Influence of rainfall seasonality on African lowland vegetation during the Late Quaternary: pollen evidence from Lake Masoko, Tanzania

Aim To determine if changes in the key bioclimatic parameters associated with rainfall seasonality can be quantified from fossil sequences and to distinguish them from changes in the total annual rainfall. Location Lake Masoko, southern Tanzania (9 degrees 20' S, 33 degrees 45' E, 840 m a.s.l.). Methods Fossil pollen was extracted from a long and well-dated sedimentary sequence spanning the period 45,000-4400 cal. yr BP. The modern habitat, geographical distribution and climatic range (mean annual rainfall and temperature, and length of the dry season) of selected East African plants were used to infer past rainfall attributes for the most characteristic fossil pollen taxa identified from the sediments of Lake Masoko. Results In the Masoko pollen sequence it has been possible to identify changes in the length/severity of the dry season during the last 45,000 cal. yr BP, which are interpreted to reflect shifts in the mean position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the southern tropics. We suggest that this bioclimatic parameter has been the main driver of the vegetation dynamics in this area. The major inferred change occurred at the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition c. 11,800 cal. yr BP, when semi-deciduous forest disappeared, being replaced in the lake catchment by woodland, which persists to the present day in spite of locally high rainfall. Main conclusions In tropical regions under the influence of the ITCZ, the position and strength of which determine the distribution of rainfall through the year, more attention must be paid to the impact of the length and intensity of the dry season on the modern and past distribution and dynamics of the vegetation. This climatic parameter is as important as the total annual amount of rainfall, and probably one of the most relevant in lowland areas.