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A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area
Carbon isotope analysis of four baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) trees from the Pafuri region of South Africa yielded a 1000-year proxy rainfall record. The Pafuri record age model was based on 17 radiocarbon dates, cross correlation of the climate record, and ring structures that were presumed to be...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4948844/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27427912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159361 |
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author | Woodborne, Stephan Gandiwa, Patience Hall, Grant Patrut, Adrian Finch, Jemma |
author_facet | Woodborne, Stephan Gandiwa, Patience Hall, Grant Patrut, Adrian Finch, Jemma |
author_sort | Woodborne, Stephan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Carbon isotope analysis of four baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) trees from the Pafuri region of South Africa yielded a 1000-year proxy rainfall record. The Pafuri record age model was based on 17 radiocarbon dates, cross correlation of the climate record, and ring structures that were presumed to be annual for two of the trees. Here we present the analysis of five additional baobabs from the Mapungubwe region, approximately 200km west of Pafuri. The Mapungubwe chronology demonstrates that ring structures are not necessarily annually formed, and accordingly the Pafuri chronology is revised. Changes in intrinsic water-use efficiency indicate an active response by the trees to elevated atmospheric CO(2), but this has little effect on the environmental signal. The revised Pafuri record, and the new Mapungubwe record correlate significantly with local rainfall. Both records confirm that the Medieval Warm Period was substantially wetter than present, and the Little Ice Age was the driest period in the last 1000 years. Although Mapungubwe is generally drier than Pafuri, both regions experience elevated rainfall peaking between AD 1570 and AD 1620 after which dry conditions persist in the Mapungubwe area until about AD 1840. Differences between the two records correlate with Agulhas Current sea-surface temperature variations suggesting east/west displacement of the temperate tropical trough system as an underlying mechanism. The Pafuri and Mapungubwe records are combined to provide a regional climate proxy record for the northern summer rainfall area of southern Africa. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4948844 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49488442016-08-01 A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area Woodborne, Stephan Gandiwa, Patience Hall, Grant Patrut, Adrian Finch, Jemma PLoS One Research Article Carbon isotope analysis of four baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) trees from the Pafuri region of South Africa yielded a 1000-year proxy rainfall record. The Pafuri record age model was based on 17 radiocarbon dates, cross correlation of the climate record, and ring structures that were presumed to be annual for two of the trees. Here we present the analysis of five additional baobabs from the Mapungubwe region, approximately 200km west of Pafuri. The Mapungubwe chronology demonstrates that ring structures are not necessarily annually formed, and accordingly the Pafuri chronology is revised. Changes in intrinsic water-use efficiency indicate an active response by the trees to elevated atmospheric CO(2), but this has little effect on the environmental signal. The revised Pafuri record, and the new Mapungubwe record correlate significantly with local rainfall. Both records confirm that the Medieval Warm Period was substantially wetter than present, and the Little Ice Age was the driest period in the last 1000 years. Although Mapungubwe is generally drier than Pafuri, both regions experience elevated rainfall peaking between AD 1570 and AD 1620 after which dry conditions persist in the Mapungubwe area until about AD 1840. Differences between the two records correlate with Agulhas Current sea-surface temperature variations suggesting east/west displacement of the temperate tropical trough system as an underlying mechanism. The Pafuri and Mapungubwe records are combined to provide a regional climate proxy record for the northern summer rainfall area of southern Africa. Public Library of Science 2016-07-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4948844/ /pubmed/27427912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159361 Text en © 2016 Woodborne et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Woodborne, Stephan Gandiwa, Patience Hall, Grant Patrut, Adrian Finch, Jemma A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title | A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title_full | A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title_fullStr | A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title_full_unstemmed | A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title_short | A Regional Stable Carbon Isotope Dendro-Climatology from the South African Summer Rainfall Area |
title_sort | regional stable carbon isotope dendro-climatology from the south african summer rainfall area |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4948844/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27427912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159361 |
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