East African weathering dynamics controlled by vegetation-climate feedbacks
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Abstract
Tropical weathering has important linkages to global biogeochemistry and landscape evolution in the East African rift. We disentangle the influences of climate and terrestrial vegetation on chemical weathering intensity and erosion at Lake Malawi using a long sediment record. Fossil pollen, microcharcoal, particle size, and mineralogy data affirm that the detrital clays accumulating in deep water within the lake are controlled by feedbacks between climate and hinterland forest composition. Particle-size patterns are also best explained by vegetation, through feedbacks with lake levels, wildfires, and erosion. We develop a new source-to-sink framework that links lacustrine sedimentation to hinterland vegetation in tropical rifts. Our analysis suggests that climate-vegetation interactions and their coupling to weathering/erosion could threaten future food security and has implications for accurately predicting petroleum play elements in continental rift basins.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | East African weathering dynamics controlled by vegetation-climate feedbacks |
| Series title | Geology |
| DOI | 10.1130/G38938.1 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Year Published | 2017 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Geological Society of America |
| Contributing office(s) | Central Energy Resources Science Center |
| Description | 4 p. |
| First page | 823 |
| Last page | 826 |
| Other Geospatial | Lake Malawi |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |