Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Holocene
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cremaschi, M.
Right arrow Articles by Santilli, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Cupressus dupreziana: a dendroclimatic record for the middle-late Holocene in the central Sahara

Mauro Cremaschi

CIRSA, CNR, IDPA, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sezione di Geologia e Paleontologia, Università di Milano, 34, via Mangiagalli, I-20133 Milano, Italymauro.cremaschi{at}unimi.it

Manuela Pelfini

Maurizio Santilli

CIRSA, CNR, IDPA, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sezione di Geologia e Paleontologia, Università di Milano, 34, via Mangiagalli, I-20133 Milano, Italy

Dendroclimatology of Cupressus dupreziana, the Tassili cypress, has been attempted on samples obtained from the door beams of the old cities of Ghat and Barkat located at the foot of the Tassili, where the cypress still lives. The tree rings of 20 samples were measured and dated by 24 AMS 14C dates. A mean ring-width chronology has thus been obtained, spanning, though discontinuously, 5220 to 100 14C BP (5990-65 cal. BP). As the tree-ring width in dry lands depends mainly on water availability, the mean ring-width chronology represents a detailed record of changes in rainfall on a decade scale for the middle and late Holocene of the central Sahara. It indicates main drought spells at 5200-5000 14C BP (5900-5760 cal. BP) and at 4350 BP (5120 cal. BP), followed by phases of enhanced precipitation and by the onset of extreme arid conditions at 1550 14C BP (1500 cal. BP).

Key Words: Climatic change • dendroclimatology • drought • Tassili cypress • Cupressus dupreziana • central Sahara • desert onset • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 16, No. 2, 293-303 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683606hl926rr
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?