- Recent ENSO and Paleo-ENSO of the last 1000 years in lake Tanganyika

Context and objectives

ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) is one of the major driving force of the interannual natural variability of earth climate. Correlations with ENSO have been established world-wide including in Africa. Lake Tanganyika, one of the oldest lakes in the world, is very sensible to climate variability. Its sediments might prove to be real archives of paleoclimatic variability. Air temperature, atmospheric pressure and fisheries are correlated with ENSO in this area as well as monsoonal winds influencing lake hydrodynamics and nutrients content in surface water. The interannual phytoplanktonic variations seems to be recorded into the laminated sediments which constitute proxies of world interest. The IDEAL program (International Decade for the East African Lakes) has suggested that ENSO records might be found in African lakes sediments.
This study aims to contribute to reduce uncertainty on climatic variability and predictability.