A chronologically reliable record of 17,000 years of biomass burning in the Lake Victoria area

Temoltzin-Loranca, Yunuén; Gobet, Erika; Vannière, Boris; Leeuwen, Jacqueline F. N. van; Wienhues, Giulia; Szidat, Sönke; Mustaphi, Colin J. Courtney; Kishe, Mary A.; Muschick, Moritz; Seehausen, Ole; Grosjean, Martín; Tinner, Willy

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107915

Cited by 9 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…(2018) for the IDEAL cores from 1995 to 1996, or in Temoltzin‐Loranca et al. (2023) for cores from 2018. The ages of fish fossils recovered from Lake Chala sediments are based on the age model of Blaauw et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient DNA is preserved in fish fossils from tropical lake sediments

Muschick,

Jemmi,

Lengacher

et al. 2023

Molecular Ecology

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Tropical freshwater lakes are well known for their high biodiversity, and particularly the East African Great Lakes are renowned for their adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes. While comparative phylogenetic analyses of extant species flocks have revealed patterns and processes of their diversification, little is known about evolutionary trajectories within lineages, the impacts of environmental drivers, or the scope and nature of now‐extinct diversity. Time‐structured palaeodata from geologically young fossil records, such as fossil counts and particularly ancient DNA (aDNA) data, would help fill this large knowledge gap. High ambient temperatures can be detrimental to the preservation of DNA, but refined methodology now allows data generation even from very poorly preserved samples. Here, we show for the first time that fish fossils from tropical lake sediments yield endogenous aDNA. Despite generally low endogenous content and high sample dropout, the application of high‐throughput sequencing and, in some cases, sequence capture allowed taxonomic assignment and phylogenetic placement of 17% of analysed fish fossils to family or tribe level, including remains which are up to 2700 years old or weigh less than 1 mg. The relationship between aDNA degradation and the thermal age of samples is similar to that described for terrestrial samples from cold environments when adjusted for elevated temperature. Success rates and aDNA preservation differed between the investigated lakes Chala, Kivu and Victoria, possibly caused by differences in bottom water oxygenation. Our study demonstrates that the sediment records of tropical lakes can preserve genetic information on rapidly diversifying fish taxa over time scales of millennia.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient DNA is preserved in fish fossils from tropical lake sediments

Muschick,

Jemmi,

Lengacher

et al. 2023

Molecular Ecology

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“…Thus, the coring location of LV1 was continuously inundated over the period which our core encompasses. During this past history of the modern lake, the region experienced alternating wetter and drier periods, most notably during the AHP from ~11,500 to 5500 cal yr BP (Berke et al, 2012;de Menocal et al, 2000), associated with changes from savannah to rainforest and back to savannah, as inferred from pollen data (Kendall, 1969;Temoltzin-Loranca et al, 2023). Additionally, Berke et al (2012) measured two geochemical proxies, TEX 86 and δD wax , indicative of lake water temperature and precipitation, respectively (Castañeda & Schouten, 2011), from V95-1P (Figure 1) to examine the surrounding climatic changes.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…thus, minor climatic changes (e.g., precipitation or temperature) can cause major lake-level fluctuations and shifts in the major terrestrial biome surrounding the lake (Temoltzin-Loranca et al, 2023).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The core consisted of uniform fine organic mud with no erosional unconformities and a sand layer at 720 cm (~13,800 cal yr BP) indicating the inundation of LV1 as lake levels rose . A robust and reproducible chronology for LV1 was established using 30 radiocarbon dates (Figure S1) measured with accelerator mass spectrometry; see Temoltzin-Loranca et al (2023) for more details on the coring campaign and chronology. Age estimates were rounded to the nearest 50 years and the error represents the 95% confidence interval (CI), which on average represents ±520 years (Figure S1).…”

Section: Sediment Core Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, tropical Lake Naivasha varied dramatically in water depth over the past 1,800 years (<5 to ~35-m-deep lake), and zooplankton remains were used to investigate the joint roles of priority effects and species sorting in determining the assembly dynamics of Daphnia communities (Mergeay et al, 2011). Invertebrate studies of Lake Victoria have only previously examined changes over the past 200 years (Bridgeman, 2001;Verschuren et al, 2002) despite the modern lake having formed over ~17,000-15,000 cal yr BP (0 cal yr BP = 1950 CE; Johnson et al, 1996Johnson et al, , 2000Temoltzin-Loranca et al, 2023). Additionally, most invertebrate assemblage studies within the region have focused solely on one or two taxonomic groups (Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal dynamics of invertebrate community assembly in Lake Victoria since the late Pleistocene based on chitinous remains

King,

Courtney‐Mustaphi,

Cuenca‐Cambronero

et al. 2024

Freshwater Biology

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Preserved assemblages of invertebrate remains in lacustrine sediment reveal temporal variations of community composition and environmental conditions. However, records for large tropical lakes are scarce. Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake, has a dynamic history of changes in water level, biogeochemistry and fish community composition over the past ~17,000 cal yr BP. In order to quantify changes in the invertebrate assemblage of Lake Victoria from the late Pleistocene throughout the Holocene, we examined chitinous remains of Cladocera and larval dipterans (Chironomidae and Chaoboridae) from a sediment core (37 m water depth) dated from ~13,700 cal yr BP to present. We identified four major phases in the invertebrate assemblage throughout this period of lake history. Firstly, Chironomidae and Chaoboridae appeared at low abundances during the earliest stages of lake inundation in the late Pleistocene, at a time when Cladocera were notably absent. Secondly, chaoborids and chironomids increased in abundance during the mid‐Holocene, which coincided with high diatom production toward the end of the Holocene African Humid Period. Thirdly, starting ~4,700 cal yr BP, Alona, a predominantly littoral cladoceran genus, consistently appeared in the invertebrate assemblage alongside changes in mixing regimes and persisted throughout the late Holocene to the present. Fourthly, the arrival of both Chydorus and Bosmina longirostris marked the establishment of an abundant cladoceran assemblage at ~1,350 cal yr BP. The assemblage then gradually shifted toward the increasing dominance of B. longirostris, a planktonic cladoceran. Several of the observed changes in the invertebrate assemblage occurred concurrently with changes in climatic conditions in East Africa and diatom productivity that have been previously recorded in Lake Victoria. This multi‐millennial record of sedimentary invertebrate assemblages in Lake Victoria elucidates some of the temporal development of these communities throughout most of the dynamic modern history of the ecosystem.

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