干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Sufficient palaeoclimatic data now exist concerning the two subtropical deserts in Africa (Sahara and Southern Africa) to make comparisons of their development and fluctuations during the most strongly characteristic periods of the last climatic cycle: (i) the last interglacial (stage 5), (ii) the interstadial of 40,000-25,000 BP; and (iii) around the last Glacial Maximum. The shifting in the extent of these deserts, either in similar or opposite ways, fits the context of glacial climate and is strongly related to orbital forcing and the glacial forcings from the North and South Poles.