THE history of British colonial exploitation has left its mark on Kenya’s coral.
Using samples taken from the Malindi coral reef near the mouth of the Sabaki river, Dominik Fleitmann of the University of Bern in Switzerland and colleagues have constructed a record of soil erosion over the past 300 years. The river drains more than 10 per cent of the country’s fertile lands. The team analysed seasonal growth bands in coral skeletons to reveal fluctuations in barium, which is abundant in sediments washed off the land. The results showed that after two centuries of relative stability, soil erosion increased…
