
Oblong Tarn at the head of the Hausberg Valley, Mount Kenya. Photograph by Hilde Eggermont (Ghent University) 2010 viewing south-southeast.
New publication
Cores from the high-elevation lake, Oblong Tarn, on Mount Kenya near the Cesar and Josef Glaciers, were collected in 1983 and 1985 by a team from Stockholm University led by Wibjorn Karlen. Then again a team from Gent University led by Dirk Verschuren collected additional cores in 2010. Pollen counts from the cores collected in the 1980s were completed by the early 1990s but the data was never published. Here we present that pollen dataset alongside the original sedimentologic data (Karlén 1985; Karlén and Rosqvist 1988) and a review of published studies of vegetation change on Mount Kenya, available through open access from PLOS One (Courtney Mustaphi et al., 2017). The data is also available from the Harvard Dataverse.

A view of the high elevation lakes facing westward down the Hausburg Valley standing on the morrainal deposits left by the retreating Josef Glacier. Oblong Tarn at left side of photo and Hausberg Tarn at right side. Photo courtesy of Hilde Eggermont (Ghent Univeristy, 2010).
Courtney Mustaphi CJ, Gajewski K, Marchant R, Rosqvist G (2017) A late Holocene pollen record from proglacial Oblong Tarn, Mount Kenya. PLoS ONE12(9): e0184925.
Courtney Mustaphi C, Gajewski K, Marchant R, Rosqvist G. Radiocarbon dates, sedimentology, and pollen counts from the late Holocene sediments of Oblong Tarn, Mount Kenya., Harvard Dataverse, V1. 2017.
Karlén W. Glacier and climate fluctuations on Mount Kenya, East Africa. Zeitschrift fur Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie. 1985; 21: 195–201.
Karlén W, Rosqvist G. Glacier fluctuations recorded in lacustrine sediments on Mount Kenya. National Geographic Research. 1988 Mar 1;4(2):219–32.