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History of Climate and Forests in Tropical Africa During the Last 8 Million Years

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Tropical Forests and Climate

Abstract

There have been major changes in climate and in the composition and distribution of forest during the last 8 Myr. During the last world glacial maximum (peak 18 000 yr B.P.) the climate was dry and cold and forest much reduced and fragmented. The last glacial period as a whole (12 000–70 000 B.P.) was dry in tropical Africa and so too were most of the other 20 major ice ages which have occurred since 2.43 Myr B.P., in comparison with intervening interglacials. The extent of forest must have oscillated greatly. There has been a general drying in climate since 8 Myr.

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  1. World Wide Fund for Nature, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1XR, UK

    A. C. Hamilton

  2. School of Geography and Earth Processes, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

    D. Taylor

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  1. A. C. Hamilton
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  1. Upper Meadow, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, UK

    Norman Myers

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Hamilton, A.C., Taylor, D. (1991). History of Climate and Forests in Tropical Africa During the Last 8 Million Years. In: Myers, N. (eds) Tropical Forests and Climate. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3608-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3608-4_8

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