Synergistic feedbacks from ocean and vegetation on the African monsoon response to mid-Holocene insolation

We used a coupled ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Model without flux corrections, iteratively coupled to a biome model, to explore the impact of vegetation and ocean feedbacks on mid-Holocene monsoon change in northern Africa. We show that both feedbacks significantly increase the northward penetration and the intensity of the monsoon rainfall. The major contribution of the ocean is to enhance the inland moisture advection, whereas that of vegetation is to increase local recycling. Synergistic interactions between ocean and vegetation feedbacks play a critical role in the African monsoon changes, yielding to model results in much better agreement with observations.