Palynological evidence of climate change and land degradation in the Lake Baringo area, Kenya, East Africa, since AD 1650

Abstract

Paleoenvironmental records derived from pollen, fungal spores, and microscopic charcoal from Lake Baringo, Kenya, reveal a largely dry environment in the East African region since AD 1650. The dry environment is punctuated by a succession of centennial- to decadal-scale wet and dry episodes, disjointed by sharp transitions, including two intense dry episodes that led to drying of the lake at ca. AD 1650 and AD 1720 which coincide with the Little Ice Age (LIA) period in Europe. The Baringo record shows that land degradation in the area began prior to the colonial period in East Africa and has persisted to the present. Land degradation and increased soil erosion in the Lake Baringo drainage basin was severe enough to significantly 'age' the lake sediments due to influx of old carbon resulting in the dating inversion.