.012, 2004.
Hopmans, E. C., Schouten, S., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: The effect of improved chromatography on GDGT-based palaeoproxies, Org. Geochem., 93, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2015.12.006, 2016.
Hove, H., Echeverria, D., and Parry, J.-E.: Review of current and planned adaptation action: East Africa, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, 2011.
Hughes, A. C., Orr, M. C., Ma, K., Costello, M. J., Waller, J., Provoost, P., Yang, Q., Zhu, C., and Qiao, H.: Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world, Ecography, 44, 1259–1269, https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05926, 2021.
Huguet, C., Kim, J. H., Damsté, J. S. S., and Schouten, S.: Reconstruction of sea surface temperature variations in the Arabian Sea over the last 23 kyr using organic proxies (TEX86 and U37K'), Paleoceanography, 21, PA3003, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005PA001215, 2006.
Huybers, P.: Early Pleistocene Glacial Cycles and the Integrated Summer Insolation Forcing, Science, 313, 508–511, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1125249, 2006.
IPCC: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S. L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., and Chen, Y., Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Ivory, S. J. and Russell, J.: Lowland forest collapse and early human impacts at the end of the African Humid Period at Lake Edward, equatorial East Africa, Quaternary Res., 89, 7–20, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2017.48, 2018.
Jaeschke, A., Thienemann, M., Schefuß, E., Urban, J., Schäbitz, F., Wagner, B., and Rethemeyer, J.: Holocene Hydroclimate Variability and Vegetation Response in the Ethiopian Highlands (Lake Dendi), Front. Earth Sci., 8, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.585770, 2020.
Junginger, A., Roller, S., Olaka, L. A., and Trauth, M. H.: The effects of solar irradiation changes on the migration of the Congo Air Boundary and water levels of paleo-Lake Suguta, Northern Kenya Rift, during the African Humid Period (15–5 ka BP), Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 396, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.12.007, 2014.
Kassambara, A. and Mundt, F.: factoextra: Extract and Visualise the Results of Multivariate Data Analyses, https://cran.r-project.org/package=factoextra (last access: 1 April 2022), 2020.
Kidane, Y., Stahlmann, R., and Beierkuhnlein, C.: Vegetation dynamics, and land use and land cover change in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, Environ. Monit. Assess., 184, 7473–7489, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2514-8, 2012.
Laskar, J., Robutel, P., Joutel, F., Gastineau, M., Correia, A. C. M., and Levrard, B.: A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth, A&A, 428, 261–285, 2004.
Löffler, H.: Limnology and paleolimnological data on the Bale Mountain Lakes, Verth, International Verein. Limnology, 20, 1131–1138, 1978.
Loomis, S. E., Russell, J. M., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Distributions of branched GDGTs in soils and lake sediments from western Uganda: Implications for a lacustrine paleothermometer, Org. Geochem., 42, 739–751, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2011.06.004, 2011.
Loomis, S. E., Russell, J. M., Ladd, B., Street-Perrott, F. A., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Calibration and application of the branched GDGT temperature proxy on East African lake sediments, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 357–358, 277–288, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.09.031, 2012.
Loomis, S. E., Russell, J. M., Heureux, A. M., D'Andrea, W. J., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Seasonal variability of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) in a temperate lake system, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 144, 173–187, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2014.08.027, 2014.
Loomis, S. E., Russell, J. M., and Lamb, H. F.: Northeast African temperature variability since the Late Pleistocene, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 423, 80–90, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.02.005, 2015.
Loomis, S. E., Russell, J. M., Verschuren, D., Morrill, C., De Cort, G., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., Olago, D., Eggermont, H., Street-Perrott, F. A., and Kelly, M. A.: The tropical lapse rate steepened during the Last Glacial Maximum, Science Advances, 3, e1600815, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600815, 2017.
Lyon, B. and Vigaud, N.: Unraveling East Africa's Climate Paradox, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119068020.ch16, 2017.
Marshall, M., Lamb, H., Davies, S., Leng, M., Bedaso, Z., Umer, M., and Bryant, C.: Climatic change in northern Ethiopia during the past 17 000 years: A diatom and stable isotope record from Lake Ashenge, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 279, 114–127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.05.003, 2009.
Martínez-Sosa, P., Tierney, J. E., Stefanescu, I. C., Crampton-Flood, E. D., Shuman, B. N., and Routson, C.: A global Bayesian temperature calibration for lacustrine brGDGTs, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.931169, last access: 6 May 2021.
Miehe, S. and Miehe, G.: Ericaceous forests and heathlands in the Bale mountains of South Ethiopia, Hamburg, Warnke, ISBN
9783980159142, 1994.
Morrissey, A. and Scholz, C. A.: Paleohydrology of Lake Turkana and its influence on the Nile River system, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 403, 88–100, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.03.029, 2014.
Morrissey, A., Scholz, C. A., and Russell, J. M.: Late Quaternary TEX86 paleotemperatures from the world's largest desert lake, Lake Turkana, Kenya, J. Paleolimnol., 59, 103–117, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-016-9939-6, 2018.
Neukom, R., Barboza, L. A., Erb, M. P., Shi, F., Emile-Geay, J., Evans, M. N., Franke, J., Kaufman, D. S., Lücke, L., Rehfeld, K., Schurer, A., Zhu, F., Brönnimann, S., Hakim, G. J., Henley, B. J., Ljungqvist, F. C., McKay, N., Valler, V., and von Gunten, L.: Consistent multidecadal variability in global temperature reconstructions and simulations over the Common Era, Nat. Geosci., 12, 643–649, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0400-0, 2019.
Nicholson, S. E.: Climate and climatic variability of rainfall over eastern Africa, Rev. Geophys., 55, 590–635, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000544, 2017.
Osmaston, H. A., Mitchell, W. A., and Osmaston, J. A. N.: Quaternary glaciation of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, J. Quaternary Sci., 20, 593–606, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.931, 2005.
Ossendorf, G., Groos, A., Bromm, T., Girma Tekelemariam, M., Glaser, B., Lesur, J., Schmidt, J., Akçar, N., Bekele, T., Beldados, A., Demissew, S., Hadush Kahsay, T., Nash, B. P., Nauss, T., Negash, A., Nemomissa, S., Veit, H., Vogelsang, R., Zerihun, W., and Miehe, G.: Middle Stone Age foragers resided in high elevations of the glaciated Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, Science, 365, 583–587, 2019.
Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Russell, J. M., Clark, P. U., Liu, Z., Overpeck, J. T., Konecky, B., DeMenocal, P., Nicholson, S. E., He, F., and Lu, Z.: Coherent changes of south-eastern equatorial and northern African rainfall during the last deglaciation, Science, 346, 1223–1227, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259531, 2014.
Peterse, F., van der Meer, J., Schouten, S., Weijers, J. W. H., Fierer, N., Jackson, R. B., Kim, J.-H., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Revised calibration of the MBT–CBT paleotemperature proxy based on branched tetraether membrane lipids in surface soils, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 96, 215–229, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2012.08.011, 2012.
Powers, L. A., Johnson, T. C., Werne, J. P., Castañeda, I. S., Hopmans, E. C., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., and Schouten, S.: Large temperature variability in the southern African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, 1–4, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL022014, 2005.
R Core Team: R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, https://www.r-project.org/ (last access: 1 April 2022), 2021.
Raberg, J. H., Harning, D. J., Crump, S. E., de Wet, G., Blumm, A., Kopf, S., Geirsdóttir, Á., Miller, G. H., and Sepúlveda, J.: Revised fractional abundances and warm-season temperatures substantially improve brGDGT calibrations in lake sediments, Biogeosciences, 18, 3579–3603, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3579-2021, 2021.
Russell, J. M., Hopmans, E. C., Loomis, S. E., Liang, J., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Distributions of 5- and 6-methyl branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) in East African lake sediment: Effects of temperature, pH, and new lacustrine paleotemperature calibrations, Org. Geochem., 117, 56–69, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2017.12.003, 2018.
Schouten, S., Forster, A., Panoto, F. E., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Towards calibration of the TEX86 palaeothermometer for tropical sea surface temperatures in ancient greenhouse worlds, Org. Geochem., 38, 1537–1546, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2007.05.014, 2007.
Schreuder, L. T., Beets, C. J., Prins, M. A., Hatté, C., and Peterse, F.: Late Pleistocene climate evolution in Southeastern Europe recorded by soil bacterial membrane lipids in Serbian loess, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 449, 141–148, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.02.013, 2016.
Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., Rijpstra, W. I. C., Foesel, B. U., Huber, K. J., Overmann, J., Nakagawa, S., Kim, J. J., Dunfield, P. F., Dedysh, S. N., and Villanueva, L.: An overview of the occurrence of ether- and ester-linked iso-diabolic acid membrane lipids in microbial cultures of the Acidobacteria: Implications for brGDGT paleoproxies for temperature and pH, Org. Geochem., 124, 63–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2018.07.006, 2018.
Thompson, R. S.: The role of paleoclimatic studies in assessing climate change, EOS, 85, 436, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004EO430005, 2004.
Tiercelin, J. J., Gibert, E., Umer, M., Bonnefille, R., Disnar, J. R., Lézine, A. M., Hureau-Mazaudier, D., Travi, Y., Keravis, D., and Lamb, H. F.: High-resolution sedimentary record of the last deglaciation from a high-altitude lake in Ethiopia, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 27, 449–467, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.11.002, 2008.
Tierney, J. E. and deMenocal, P. B.: Abrupt Shifts in Horn of Africa Hydroclimate Since the Last Glacial Maximum, Science, 342, 843–846, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1240411, 2013.
Tierney, J. E. and Russell, J. M.: Abrupt climate change in southeast tropical Africa influenced by Indian monsoon variability and ITCZ migration, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L15709, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029508, 2007.
Tierney, J. E., Russell, J. M., Huang, Y., Damste, J. S. S., Hopmans, E. C., and Cohen, A. S.: Northern Hemisphere Controls on Tropical Southeast African Climate During the Past 60000 Years, Science, 322, 252–255, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1160485, 2008.
Tierney, J. E., Lewis, S. C., Cook, B. I., LeGrande, A. N., and Schmidt, G. A.: Model, proxy and isotopic perspectives on the East African Humid Period, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 307, 103–112, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.04.038, 2011a.
Tierney, J. E., Russell, J. M., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S., Huang, Y., and Verschuren, D.: Late Quaternary behavior of the East African monsoon and the importance of the Congo Air Boundary, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 30, 798–807, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.01.017, 2011b.
Tierney, J. E., Smerdon, J. E., Anchukaitis, K. J., and Seager, R.: Multidecadal variability in East African hydroclimate controlled by the Indian Ocean, Nature, 493, 389–392, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11785, 2013.
Tierney, J. E., Pausata, F. S. R., and Demenocal, P.: Deglacial Indian monsoon failure and North Atlantic stadials linked by Indian Ocean surface cooling, Nat. Geosci., 9, 46–50, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2603, 2016.
Tierney, J. E., Pausata, F. S. R., and DeMenocal, P. B.: Rainfall regimes of the Green Sahara, Science Advances, 3, e1601503, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601503, 2017.
Trauth, M. H., Foerster, V., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H. F., and Schaebitz, F.: Abrupt or gradual? Change point analysis of the late Pleistocene–Holocene climate record from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia, Quaternary Res., 90, 321–330, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2018.30, 2018.
Uhlig, S. and Uhlig, K.: Studies on the Altitudinal Zonation of Forests and Alpine Plants in the Central Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, 153 pp., https://doi.org/10.2307/3673574, 1991.
Uhlig, S. K.: Mountain Forests and the Upper Tree Limit on the Southeastern Plateau of Ethiopia, Mt. Res. Dev., 8, 227–234, https://doi.org/10.2307/3673452, 1988.
Umer, M., Lamb, H. F., Bonnefille, R., Lézine, A. M., Tiercelin, J. J., Gibert, E., Cazet, J. P., and Watrin, J.: Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation history of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 26, 2229–2246, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.05.004, 2007.
van Bree, L. G. J., Peterse, F., Baxter, A. J., De Crop, W., van Grinsven, S., Villanueva, L., Verschuren, D., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Seasonal variability and sources of in situ brGDGT production in a permanently stratified African crater lake, Biogeosciences, 17, 5443–5463, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5443-2020, 2020.
Wagner, B., Wennrich, V., Viehberg, F., Junginger, A., Kolvenbach, A., Rethemeyer, J., Schaebitz, F., and Schmiedl, G.: Holocene rainfall runoff in the central Ethiopian highlands and evolution of the River Nile drainage system as revealed from a sediment record from Lake Dendi, Global Planet. Change, 163, 29–43, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.02.003, 2018.
Wang, H., Liu, W., He, Y., Zhou, A., Zhao, H., Liu, H., Cao, Y., Hu, J., Meng, B., Jiang, J., Kolpakova, M., Krivonogov, S., and Liu, Z.: Salinity-controlled isomerisation of lacustrine brGDGTs impacts the associated MBT5ME' terrestrial temperature index, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 305, 33–48, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.05.004, 2021.
Weber, Y., Damsté, J. S. S., Zopfi, J., De Jonge, C., Gilli, A., Schubert, C. J., Lepori, F., Lehmann, M. F., and Niemann, H.: Redox-dependent niche differentiation provides evidence for multiple bacterial sources of glycerol tetraether lipids in lakes, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 115, 10926–10931, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805186115, 2018.
Weijers, J. W. H., Schefuß, E., Schouten, S., and Damsté, J. S. S.: Coupled thermal and hydrological evolution of tropical Africa over the last deglaciation, Science, 315, 1701–1704, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138131, 2007a.
Weijers, J. W. H., Schouten, S., van den Donker, J. C., Hopmans, E. C., and Sinninghe Damsté, J. S.: Environmental controls on bacterial tetraether membrane lipid distribution in soils, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 71, 703–713, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2006.10.003, 2007b.
Werdecker, J.: Eine Durchquerung des Goba-Massivs in Südäthiopien, Hermann von Wissmann-Festschrift, Tübingen, 132–144, 1962.
Williams, F. M.: The Southeastern Highlands and the Ogaden, edited by: Williams, F. M., Springer International Publishing, Cham, 153–170, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02180-5_15, 2016.
Woldu, Z., Feoli, E., and Nigatu, L.: Partitioning an elevation gradient of vegetation from south-eastern Ethiopia by probabilistic methods, Plant Ecol., 81, 189–198, 1989.
Wu, H., Guiot, J., Brewer, S., and Guo, Z.: Climatic changes in Eurasia and Africa at the last glacial maximum and mid-Holocene: reconstruction from pollen data using inverse vegetation modelling, Clim. Dynam., 29, 211–229, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-007-0231-3, 2007.
Zeng, F. and Yang, H.: Temperature changes reconstructed from branched GDGTs on the central Loess Plateau during the past 130–5 ka, Quaternary Int., 503, 3–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.04.045, 2019.
Short summary
With regard to global warming, an understanding of past temperature changes is becoming increasingly important. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are membrane lipids used globally to reconstruct lake water temperatures. In the Bale Mountains lakes, we find a unique composition of brGDGT isomers. We present a modified local calibration and a new high-altitude temperature reconstruction from the Horn of Africa spanning the last 12.5 kyr.
With regard to global warming, an understanding of past temperature changes is becoming...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint