Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:59:57.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Kashiru Pollen Sequence (Burundi) Palaeoclimatic Implications for the Last 40,000 yr B.P. in Tropical Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Raymonde Bonnefille  and
Guy Riollet
Raymonde Bonnefille
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire, CNRS, Case 907, Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
Guy Riollet
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire, CNRS, Case 907, Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A continuous pollen record from a central African highland site (3°28′S, 29°34′E) with 15 radio-carbon dates spans at least the last 40,000 yr. Both modern and fossil pollen have been investigated. A clear pattern of changes in vegetation and climate is suggested. Prior to 30,000 yr B.P., the occurrence of the montane conifer forest, including the upper forest limit, indicates climatic conditions colder and drier than now, but more humid than in late-glacial time. Between 30,000 and 15,000 yr B.P., grassland with afroalpine indicators expanded down to 2500-2000 m altitude as a result of dry, and most probably cool, climate; the montane forest persisted in refuges, although much reduced. Forest vegetation with the same floristic composition as today appeared after 13,250 ± 200 yr B.P., suggesting more humid conditions. The occurrence of a possible short-term humid episode about 21,500 yr B.P. is correlated with some high lake-level stages in East Africa and with organic deposits in deep-sea cores from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , July 1988 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Battarbee, R.W., McCallan, M.E., (1974). An evaporation tray technique for estimating absolute pollen numbers. Pollen et Spores. 16, 143-150.Google Scholar
Belokupitov, I.E., Beresnevich, V.V., (1955). Giktorf's peat borers. Turf Prom. 8, 9-10.Google Scholar
Bonnefille, R., (1983). Evidence for a cooler and drier climate in the Ethiopian uplands towards 2.5 Myr ago. Nature (London). 303, 487-491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnefille, R., (1987). Evolution climatique et forestière au Burundi. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences Paris Series 2. 305, 1021-1026.Google Scholar
Bonnefille, R., Hillaire-Marcel, C., (1984). Déterminations préliminaires de l'âge des tourbières. Histoire Rurale. Centre de Recherches Africaines/Bujumbura, Département Histoire Université, Paris, 82-83.Google Scholar
Bonnefille, R., Lézine, A.M., (1982). Evolution des climats dans les zones intertropicales d'Afrique orientale. 1st Meeting R&D Programme in the Field of Environment. Climatology Sub-programme, Contact group: “Reconstitution of Past Climates”. Brussels, Dec. 1981C.E.E. XII/CLI/2/82. 89-96, Abstracts.Google Scholar
Bonnefille, R., Riollet, G., (1984). L'histoire forestière du Burundi d'après l'étude des tourbières. Histoire Rurale. Centre de Recherches Africaines/Bujumbura, Département Histoire Université, Paris, 71-81.Google Scholar
Bonnefille, R., Rossignol-Strick, M., Riollet, G., (1982). Organic matter and palynology of DSDP site 367 Pliocene-Pleistocene cores off West Africa. Oceanologica Acta. 8, 97-104.Google Scholar
Bultot, F., (1964). Sur la délimitation de la zone tropicale humide. Bulletin des Séances de l'Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, Bruxelles. 2, 406-412.Google Scholar
Bultot, F., Rwanda and Burundi. Griffiths, J.F., (1972). Climates of Africa. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 349-366.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1980). The Holocene lake plain of North Rudolf, East Africa. Physical Geography. 1, 42-58.Google Scholar
Caratini, C., Giresse, P., (1979). Contribution palynologique à la connaissance des environnements continentaux et marins du Congo à la fin du Quaternaire. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences Paris Series D. 288, 379-382.Google Scholar
Chrétien, J.P., (1983). Histoire Rurale de l'Afrique des Grands Lacs: Guide de Recherche. AFERA, Paris.Google Scholar
Cita, M.B., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C., Robert, C., Chamley, H., Ciaranfi, N., D'Onofrio, S., (1977). Paleoclimatic record of a long deep sea core from the eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Research. 8, 205-235.Google Scholar
Coetzee, J.A., (1967). Pollen Analytical Studies in East and Southern Africa. Balkema, Cape Town.Google Scholar
de Heinzelin, J., (1962). Carte des extensions glaciaires du Ruwenzori (versant congolais). Biuletyn Periglacjalny. 11, 133-139.Google Scholar
Denny, P., (1985). The Ecology and Management of African Wetland Vegetation: A Botanical Account of African Swamps and Shallow Waterbodies. Junk, Boston.Google Scholar
Deuse, P., (1966). Contribution à l'étude des tourbières du Rwanda et du Burundi. Publication de l'Institut National de Recherche scientifique Butaré, Rwanda. 4, 53-115.Google Scholar
Faure, H., (1969). Lacs quaternaires du Sahara. Mitteilungen Internationalen Vereinigung Limnologica. 17, 131-146.Google Scholar
Flenley, J., (1979). The Equatorial Rain Forest, a Geological History. Butterworths, London/Boston.Google Scholar
Flenley, J., (1952)Flore du Congo Belge et du Ruanda Urundi. Inst. Natl. Etudes Agronomiques Congo belge, Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Fries, R.E., Fries, T.C.E., (1948). Phytogeographical researches on Mt Kenya and Mt Aberdare, British East Africa. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskayos akademiens Handlingar. 3, 25/5.Google Scholar
Gasse, F., (1977). Evolution of Lake Abhé (Ethiopia and T.F.A.I.) from 70,000 B.P.. Nature (London). 265, 42-45.Google Scholar
Hamilton, A., (1982). Environmental History of East Africa: A Study of the Quaternary. Academic Press, New York/London.Google Scholar
Hamilton, A., Taylor, D., Mire sediments in East Africa. Frostick, L.E., (1986). Sedimentation in the African Rifts. Spec. Paper, 25. Geol. Soc, London, 211-217.Google Scholar
Hamilton, A., Taylor, D., Vogel, J.C., (1986). Early forest clearance and environmental degradation in south-west Uganda. Nature (London). 320, 164-167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, A.C., Perrott, R.A., (1980). Modern pollen deposition on a tropical African mountain. Pollen et spores. 23, 437-468.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S., (1984). The Glaciers of Equatorial East Africa. Reidel, Boston.Google Scholar
Hedberg, O., (1951). Vegetation belts of the East African Mountains. Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift. 45, 140-202.Google Scholar
Hedberg, O., (1954). A pollen-analytical reconnaissance in tropical East Africa. Oikos. 5, 137-166.Google Scholar
Hieke, W., (1976). Problems of eastern Mediterranean Late Quaternary stratigraphy, a critical evaluation of literature. Meteor-Forschung Eergebnisse C. 24, 68-88.Google Scholar
Kendall, R.L., (1969). An ecological history of the lake Victoria Basin. Ecological Monographs. 39, 121-176.Google Scholar
Ladd, P.G., (1977). Pollen morphology of some members of the Restionaceae and related families with notes on the fossil record. Grana. 16, 1-14.Google Scholar
Lebrun, J., (1960). Sur une méthode de délimitation des horizons et étages de végétation des montagnes du Congo oriental. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'Etat de Bruxelles. 30, 75-94.Google Scholar
Leroux, M., (1983). Le climat de l'Afrique tropicale. Champion, Paris.Google Scholar
Lewalle, J., (1972). Les étages de végétation du Burundi occidental. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique. 42, 1-247.Google Scholar
Linder, H.P., (1984). A phylogenetic classification of the genera of the African Restionaceae. Bothalia. 15, 11-76.Google Scholar
Linder, H.P., Ferguson, K., (1985). On the pollen morphology and phylogeny of the Restionales and Poales. Grana. 24, 65-76.Google Scholar
Livingstone, D.A., (1962). Age of the deglaciation in the Ruwenzori Range, Uganda. Nature (London). 194, 859-860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingstone, D.A., (1967). Postglacial vegetation of the Ruwenzori Mountains in equatorial Africa. Ecological Monographs. 37, 25-52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingstone, D.A., (1971). A 22,000 years pollen record from the plateau of Zambia. Limnology and Oeanography. 16, 349-356.Google Scholar
Livingstone, D.A., (1975). Late Quaternary climatic change in Africa. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 6, 249-280.Google Scholar
Maret, P., (1985). Recent archaeological research and dates from Central Africa. Journal of African History. 26, 129-148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osmaston, H.A., (1958). Pollen Analysis in the Study of the Past Vegetation and Climate of Ruwenzori and Its Neighbourhood. Unpublished B.Sci. Thesis. University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Pastouret, L., Chamley, H., Delibrias, G., Duplessy, J.C., Thiede, J., (1978). Late Quaternary climatic changes in western tropical Africa deduced from deep-sea sedimentation off the Niger delta. Oceanologica Acta. 1, 217-232.Google Scholar
Perrott, F., Street-Perrott, F.A., . New evidence for a late pleistocene wet phase in the northern intertropical Africa. Coetzee, J.A., Van Zinderen Bakker, E.M., (1982). Palaeoecology of Africa. Vol. 14 Balkema, Rotterdam, 57-75.Google Scholar
Richardson, J.L., Harvey, T.J., Holdship, S.A., (1978). Diatom in the history of shallow East African lakes. Polish Archives of Hydrobiology. 25, 341-353.Google Scholar
Robyns, W., (1948). Introduction. Flore des Spermatophytes du Parc national Albert ler. XV-XLIX IPNCB, Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Rossignol-Strick, M., Nesteroff, W., Olive, P., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C., (1982). After the deluge, Mediterranean stagnation and sapropel formation. Nature (London). 295, 105-110.Google Scholar
Scott, L., (1982). A late Quaternary pollen record from the Transvaal bushveld, South Africa. Quaternary Research. 17, 339-370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Servant, M., Servant-Vildary, S., L'environnement quaternaire du bassin du Tchad au Quaternaire. Williams, M.A.J., Faure, H., (1980). The Sahara and the Nile. Balkema, Rotterdam, 133-162.Google Scholar
Stanley, D.J., Maldonado, A., (1977). Nile cone, late Quaternary stratigraphy and sediment dispersal. Nature (London). 266, 129-135.Google Scholar
Street, F.A., Grove, A.T., (1979). Global maps of lake level fluctuations since 30,000 B.P.. Quaternary Research. 12, 83-118.Google Scholar
Street, F.A., Harrison, S.P., (1984). Temporal variations in lake levels since 30,000 yr BP: An index of the global hydrological cycle. Climate Processes and Climate Sensitivity. Geophysical Monographs 29. Ewing, Kingston, NJ, 118-129.Google Scholar
Talbot, M.R., Livingstone, D.A., Palmer, P.G., Maley, J., Melack, J.M., Delibrias, G., Gulliksen, S., (1984). Preliminary results from sediment cores from Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana. Palaeoecology of Africa. Vol. 16, 173-192.Google Scholar
Thompson, K., Hamilton, A.C., Peatlands and swamps of the African continent. Gore, A.J.P., (1983). Mires, Swamps, Bog, Fen, and Moor, B, Regional Studies. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 331-373.Google Scholar
Troupin, G., (1978). Flore du Rwanda: Spermatophytes 1. Mus. R. Afr. Centr, Tervuren.Google Scholar
Troupin, G., (1982). Flore des plantes ligneuses du Rwanda. Mus. R. Afr. Centr, Tervuren.Google Scholar
Troupin, G., (1983). Flore du Rwanda: Spermatophytes 2. Mus. R. Afr. Centr, Tervuren.Google Scholar
Troupin, G., (1985). Flore du Rwanda: Spermatophytes 3. Mus. R. Afr. Centr, Tervuren.Google Scholar
Van Grunderbeek, M.C., Roche, E., Doutrelepont, H., (1983). Le premier Age du Fer au Rwanda et au Burundi, archéologie et environnement. International postgraduate training Course on Fundamental and Applied Quaternary geology (IFAQ), Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Van Zinderen Bakker, E.M., (1964). A pollen diagram from equatorial Africa, Cherangani, Kenya. Geologie en Mijnbouw. 43, 123-128.Google Scholar
Van Zinderen Bakker, E.M., Upper Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphy and ecology on the basis of vegetation changes in Subsaharan Africa. Bishop, W.W., Clark, J.D., (1967). Background to Evolution in Africa. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 125-147.Google Scholar
White, F., (1983). The Vegetation of Africa. Unesco, Paris.Google Scholar