Early historical work by the lab included archiving of historical indicators of past climates and environments over Africa and synthesis of this information into large scale patterns of variability. These have facilitated the understanding of the dynamics underlying variability in Africa. More recent work has focused on high resolution data for reconstruction of lake levels throughout the continent and development of a continuous semi-quantitative rainfall data set for the 19th century. Hydrologic modelling of the lakes is being used to quantify the information available from the lake reconstructions. We are currently using statistical means to analyze 19th century variability, using the semi-quantitative data set. This will eventually be used to test hypotheses emerging from analysis of the modern record.
		2001: Climate and environmental change in Africa during the last two centuries. Climate Research, August 15, Vol 14, 123-144. 2001  2001: A semi-quantitative, regional precipitation data set for studying African climates of the nineteenth century, Part I. Overview of the data set. Climatic Change, 50, 317-353. 1998: Fluctuations of Rift Valley Lakes Malawi and Chilwa During Historical times: A Synthesis of Geological, Archaeological and Historical Information. Environmental Change and Response in East African Lakes, 207-231. 1998: Historical Fluctuations of Lake Victoria and other lakes in the northern Rift Valley of East Africa. Environmental Change and Response in East African Lakes (J. T. Lehman, ed.), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 7-35. 1998: Variations of African lakes during the last two centuries (Nicholson, S. E., and X. Yin). InWater resources variability in Africa during the XXth Century (E. Servat, D. Hughes, J.-M;. Fritsch and M. Hulme, eds.), IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK, 181-188. 1998: Interannual and interdecadal variability of rainfall over the African continent during the last two centuries. In Water resources variability in Africa during the XXth Century (E. Servat, D. Hughes, J.-M;. Fritsch and M. Hulme, eds.), IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK, 107-116. 1996: Environmental Change within the Historical Period. The Physical Geography of Africa (A.S. Goudie, W.M. Adams and A. Orme, eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 60-75. 1989: Long-term changes in African rainfall. Weather 44, 2, 47-56. 1981: The Historical Climatology of Africa. Climate and History (T.M.L. Wigley, M.J. Ingram, G. Farmer, eds.), Cambridge Press, 249-270.   1980: Saharan Climates in Historic Times. The Sahara and the Nile (M.A.J. Williams and H. Faure, eds.), A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, p. 173-200. 1979: The methodology of historical climate reconstruction and its application to Africa. Journal of African History, 20, No. 1, 31-49.   1978: Climatic variations in the Sahel and other African regions during the past five centuries. Journal of Arid Environments, 1, 3-24.