Diatom-inferred salinity and carbonate oxygen isotopes in Holocene waterbodies of the western Sahara and Sahel (Africa)

Abstract

Thirteen Holocene palaeolakes in the western Sahara and Sahel have provided diatom records, with carbonate oxygen isotope profiles available from eight of them. Most of these palaeolakes were groundwater-fed. Lake water chemistry is reconstructed using diatom transfer functions. Lake water salinity and 18O records are assembled with some isotopic and chemical groundwater data to better understand the response of the hydrological systems to climate changes over the past 15,000 yr. Data are in general agreement with climate simulations using coupled atmosphere–ocean–vegetation models which show a mid-Holocene wetting over the whole of northwest Africa, and a rapid drying by 6–4 ka. The lake record also shows that at many sites the major lake infilling lags the end of the Younger Dryas by 1–2 ka. Regional differences also appear in the timing of the lake hydrological optimum: ca. 10.5–8.5 and 7.5–4.5 ka in the northern Sahara, 10–8.5 ka in the Aı̈r–Ténéré, 10–5.7 or 4.5 in the Sahel, and 7.5 ka in Lake Chad. The whole of the Holocene is punctuated by short-term drying events. Changes in water isotopic composition through time are partly explained by changes in rainfall amount and air humidity. During the wet Holocene period however, the very low δ values in the southern Sahara also imply changes in the moisture transport pattern or rainfall mechanisms. Data suggest an apparent decrease in 18O content of precipitation along the monsoon flow, in contrast with modern patterns. Changes in water availability and quality have driven population migrations in and out of the Sahara-Sahel, but relationships between climate and cultures are complex. Short-term dry events might have driven inventive adaptations. In the Sahara, drying at 5–4.5 ka coincides with both the collapse of the classical Neolithic civilization and the settlement of new cultures.