A 250-YEAR ISOTOPIC PROXY RAINFALL RECORD FROM SOUTHERN BOTSWANA

Stephan  WOODBORNE; Grant  HALL; Connor W.  JONES; Neil J.  LOADER; Adrian  PATRUT; Roxana T.  PATRUT; Iain  ROBERTSON; Stephan R.  WINKLER; Christiaan W.  WINTERBACH

doi:10.24193/subbchem.2018.1.09

A 250-YEAR ISOTOPIC PROXY RAINFALL RECORD FROM SOUTHERN BOTSWANA

Authors

Stephan WOODBORNE iThemba LABS; Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Email: swoodborne@tlabs.ac.za. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8573-8626
Grant HALL Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Email: Grant.Hall@up.ac.za. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2164-4900
Connor W. JONES Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom. Corresponding author: swoodborne@tlabs.ac.za.
Neil J. LOADER Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom. Email: n.j.loader@swansea.ac.uk. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6841-1813
Adrian PATRUT Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University; Raluca Ripan Institute for Research in Chemistry, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: apatrut@chem.ubbcluj. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9862-6735
Roxana T. PATRUT Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: roxanapatrut@yahoo.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8691-2160
Iain ROBERTSON Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom. Email: i.robertson@swansea.ac.uk. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7174-4523
Stephan R. WINKLER Themba LABS; Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Helmholtz-Zentrum, Dresden, Germany. Email: stephan.winkler@hzdr.de. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-3260
Christiaan W. WINTERBACH iThemba LABS; Mammal Research Institute, Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Email: tauconsultants@gmail.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4017-9167

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbchem.2018.1.09

Keywords:

ENSO, drought, Southern Africa, AMS radiocarbon dating, Vachellia erioloba, oxygen isotopes, carbon isotopes.

Abstract

Climate records along aridity gradients where manifestations of climate change are most profound, are important for testing climate models. The Kalahari Transect spans such a gradient, but instrumental records of climate parameters are limited in the sparsely populated region. We analysed the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O record from a Vachellia erioloba (E.Mey) tree from the southern Kalahari Desert in Botswana to explore its potential as a climate proxy archive. Radiocarbon dates show that the record spans the period 1758-2013 CE. Both the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O records correlate with local rainfall. The isotope proxies show a weak positive correlation with sea-surface temperature reconstruction from the southwestern Indian Ocean, and a stronger correlation with the El Niño Southern Oscillation index. This appears to contradict previous evidence that higher sea-surface temperatures are associated with reduced summer rainfall over the southern African interior. Instead of eastward shifts in the temperate tropical trough synoptic system during elevated southwestern Indian Ocean temperature anomalies, the evidence supports a westwards shift. The result demonstrates the potential of Vachellia erioloba as a climate proxy archive that may yield past climate variability from the arid regions of southern Africa.

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STUDIA UBB CHEMIA, Volume 63 (LXIII), No. 1, March 2018

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Published

2018-03-30

How to Cite

WOODBORNE, S. ., HALL, G. ., JONES, C. W. ., LOADER, N. J. ., PATRUT, A. ., PATRUT, R. T. ., … WINTERBACH, C. W. . (2018). A 250-YEAR ISOTOPIC PROXY RAINFALL RECORD FROM SOUTHERN BOTSWANA. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Chemia, 63(1), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbchem.2018.1.09