@article{06521bf44d50478bba96ae87fd52e5dd,
title = "The past is a key to the future: Lessons paleoecological data can provide for management of the African Great Lakes",
abstract = "Rapid ecological changes in the African Great Lakes (AGL) present lake managers with extraordinary challenges to understand the changes{\textquoteright} underlying causes and forecast what they portend for the future. Monitoring and experimental data from the AGL are essential but are limited in duration and continuity. The magnitude of change suggests that a centennial-millennial timescale perspective is needed to identify drivers of change and prepare for changes yet to come. In this review I propose that paleoecological and paleolimnological approaches can provide this perspective. AGL paleorecords have documented the impacts of excess sedimentation, external nutrient loading, and climate change, and can demonstrate the specific ecosystem responses associated with these various drivers. Paleorecords can help us understand how multiple stressors interact and in some cases can falsify specific cause-and-effect hypotheses when the putative causes can be shown to have occurred after the effect started. The number of useful AGL paleorecords is still quite small. Replication is needed to test if patterns seen and hypotheses inferred from single localities are robust for an entire lake, and to understand regional variability within and between lakes. Because many paleorecord methods are quite inexpensive it would be highly desirable if these approaches were incorporated into the routine tool kit of local AGL scientists working in tandem with fisheries and water-quality scientists. Training African lake scientists and conservation biologists to analyze paleorecords should be a high priority for AGL stakeholders interested in the long-term prognoses for the economic and biodiversity resources that they oversee.",
keywords = "African Great Lakes, Climate change, Eutrophication, Paleoecology, Paleolimnology, Sedimentation impacts",
author = "Cohen, {Andrew S.}",
note = "Funding Information: I thank my many colleagues and students working on the African Great Lakes over many years whose insights and research have made this review possible, in particular Simone Alin, Bob Hecky, Sarah Ivory, Tom Johnson, Les Kaufman, Dan Livingstone, Kiram Lezzar, Mike McGlue, Peter McIntyre, Brent McKee, Ellinor Michel, Emma Msaky, Hudson Nkotagu, Catherine O'Reilly, Manuel Palacios-Fest, Lisa Park-Boush, Graeme Patterson, Pierre-Denis Plisnier, Peter Reinthal, Jim Russell, Chris Scholz, Curt Stager, Peter Swarzenski, Dirk Verschuren, Walter Salzburger, and Kelly West. I also thank the students and staff of the Nyanza Project (NSF-supported Interdisciplinary Research Training Program on Tropical Lakes), Karl Flessa and Ishmael Kimirei for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and Editor Bob Hecky and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the submitted version. Funding to my lab for African Great Lake paleoecology work described here was provided by NSF ( BSR-8415289 , EAR-9510033 , EAR-9627766 , EAR-0602350 ; ATM-9619458 , ATM-0223920 , BIO-0383765 ) NOAA-NURC ( UCAP 92-04 ), The Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Project and the International Continental Drilling Program . I am extremely grateful to the authorities at the Ministry of Research and Higher Education (Burundi), UTAFITI (Tanzanian Research Council), and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (DRC) for permitting my research work and for support from the University of Burundi , the Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI) and the University of Dar es Salaam for facilitating this work. Funding Information: I thank my many colleagues and students working on the African Great Lakes over many years whose insights and research have made this review possible, in particular Simone Alin, Bob Hecky, Sarah Ivory, Tom Johnson, Les Kaufman, Dan Livingstone, Kiram Lezzar, Mike McGlue, Peter McIntyre, Brent McKee, Ellinor Michel, Emma Msaky, Hudson Nkotagu, Catherine O'Reilly, Manuel Palacios-Fest, Lisa Park-Boush, Graeme Patterson, Pierre-Denis Plisnier, Peter Reinthal, Jim Russell, Chris Scholz, Curt Stager, Peter Swarzenski, Dirk Verschuren, Walter Salzburger, and Kelly West. I also thank the students and staff of the Nyanza Project (NSF-supported Interdisciplinary Research Training Program on Tropical Lakes), Karl Flessa and Ishmael Kimirei for valuable comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and Editor Bob Hecky and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the submitted version. Funding to my lab for African Great Lake paleoecology work described here was provided by NSF (BSR-8415289, EAR-9510033, EAR-9627766, EAR-0602350; ATM-9619458, ATM-0223920, BIO-0383765) NOAA-NURC (UCAP 92-04), The Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Project and the International Continental Drilling Program. I am extremely grateful to the authorities at the Ministry of Research and Higher Education (Burundi), UTAFITI (Tanzanian Research Council), and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (DRC) for permitting my research work and for support from the University of Burundi, the Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI) and the University of Dar es Salaam for facilitating this work. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 International Association for Great Lakes Research",
year = "2018",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1016/j.jglr.2017.10.001",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "44",
pages = "1142--1153",
journal = "Journal of Great Lakes Research",
issn = "0380-1330",
publisher = "International Association of Great Lakes Research",
number = "6",
}