A predominantly tropical influence on late Holocene hydroclimate variation in the hyperarid central Sahara

A new lake sediment record from Ounianga Serir oasis reveals that the central Sahara experienced hyperaridity more extreme than today around 4200 years ago. The hypersaline terminal lake, sustained by fossil groundwater inflow, remained stable throughout the late Holocene but exhibited sensitivity to local rainfall and evaporation variations. Geochemical proxies indicate that century-scale hydroclimate changes in this region were primarily driven by tropical West African monsoon intensity, with shorter-term fluctuations influenced by midlatitude Atlantic Ocean circulation shifts.

Van der Meeren, T., Verschuren, D., Sylvestre, F., Nassour, Y. A., Naudts, E. L., Aguilar Ortiz, L. E., Deschamps, P., Tachikawa, K., Bard, E., Schuster, M., & Abderamane, M. (2022). A predominantly tropical influence on late Holocene hydroclimate variation in the hyperarid central Sahara. Science Advances, 8(14). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk1261