Publicaties

The documentation and understanding of variations in the Earth's magnetic field through time is fundamental for several disciplines, but current geomagnetic models rely on datasets heavily biased toward the mid- and high northern latitudes. The African continent and surrounding islands and oceans are particularly underrepresented. Here, we present a new record of paleo-secular variation (PSV) of the inclinations over the last 23 ka from Lake ...

Interannual rainfall variations in equatorial East Africa are tightly linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with more rain and flooding during El Niño and droughts in La Niña years, both having severe impacts on human habitation and food security. Here we report evidence from an annually laminated lake sediment record from southeastern Kenya for interannual to centennial-scale changes in ENSO-related rainfall variability during the ...

Based on extensive qualitative research, including interviews with stakeholders, we compare and contrast the port reform processes in two neighboring East-African countries, Kenya and Tanzania. We describe their current governance models, and the events that have created their current structures, before looking forward into the future to see whether they are likely to follow leading north European ports into a ‘post-landlord’ entrepreneurial and ...

The long history of human influence on the natural landscape of East Africa is often obscured by climate variability and naturally occurring disturbances. Yet understanding the role of humans in past landscape changes is vital for understanding the response of modern-day landscapes to anthropogenic and natural environmental pressures, and essential in a region where human well-being is so dependent on the carrying capacity of the landscape. ...

The branched vs. isoprenoid index of tetraethers (BIT index) in Lake Challa sediments has been applied as a monsoon precipitation proxy on the assumption that the primary source of branched tetraether lipids (brGDGTs) was soil washed in from the lake’s catchment. However, water column production has since been identified as the primary source of brGDGTs in Lake Challa, meaning that there is no longer a clear mechanism linking BIT index variation ...

We have identified a clonal complex of Mycobacterium bovis isolated at high frequency from cattle in Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. We have named this related group of M. bovis strains the African 2 (Af2) clonal complex of M. bovis. Af2 strains are defined by a specific chromosomal deletion (RDAf2) and can be identified by the absence of spacers 3 to 7 in their spoligotype patterns. Deletion analysis of M. bovis isolates from Algeria, ...