Quantitative estimates of full glacial temperatures in equatorial Africa from palynological data

International audienceThis paper presents a new reconstruction of the mean annual temperature obtained from a high altitude pollen sequence in equatorial Africa (3 degrees 28'S, 29 degrees 34'E, 2240 m). It has been achieved with an extended modern African reference data set by adding spectra from 228 new sites and using another selection for pollen taxa. The purpose of this paper is to test how the obtained temperature value depends upon the availability of modern analogues. The results are in good agreement with those previously published, reinforcing the validity of the method. The mean standard error is reduced by 0.3 degrees C. The mean temperature for the Holocene appears + 1.4 degrees C warmer than the present and the last glacial maximum (25-18 kyrs BP) cooling is better specified at -3 + 1.9 degrees C, a conservative value, more consistent with reconstructed sea surface temperature in the equatorial ocean