Late Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Historical Records of Famine in Ethiopia

Conclusion

The pollen record presented here gives a high resolution proxy data for recent climate changes in Ethiopia. This study emphasizes fluctuations of strong amplitude that affected the vegetation of the highland countries far above the tree line on the mountains during the last three thousand years that include the historical period. Because these vegetation changes occurred in unpopulated areas, they are more likely attesting climatic changes. Indeed many of them are in good chronological correspondence with other palaeoenvironmental changes deduced from lake level changes, soil degradation, Nile floods, etc. They may have had significant impact on human population. Particularly significant are the increase and impact of droughts and famine during the seventeenth century, in the interval of the Little Ice Age. Our study indicates that climate is the long-term driving factor of environmental changes, even during the historical period.