image: The Mauritanian Sahara after a rainy day. view more
Credit: Image Credit: Rachid Cheddadi
By analyzing a sediment core from Lake Tislit, Morocco, researchers assembled a climate record of seasonal precipitation in Morocco over the past 18,500 years, and using vegetation model simulations, demonstrated that greenery in the Sahara expanded during the African Humid Period due to increased winter precipitation rather than due to a northward expansion of the monsoon; according to the authors, Sahara greenery was generated by a rainy season in winter in combination with intensified summer monsoons that did not reach the Mediterranean.
Article #20-24898: "Early Holocene greening of the Sahara requires Mediterranean winter rainfall," by Rachid Cheddadi.
MEDIA CONTACT: Rachid Cheddadi, University of Montpellier, FRANCE; email: rachid.cheddadi@umontpellier.fr>
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences