Climate Change, Lacustrine Zone

Abstract

Due to its position in the trough of the East African Rift Valley, the Great Lakes region has experienced significant effects from changes to earth's climate during the Holocene. Annually migrating atmospheric pressure systems bring oceanic moisture inland, causing precipitation mainly in the highlands that charges groundwater systems in the lowlands. Although the Holocene has been a relatively stable climatic epoch for most of the planet, the lacustrine region of eastern Africa has experienced significant hydrologic variability. The African Humid Period brought significantly higher rainfall to the northern two‐thirds of the continent, including most of the lacustrine zone, but had a minimal impact on lake levels in the southern aspect of the region. Lake records show that after 2000 bce the northern region experienced lower average precipitation while lake levels rose on balance across the southern region. However, high‐resolution records consistently demonstrate that there is significant variability in the tempo and spatial application of precipitation and vegetation in East African lakes. Additionally, since the advent of the Common Era, there are increasingly obvious impacts of human landscape disturbance on the region's ecology, affecting lake levels and biodiversity.