A tropical perspective on ice-age cycles: Evidence for rapid climate transitions from East African paleolake records

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This application proposes a two-year investigation on East African lake sediments in order to assess regional and global climate change related to ice-age dynamics. The application in terms reflects scientific disciplines of Environmental Sciences, Paleoclimatology, Paleontology, Geochronology and Geochemistry. The proposed scientific program focuses on high-resolution sedimentological and geochemical investigations of laminated sediment sections of Late Pleistocene (~135.000 yr) to Early Holocene (~10.000 yr) age. Based on diatom-transfer functions, X-ray microscanning, time-series analyses and 40Ar/39Ar-dating, sediments patterns reflecting rapid environmental change on annual to millennial timescales will be established. The approach therefore tries to evaluate the timing and amplitude of East African climate change during glacial/ interglacial transitions and the relative importance of tropical climate-instability patterns for ice-age dynamics.