Abstract

Food security in a warming world is a grave concern for rapidly growing impoverished populations. Low-latitude inland fisheries provide protein for millions of rural poor, yet the impacts of high-frequency climate oscillations on these aquatic ecosystems are unknown. Here, we present a sub-annual-to-annual resolution paleolimnological reconstruction of upwelling, productivity, and algal composition at Lake Tanganyika, one of Africa's largest landlocked fisheries. The data reveal increases in diatom production at centennial-scale solar irradiance maxima, and interannual variability in upwelling linked to La Niña. Our study shows that interactions between global climatic controls and El Niño-Southern Oscillation teleconnections exert profound influences on the foundation of Lake Tanganyika's food web. Adapting long-term management practices to account for high-frequency changes in algal production will help safeguard inland fish resources.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-9-2020

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Science Advances, v. 6, issue 41.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb2191

Funding Information 

This research was supported by the University of Kentucky-Pioneer Endowment, SEG-Geoscientists Without Borders (201401005), and the U.S. NSF (EAR-1424907).

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All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.

6.41.eabb2191.DC1 (58 kB)
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