📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
Understanding Holocene palaeoclimatic variability in the Chad Basin and its relationship to human occupation, migration, and resource use dynamics provides essential long-term environmental context for interpreting contemporary climate change impacts in Nigeria's North East geopolitical zone, yet Nigerian contributions to the Chad Basin palaeoclimate archive remain limited by insufficient lacustrine sediment core data from the Nigerian basin margins. This study reconstructs Holocene palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes in the Nigerian Chad Basin using multi-proxy analysis of lacustrine sediment cores recovered from two lake sites in Borno State. Sediment cores totalling 8.4 metres in composite depth were recovered using percussion coring equipment from Lake Ngadda and a palaeolake site in Marte LGA. Chronological frameworks were established by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon dating of 24 samples. Multi-proxy analyses applied to the cores included pollen analysis, diatom assemblage analysis, stable isotope measurements of carbonate and organic carbon, grain size analysis, and total organic carbon quantification at 2-centimetre resolution. The proxy records were integrated using a Bayesian age-depth modelling framework and cross-correlated with published African Holocene palaeoclimate records from the Sahara and broader Lake Chad Basin to evaluate regional coherence. Results document three major Holocene humid phases in the Nigerian Chad Basin corresponding to the African Humid Period (approximately 11,000 to 5,500 years BP), an early Holocene transitional phase, and a brief late Holocene re-humidification episode centred around 3,200 years BP. Pollen and diatom records confirm the northward expansion of Sahel vegetation during humid phases. This study makes original palaeogeographic contributions with implications for understanding the natural range of Chad Basin climate variability. Keywords: palaeoclimatology, Holocene, Chad Basin, lacustrine archives, North East Nigeria.
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