Thomas, N. & Nigam, S. Twentieth-century climate change over Africa: seasonal hydroclimate trends and Sahara desert expansion. J. Clim. 31, 3349–3370 (2018).
Google Scholar
Maley J. in The Sahara and the Nile (eds Martin A. J. Williams and Hugues Faure) 63–86 (Balkema, 1980).
deMenocal, P. B. Plio-Pleistocene African climate. Science 270, 53–59 (1995).
Google Scholar
Trauth, M. H., Larrasoaña, J. C. & Mudelsee, M. Trends, rhythms and events in Plio-Pleistocene African climate. Quat. Sci. Rev. 28, 399–411 (2009).
Google Scholar
Muhs, D. R. et al. The antiquity of the Sahara desert: new evidence from the mineralogy and geochemistry of Pliocene paleosols on the Canary Islands, Spain. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 533, 109245 (2019).
Google Scholar
Schuster, M. et al. The age of the Sahara desert. Science 311, 821 (2006).
Google Scholar
Zhang, Z. et al. Aridification of the Sahara desert caused by Tethys Sea shrinkage during the late Miocene. Nature 513, 401–404 (2014).
Google Scholar
Kroepelin, S. & Swezey, C. S. Revisiting the age of the Sahara desert. Science 312, 1138–1139 (2006).
Google Scholar
McQuarrie, N. & van Hinsbergen, D. J. J. Retrodeforming the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone: age of collision versus magnitude of continental subduction. Geology 41, 315–318 (2013).
Google Scholar
Allen, M. B. & Armstrong, H. A. Arabia–Eurasia collision and the forcing of mid-Cenozoic global cooling. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 265, 52–58 (2008).
Google Scholar
Tiedemann, R., Sarnthein, M. & Shackleton, N. J. Astronomic timescale for the Pliocene Atlantic δ18O and dust flux records of Ocean Drilling Program Site 659. Paleoceanography 9, 619–638 (1994).
Google Scholar
Tjallingii, R. et al. Coherent high- and low-latitude control of the northwest African hydrological balance. Nat. Geosci. 1, 670–675 (2008).
Google Scholar
Skonieczny, C. et al. African humid periods triggered the reactivation of a large river system in western Sahara. Nat. Commun. 6, 8751 (2015).
Google Scholar
Ruddiman. W. F. et al. (eds) Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program: Scientific Results Vol. 108 (ODP, 1989).
Skonieczny, C. et al. Monsoon-driven Saharan dust variability over the past 240,000 years. Sci. Adv. 5, eaav1887 (2019).
Google Scholar
McGee, D., deMenocal, P. B., Winckler, G., Stuut, J. B. W. & Bradtmiller, L. I. The magnitude, timing and abruptness of changes in North African dust deposition over the last 20,000 yr. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 371–372, 163–176 (2013).
Google Scholar
Mulitza, S. et al. Increase in African dust flux at the onset of commercial agriculture in the Sahel region. Nature 466, 226–228 (2010).
Google Scholar
Drake, N. A., Blench, R. M., Armitage, S. J., Bristow, C. S. & White, K. H. Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 458–462 (2011).
Google Scholar
Larrasoaña, J. C., Roberts, A. P. & Rohling, E. J. Dynamics of green Sahara periods and their role in hominin evolution. PLoS ONE 8, e76514 (2013).
Google Scholar
Tierney, J. E., Pausata, F. S. R. & deMenocal, P. B. Rainfall regimes of the green Sahara. Sci. Adv. 3, e1601503 (2017).
Google Scholar
Mori, F. The earliest Saharan rock-engravings. Antiquity 48, 87–92 (1974).
Google Scholar
McGee, D., Broecker, W. S. & Winckler, G. Gustiness: the driver of glacial dustiness? Quat. Sci. Rev. 29, 2340–2350 (2010).
Google Scholar
Herbert, T. D. et al. Late Miocene global cooling and the rise of modern ecosystems. Nat. Geosci. 9, 843–847 (2016).
Google Scholar
Abell, J. T., Winckler, G., Anderson, R. F. & Herbert, T. D. Poleward and weakened westerlies during Pliocene warmth. Nature 589, 70–75 (2021).
Google Scholar
Burls, N. J. & Fedorov, A. V. Wetter subtropics in a warmer world: contrasting past and future hydrological cycles. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 12888–12893 (2017).
Google Scholar
Moussa, A. et al. Lake Chad sedimentation and environments during the late Miocene and Pliocene: new evidence from mineralogy and chemistry of the Bol core sediments. J. Afr. Earth. Sci. 118, 192–204 (2016).
Google Scholar
Washington, R., Todd, M., Middleton, N. J. & Goudie, A. S. Dust‐storm source areas determined by the total ozone monitoring spectrometer and surface observations. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geographers 93, 297–313 (2003).
Google Scholar
Schepanski, K., Tegen, I. & Macke, A. Comparison of satellite based observations of Saharan dust source areas. Remote Sens. Environ. 123, 90–97 (2012).
Google Scholar
Westerhold, T. et al. An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years. Science 369, 1383–1387 (2020).
Google Scholar
Sarnthein, M. et al. in Geology of the Northwest African Continental Margin (eds von Rad, U. et al.) 545–604 (Springer, 1982).
Jewell, A. M. et al. Three North African dust source areas and their geochemical fingerprint. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 554, 116645 (2021).
Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E. et al. Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Nature 389, 153–158 (1997).
Google Scholar
Feakins, S. J. et al. Northeast African vegetation change over 12 m.y. Geology 41, 295–298 (2013).
Google Scholar
Pagani, M., Freeman, K. H. & Arthur, M. A. Late Miocene atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the expansion of C4 grasses. Science 285, 876–879 (1999).
Google Scholar
Beerling, D. J. & Osborne, C. P. The origin of the savanna biome. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 2023–2031 (2006).
Google Scholar
Polissar, P. J., Rose, C., Uno, K. T., Phelps, S. R. & deMenocal, P. Synchronous rise of African C4 ecosystems 10 million years ago in the absence of aridification. Nat. Geosci. 12, 657–660 (2019).
Google Scholar
Hoetzel, S., Dupont, L., Schefuß, E., Rommerskirchen, F. & Wefer, G. The role of fire in Miocene to Pliocene C4 grassland and ecosystem evolution. Nat. Geosci. 6, 1027–1030 (2013).
Google Scholar
Naafs, B. D. A. et al. Strengthening of North American dust sources during the late Pliocene (2.7 Ma). Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 317–318, 8–19 (2012).
Google Scholar
Kuechler, R. R., Dupont, L. M. & Schefuß, E. Hybrid insolation forcing of Pliocene monsoon dynamics in West Africa. Clim. Past 14, 73–84 (2018).
Google Scholar
Kuechler, R. R., Schefuß, E., Beckmann, B., Dupont, L. & Wefer, G. NW African hydrology and vegetation during the last glacial cycle reflected in plant-wax-specific hydrogen and carbon isotopes. Quat. Sci. Rev. 82, 56–67 (2013).
Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E. et al. Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years. Nature 476, 51–56 (2011).
Google Scholar
Faith, J. T., Rowan, J., Du, A. & Koch, P. L. Plio-Pleistocene decline of African megaherbivores: no evidence for ancient hominin impacts. Science 362, 938–941 (2018).
Google Scholar
Potts, R. Hominin evolution in settings of strong environmental variability. Quat. Sci. Rev. 73, 1–13 (2013).
Google Scholar
Maslin, M. A. et al. East African climate pulses and early human evolution. Quat. Sci. Rev. 101, 1–17 (2014).
Google Scholar
Zollikofer, C. P. E. et al. Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Nature 434, 755 (2005).
Google Scholar
DiMaggio, E. N. et al. Late Pliocene fossiliferous sedimentary record and the environmental context of early Homo from Afar, Ethiopia. Science 347, 1355–1359 (2015).
Google Scholar
Bobe, R. & Wood, B. Estimating origination times from the early hominin fossil record. Evol. Anthropol. 31, 92–102 (2022).
Uno, K. T., Polissar, P. J., Jackson, K. E. & deMenocal, P. B. Neogene biomarker record of vegetation change in eastern Africa. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 201521267 (2016).
Google Scholar
Laskar, J. et al. A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth. Astron. Astrophys. 428, 261–285 (2004).
Google Scholar
Kumar, A. et al. Seasonal radiogenic isotopic variability of the African dust outflow to the tropical Atlantic Ocean and across to the Caribbean. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 487, 94–105 (2018).
Google Scholar
Gama, C. et al. Seasonal patterns of Saharan dust over Cape Verde—a combined approach using observations and modelling. Tellus B 67, 24410 (2015).
Google Scholar
Patey, M. D., Achterberg, E. P., Rijkenberg, M. J. & Pearce, R. Aerosol time-series measurements over the tropical Northeast Atlantic Ocean: dust sources, elemental composition and mineralogy. Mar. Chem. 174, 103–119 (2015).
Google Scholar
Skonieczny, C. et al. A three-year time series of mineral dust deposits on the West African margin: sedimentological and geochemical signatures and implications for interpretation of marine paleo-dust records. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 364, 145–156 (2013).
Google Scholar
Ratmeyer, V., Fischer, G. & Wefer, G. Lithogenic particle fluxes and grain size distributions in the deep ocean off northwest Africa: mplications for seasonal changes of aeolian dust input and downward transport. Deep Sea Res. 1 46, 1289–1337 (1999).
Google Scholar
Bory, A. et al. Atmospheric and oceanic dust fluxes in the northeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean: how close a coupling? Ann. Geophys. 20, 2067–2076 (2002).
Google Scholar
Chiapello, I. et al. Origins of African dust transported over the northeastern tropical Atlantic. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 102, 13701–13709 (1997).
Google Scholar
Stuut, J.-B. et al. Provenance of present-day eolian dust collected off NW Africa. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 110, D04202 (2005).
Google Scholar
Schepanski, K., Tegen, I. & Macke, A. Saharan dust transport and deposition towards the tropical northern Atlantic. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 9, 1173–1189 (2009).
Google Scholar
Caquineau, S., Gaudichet, A., Gomes, L. & Legrand, M. Mineralogy of Saharan dust transported over northwestern tropical Atlantic Ocean in relation to source regions. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 107, 4251 (2002).
Google Scholar
Formenti, P. et al. Regional variability of the composition of mineral dust from western Africa: results from the AMMA SOP0/DABEX and DODO field campaigns. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 113, D00C13 (2008).
Google Scholar
Friese, C. A., van Hateren, J. A., Vogt, C., Fischer, G. & Stuut, J.-B. W. Seasonal provenance changes in present-day Saharan dust collected in and off Mauritania. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 17, 10163 (2017).
Google Scholar
McConnell, C. L. et al. Seasonal variations of the physical and optical characteristics of Saharan dust: results from the Dust Outflow and Deposition to the Ocean (DODO) experiment. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 113, D14S05 (2008).
Google Scholar
Salvador, P. et al. Composition and origin of PM10 in Cape Verde: characterization of long-range transport episodes. Atmos. Environ. 127, 326–339 (2016).
Google Scholar
Skonieczny, C. et al. The 7-13 March 2006 major Saharan outbreak: multiproxy characterization of mineral dust deposited on the West African margin. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 116, D18210 (2011).
Google Scholar
Zhao, W., Balsam, W., Williams, E., Long, X. & Ji, J. Sr–Nd–Hf isotopic fingerprinting of transatlantic dust derived from North Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 486, 23–31 (2018).
Google Scholar
Holz, C., Stuut, J.-B. W. & Henrich, R. Terrigenous sedimentation processes along the continental margin off NW Africa: implications from grain-size analysis of seabed sediments. Sedimentology 51, 1145–1154 (2004).
Google Scholar
Matthewson, A. P., Shimmield, G. B., Kroon, D. & Fallick, A. E. A 300 kyr high‐resolution aridity record of the North African continent. Paleoceanography 10, 677–692 (1995).
Google Scholar
Wilkens, R. H. et al. Revisiting Ceara Rise, equatorial Atlantic Ocean: isotope stratigraphy ODP leg 154 from 0 to 5 Ma. Clim. Past 13, 779–793 (2017).
Google Scholar
Manivit, H. in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program: Scientific Results Vol. 108 (eds Ruddiman, W. et al.) 35–69 (ODP, 1989).
Raffi, I. et al. A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years. Quat. Sci. Rev. 25, 3113–3137 (2006).
Google Scholar
Ogg, J. G. in The Geologic Time Scale (eds Gradstein, F. M. et al.) 85–113 (Elsevier, 2012).
Wade, B. S., Pearson, P. N., Berggren, W. A. & Pälike, H. Review and revision of Cenozoic tropical planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy and calibration to the geomagnetic polarity and astronomical time scale. Earth Sci. Rev. 104, 111–142 (2011).
Google Scholar
Lisiecki, L. E. & Raymo, M. E. A Pliocene–Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records. Paleoceanography 20, PA1003 (2005).
Grinsted, A., Moore, J. C. & Jevrejeva, S. Application of the cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence to geophysical time series. Nonlinear Process. Geophys. 11, 561–566 (2004).
Google Scholar
Schulz, M. & Mudelsee, M. REDFIT: estimating red-noise spectra directly from unevenly spaced paleoclimatic time series. Comput. Geosci. 28, 421–426 (2002).
Google Scholar
Weltje, G. J. & Tjallingii, R. Calibration of XRF core scanners for quantitative geochemical logging of sediment cores: theory and application. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 274, 423–438 (2008).
Google Scholar
Weltje, G. J. et al. in Micro-XRF Studies of Sediment Cores (eds Croudace, I. W. & Rothwell, R. G.) 507–534 (Springer, 2015).
Bloemsma, M. R. Development of a Modelling Framework for Core Data Integration using XRF Scanning (Delft University of Technology, 2015).
Gac, J.-Y. & Kane, A. Le fleuve Sénégal: I. Bilan hydrologique et flux continentaux de matières particulaires à l’embouchure. Sci. Geol. Mem. 31, 99–130 (1986).
Scheuvens, D., Schütz, L., Kandler, K., Ebert, M. & Weinbruch, S. Bulk composition of northern African dust and its source sediments—a compilation. Earth Sci. Rev. 116, 170–194 (2013).
Google Scholar
Orange, D. & Gac, J.-Y. Bilan géochimique des apports atmosphériques en domaines sahélien et soudano-guinéen d’Afrique de l’Ouest (bassins supérieurs du Sénégal et de la Gambie). Géodynamique 5, 51–65 (1990).
Orange, D., Gac, J.-Y. & Diallo, M. I. Geochemical assessment of atmospheric deposition including Harmattan dust in continental West Africa. In Tracers in Hydrology: Proc. Yokohama Symposium (ed. Peters, N. E., Hoehn, E., Leibundgut, C., Tase, N. & Walling, D.E.) 303–312 (IAHS, 1993).
Guieu, C. & Thomas, A. J. in The Impact of Desert Dust Across the Mediterranean (eds Guersoni, S. & Chester, R.) 207–216 (Springer, 1996).
Criado, C. & Dorta, P. An unusual ‘blood rain’ over the Canary Islands (Spain). The storm of January 1999. J. Arid. Environ. 55, 765–783 (2003).
Google Scholar
Viana, M., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., Cuevas, E. & Rodrı́guez, S. Influence of African dust on the levels of atmospheric particulates in the Canary Islands air quality network. Atmos. Environ. 36, 5861–5875 (2002).
Google Scholar
Formenti, P., Elbert, W., Maenhaut, W., Haywood, J. & Andreae, M. O. Chemical composition of mineral dust aerosol during the Saharan Dust Experiment (SHADE) airborne campaign in the Cape Verde region, September 2000. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 108, 8576 (2003).
Google Scholar
Linke, C. et al. Optical properties and mineralogical composition of different Saharan mineral dust samples: a laboratory study. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 6, 3315–3323 (2006).
Google Scholar
Khiri, F., Ezaidi, A. & Kabbachi, K. Dust deposits in Souss–Massa basin, south-west of Morocco: granulometrical, mineralogical and geochemical characterisation. J. Afr. Earth. Sci. 39, 459–464 (2004).
Google Scholar
Moreno, T. et al. Geochemical variations in aeolian mineral particles from the Sahara–Sahel Dust Corridor. Chemosphere 65, 261–270 (2006).
Google Scholar
Mounkaila, M. Spectral and Mineralogical Properties of Potential Dust Sources on a Transect from the Bodélé Depresseion (Central Sahara) to the Lake Chad in the Sahel (Univ. Hohenheim, 2006).
Herrmann, L., Jahn, R. & Maurer, T. Mineral dust around the Sahara—from source to sink. A review with emphasis on contributions of the German soil science community in the last twenty years. J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. 173, 811–821 (2010).
Google Scholar
Tiedemann, R. Acht Millionen Jahre Klimageschichte von Nordwest Afrika und Paläo-Ozeanographie des angrenzenden Atlantiks: Hochauflösende Zeitreihen von ODP-Sites 658–661 (Christian-Albrechts-Universität, 1991).
Cohen, A. S., O’Nions, R. K., Siegenthaler, R. & Griffin, W. L. Chronology of the pressure–temperature history recorded by a granulite terrain. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 98, 303–311 (1988).
Google Scholar
Pin, C. & Zalduegui, J. S. Sequential separation of light rare-earth elements, thorium and uranium by miniaturized extraction chromatography: application to isotopic analyses of silicate rocks. Anal. Chim. Acta 339, 79–89 (1997).
Google Scholar
Vance, D. & Thirlwell, M. An assessment of mass discrimination in MC-ICPMS using Nd isotopes. Chem. Geol. 185, 227–240 (2002).
Google Scholar
Tanaka, T. et al. JNdi-1: a neodymium isotopic reference in consistency with LaJolla neodymium. Chem. Geol. 168, 279–281 (2000).
Google Scholar
Jacobsen, S. B. & Wasserburg, G. J. Sm–Nd isotopic evolution of chondrites. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 50, 139–155 (1980).
Google Scholar
Dietze, E. et al. An end-member algorithm for deciphering modern detrital processes from lake sediments of Lake Donggi Cona, NE Tibetan Plateau, China. Sediment. Geol. 243–244, 169–180 (2011).
Wood, S. N. Generalized Additive Models: An iIntroduction with R (CRC Press, 2017).
Hammer, Ø., Harper, D. A. T. & Ryan, P. D. PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol. Electron. 4, 4 (2001).
Castillo, S. et al. Trace element variation in size-fractionated African desert dusts. J. Arid. Environ. 72, 1034–1045 (2008).
Google Scholar
Source: Ecology - nature.com