Yassine Ait-Brahim

• Ph.D.
• Research Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

Understanding the main controls on stable isotope variations in precipitation is fundamental for the interpretation of the hydrological cycle. However, spatio-temporal variations in δ18Op are poorly known in Morocco. Herein, we explore the relative influence of meteorological variables, spatial and orographic (altitudinal) effects, atmospheric circ...

This study presents the first well-dated high resolution stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) and trace element (Mg and Sr) speleothem records from southwestern Morocco covering the last 1000 yrs. Our records reveal substantial decadal to multidecadal swings between dry and humid periods, consistent with regional paleorecords with prevailing dry conditio...

Plain Language Summary During the Holocene, periods of enhanced ice‐rafting, associated with cooling and sea ice expansion in the North Atlantic high latitudes, have been recognized over distant regions. While the causes of these events are still a matter of debate, changes in the atmospheric circulation have been proposed as a potential trigger or...

We present a speleothem record from western Cuba, spanning the period 98.7–84.9 ka BP. Our record shows two distinctive periods of high δ18O corresponding to dry and/or cold periods during 85–87.6 and 90.2–93.1 ka BP, synchronous with Heinrich events 8 and 9 (H8 and H9). Hence, we provide the first proxy evidence of the local Caribbean climate resp...

The Sahara Desert, one of today’s most inhospitable environments, has known periods of enhanced precipitation that supported pre-historic humans. However, the Green Sahara timing and moisture sources are not well known due to limited paleoclimate information. Here, we present a multi-proxy (δ18O, δ13C, Δ17O, and trace elements) speleothem-based cli...

The Inaouène watershed (3600 km2), part of the Sebou River’s upper valley in northern Morocco, faces urban, agricultural, and industrial discharges. This research investigates the environmental impact of heavy metal contamination in sediments and its implications for sustainable watershed management and long-term ecological protection. Sediment sam...

Study region: The Iguidi watershed is located in southeastern Morocco and represents semi-arid region where limited water resources constrain agricultural productivity and sustainability. Study focus: This study assesses the water footprint (WF) of four major crops: walnuts, wheat, olives, and almonds cultivated in the Iguidi watershed between...

Climate extremes have devastating socio-economic and environmental impacts globally, with the highest impact in developing countries. There is a need for building resilience against the observed and projected extremes. The effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation measures is based on the understanding of their occurrence and the associated impact...

Understanding the deep structure of groundwater aquifers is crucial for the effective management of water resources, particularly in arid regions like the Eastern Bahira Basin (EBB), Morocco. This study employs an integrated geophysical approach, combining newly acquired Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) data with the reinterpretation of exis...

Plain Language Summary Researchers have explored how certain “sweet spot” conditions impact climate within Earth's complex system, but their role in ending ice ages is still not fully understood. Our analysis of detailed speleothem records shows significant shifts in the Asian monsoon around 17,800 and 16,090 years ago, corresponding to the collaps...

Study region: The Haouz aquifer, situated in central Morocco, a data-scarce region. Study focus: Groundwater resources in semi-arid regions face increasing threats from climate change, particularly due to warming and overexploitation. However, data scarcity limits the ability to monitor and predict groundwater changes accurately. This study address...

Study region: The downstream part of the Souss-Massa Basin, Central Western part of Morocco, Northwestern Africa. Study focus: The Souss-Massa coastal area (SMCA) is known for tourism, fishing, and agriculture activities, which require intensive pumping of groundwater. This situation exacerbates aquifer depletion, reduce groundwater quality, and le...

This paper reflects the discussions of early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) during the World Climate Research Programme Open Science Conference 2023 EMCRs Symposium, to advance climate knowledge for greater transformative power in society and impact on policy-making. These discussions focused on three key priority challenges: how to produce rob...

Drought is one of the major challenges hindering development in semi-arid regions particularly in developping countries. Hence, this study aims to predict future climatic drought in the Haouz region of Morocco. Seven grid points of the ERA5 data were used to evaluate three regional climate models from Med-CORDEX and seven statistical bias correctio...

Paleoclimate information has played an instrumental role in showing how fast climate can vary and how large these changes can be. It provided the first vivid demonstration of the relationships between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and surface air temperatures, as well as striking representations of climate change impacts and possible fe...

The downstream part of the Wadi El Ouaar watershed in middle Souss, Morocco, is an important socioeconomic and environmental area frequently impacted by severe flooding. Mapping flood-prone areas in this region is essential for protecting the local population and landscape. This study utilizes a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach, incor...

Degradation affects many aquifers, impacting both their quantity and quality. Nitrate is the most prevalent groundwater pollutant because it dissolves easily in water and is difficult to fix in soil. This review aims to assess previous research on water quality in the Souss-Massa region (groundwater and surface water), highlight the degree of nitra...

The Souss-Massa basin in central-western Morocco is of substantial economic potential, driven by natural resources, agriculture, fishing, and tourism, which heavily affects water resources in the region. Here, we present a comprehensive review of scientific research conducted over the past three decades, focusing on water resources and agricultural...

This special issue, titled “Climate Variability, Change and Impact in Southern Morocco: Evidence and Understanding,” is carried out within the framework of the CHARISMAproject with the assistance of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology of Morocco and in synergy with ongoing research projects at University Ibn Zohr and University Mohammed...

The Souss-Massa Plain is located in the southwest of Morocco within a depression, bordered by the Anti-Atlas domain to the south and the High Atlas domain to the north. This region contains a shallow Plio-Quaternary aquifer predominantly composed of fluvial-lacustrine sediments and two deeper aquifers. The first deep aquifer is within continental N...

The Quaternary Period climatic oscillations, typically those driven by Milankovitch cycles, have significantly left profound imprints in the geological records. However, the potential of terrestrial archives, particularly tufa deposits, as archives for Quaternary climate remain relatively underexplored. This study aims to contribute to filling the...

Drought is a severe disaster, increasingly exacerbated by climate change, and poses significant challenges worldwide, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions like Morocco. This study aims to assess and monitor drought using a multi-index approach to provide a comprehensive understanding of its spatio-temporal dynamics at both meteorological and...

Tropical oceans are the main global water vapor and latent heat sources, but their responses to radiative forcing remain unclear. Here, we investigate oceanic moisture dynamics of the western tropical Pacific (WTP) over the past 210,000 years through an approach of planktonic foraminiferal triple oxygen isotope (Δ′ ¹⁷ O). The Δ′ ¹⁷ O record is domi...

Speleothem trace element records can provide seasonal resolution climate reconstructions, but the interpretation can be challenging. Aragonite samples are understudied compared to calcite samples, despite that aragonite has 10x higher uranium concentrations and thus provide excellent dating precision. Here we present a high-resolution dataset of dr...

Drâa river basin (DRB) is a large arid area encompassing most important oases in the south of Morocco. Climate change, population growth and recently intensive agriculture activity have led to the overexploitation of limited groundwater resources aggravating the problem of water salinization. Therefore, this study aims to assess groundwater quality...

The Mediterranean basin is recognized as a potential focal point of global warming, marked by a rising incidence of both droughts and foods. Nevertheless, uncertainties persist regarding the precise impact of climate change on the water cycle in this region. Therefore, this study endeavors to scrutinize the recent precipitation trends and fuctuatio...

this link takes you to this paper (https://rdcu.be/dGldy ) The Mediterranean domain is one of the hot spots of climate change; drought and rainfall decline combined with the rise of temperatures and heat waves are the most impactful of these changes, which are well described in the recent studies. Morocco is one country where harmful effects on ag...

Palaeoclimate information on multiple climate variables at different spatiotemporal scales is becoming increasingly important to understand environmental and societal responses to climate change. A lack of high-quality reconstructions of past hydroclimate has recently been identified as a critical research gap. Speleothems, with their precise chron...

Palaeoclimate information on multiple climate variables at different spatiotemporal scales is becoming increasingly important to understand environmental and societal responses to climate change. A lack of high-quality reconstructions of past hydroclimate has recently been identified as a critical research gap. Speleothems, with their precise chron...

Palaeoclimate information on multiple climate variables at different spatiotemporal scales is becoming increasingly important to understand environmental and societal responses to climate change. A lack of high-quality reconstructions of past hydroclimate has recently been identified as a critical research gap. Speleothems, with their precise chron...

Imprints of climate and neotectonic activity from lake sediments developed upon a reverse drag (Lake Ifrah, NW Africa): Integration of detailed sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic approaches Lacustrine settings constitute a unique environment that preserves detailed expressions of allocyclic signals such as those of climate and tectonics. P...

Lacustrine settings constitute a unique environment that preserves detailed expressions of allocyclic signals such as those of climate and tectonics. Possible decryption of these signatures may stem from careful scrutiny of the sedimentation dynamics (temporary base-level variations), lake-level fluctuations (accommodation), and resulting strata bo...

The Souss basin in Morocco is distinguished by an uneven surface water supply and steady overexploitation of groundwater resources. In recent years, the basin experienced constant disrupted water balance, due mostly to year-to-year variable weather conditions and rising water demand. This situation is projected to affect the region’s economic devel...

The Haouz aquifer faces multiple environmental and socioeconomic challenges largely related to climatic aridity and to the growth of the agriculture sector. By combining several methods such as cascade analysis, cross-correlation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), this study conducts a comprehensive analysis of hydroclimatic data in order to c...

Over the last two decades, speleothems have increasingly been exploited in past climatic and environmental reconstructions of the last ca. 500 ka using the U-Th absolute dating method. However, recent improvements in the U-Pb dating methodology have already demonstrated that speleothem paleoclimate time series can be extended further back in time....

Morocco is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate, except for a humid zone in the North. This climatic restraint, accentuated by climate change and the high demand for water resources, requires the application of new approaches to complement conventional hydrological methods that will help to improve water assessment and management strategies...

In most parts of the world, groundwater is the main source of their water supply, particularly during periods of drought when surface water is scarce. As a result, groundwater drought is among the most worrying problems of our time. In order to shed light on the diversity of scientific productions related to this theme, this analysis was conducted...

The concept of integrated water resource management requires an in-depth analysis of water inflows into a river basin. Population growth and the uncertainties associated with climate change are causing increased water stress and droughts, which are impacting agriculture. Hence the need for studies on the impact of climate change on demand-supply in...

A paradigm in paleoclimatology holds that shifts in the mean position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone were the dominant climatic mechanism controlling rainfall in the tropics during the last glacial period. We present a new paleo-rainfall reconstruction based on speleothem stable oxygen isotopes record from Colombia, which spans most of the l...

Study region: The upstream part of the Essaouira basin, a data-scare region in Morocco, Northwestern Africa. Study focus: The scarcity of hydro-climate data is a significant challenge found in several regions worldwide, where qualitative and quantitative water resource information remains limited. Estimating and predicting groundwater levels (GWL)...

The paleoenvironmental changes recorded at the Khnifiss Lagoon, on the Saharan Atlantic coast, southern Morocco, during the last 3.5 kyrs BP puts another piece to the puzzle on the intricate relationship between North Atlantic climate patterns and climate variations in Northwest Africa. This study shed light on the hydroclimatic dynamics during a p...

Under arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, groundwater is a basic resource to meet the requirements of socioeconomic development. Better conservation of this resource requires understanding the functioning of aquifer systems by informing about the degree of its vulnerability, the hydrochemical processes that control it, as well as the mode and o...

Study region: The downstream part of the Essaouira basin, Morocco, Northwestern Africa. Study focus: This study combines multivariate statistical analyses, stable isotopes, hydro-geochemical, hydrogeological, geological and remotely sensed data to gain a better understanding of the hydrological and groundwater salinization processes in a coastal aq...

Paleoclimate information on multiple climate variables at different spatiotemporal scales is increasingly important to understand environmental and societal responses to climate change. A lack of high-quality reconstructions of past hydroclimate has recently been identified as a critical research gap. Speleothems, with their precise chronologies, w...

Study region: The Atlas Mountains of Morocco, specifically the High Oum Er-rbiaa (HOER) and Ourika catchments. Study focus: to identify the recharge processes within the semi-arid watersheds, in the Atlas Mountains, through monthly monitoring of snow, rainfall, surface water, and groundwater isotope signal, but also the usage of remote sensing data...

Morocco is characterized by a semi-arid climate influenced by the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Saharan environments, resulting in high variability in rainfall and hydrological conditions. Certain regions suffer from insufficient understanding concerning the spatiotemporal patterns of precipitation, along with facing recurrent periods of drought. Th...

Abstract The transition between the Middle Atlas and the Sais Basin contains a sequence of alluvial fans from the Plio-Quaternary period. These fans are mostly made up of debrites and are found resting unconformably on top of carbonate beds from the Jurassic Period. This location provides a key case study for investigating the primary processes of...

Morocco, being part of the Mediterranean basin, is characterized by a semi-arid climate heavily affected by climate change, spatial heterogeneity of the water resources along with its high demand. As the region heavily relies on precipitation to supply surface and groundwater, the restraints are a capital threat to its availability. Therefore, cond...

Satellite-based precipitation products, with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolutions, are mostly needed to assess climate change repercussions. Previous research used datasets neglecting either good temporal or good spatial resolution, PERSIANN-CCSCDR, ERA5, and SM2RAIN-ASCAT are some of the projects aiming to remedy these limitations....

In several areas, many social, economic, and physical subsystems interact around water resources. Integrated water management is applied to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems, mainly in hydrologic-stressed areas. The Souss-Massa basin, with its semi-arid climate, h...

Lacustrine settings constitute a unique environment that preserves detailed expressions of allocyclic signals such as those of climate and tectonics. Possible decryption of these signatures stems from careful scrutiny of the sed- imentation dynamics (temporary base-level variations), lake-level fluctuations (accommodation), and resulting strata bou...

The impact of climate change (CC) and human activities on groundwater-surface water (GW-SW) interaction under arid and semi-arid conditions is not yet fully understood. This study aims to combine hydrogeochemistry, stable isotope data and hydrological modeling to improve the understanding of drivers controlling GW-SW interactions and how those proc...

The Haouz aquifer is undergoing climatic aridity and anthropic pressure largely related to the agricultural sector. In this study, special attention was given to the main factors that have a direct impact on the fluctuations of the piezometric level (PL). Different statistical analyses (cross-correlations, PCA, cascading analysis) of the relationsh...

Reverse-drags in extensional settings are emblematic structures that may provide imprints of (neo)tectonic pulses, and even evidence of palaeoseismic activity. The direct pieces of evidence of (neo)tectonic activity therein are mostly reported to be subsidiary grabens, synthetic and antithetic normal faults, and/or bed-parallel slip that brittlely...

The Lower Sebou Basin, placed in a Mediterranean climate, has the particularity of being exposed to the influence of disturbances from the Atlantic Ocean, making periods of drought and climatic phenomena variable in space and time. Applying the world's most recognized drought indices, shows that the duration, frequency and severity of droughts have...

Rainfall in north-western Morocco has shown significant monthly fluctuations with dramatic socio-economic impacts over the past decades. Several studies have suggested that variability is related to fluctuations in large-scale circulation patterns. In recent years, several promising centennial reanalysis datasets have become available, paving the w...

Tufa and speleothem growths are both the response to the rate of carbonaceous bedrock weathering, which is influenced by the vegetation development (and hence the humidity). To investigate the interdependency of these two carbonate archives, a new record of tufa from Northwest Africa has been studied using thorough sedimentologic and stratigraphic...

The occurrence and rate of tufa deposition are controlled by a large number of external and internal factors, including climate which often represents the main allocyclic factor. In this study, the first of its kind in the Middle Atlas (Northern Morocco), we test the dependency between climate factors and Holocene tufa deposits in basin-like settin...

Southern Morocco contains a rich archaeological record: engraving, painted rocks, and funerary monuments. This prehistoric and proto-historical heritage offers valuable information about the environmental context of prehistoric settlements. However, the Southern Moroccan archaeological record suffers from dating scarcity and hence, the difficulty i...

Paleoclimate information is still lacking in key regions to understand the functioning of some of the main components of Earth's climate system. In NW Africa, the use of speleothems as a natural archive of past environmental and climate change gained considerable interest during recent years. From South Morocco, the published speleothem records con...

The occurrence and rate of tufa deposition are controlled by a large number of external and internal factors, including climate which often represents the main allocyclic factor. In this study, the first of its kind in the Middle Atlas (Northern Morocco), we test the dependency between climate factor and Holocene tufa deposits in basin-like setting...

We present absolutely dated speleothem δ¹⁸O records spanning the past ∼1.5 kyr, which provide new evidence of the transmission of an anthropogenic signal to natural climatic archives in NW Africa. Combined with three other speleothem δ¹⁸O records from SW Morocco, the results indicate unprecedentedly dry conditions during the 20th century, which dev...

Climatic changes have played an important role in societal reorganizations. Particularly, the late 16th and early 17th century coincided with severely cold condition, extremely weak summer monsoon and widespread population decline in China. Here we present new speleothem oxygen isotope records across North and South China, which in concert with his...

This work aims to study the water resources vulnerability in Souss-Massa region, Morocco. In our case 35 subdivisions were investigated for their water resources vulnerability. Based on an indicator-approach and a participatory weighting method, ten indicators and their weights were identified for the vulnerability assessment, reflecting three aspe...

Speleothem records from NE Asia are essential to understand the spatial patterns of the Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) variability. In this paper, we present a new high-resolution and chronologically well-resolved speleothem record from Liu-li (LL) cave, NE China, through δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C and Sr/Ca ratio characterizing a dynamic ASM history over the past 668...

Data supporting Comas-Bru et al., 2020 (ESSD): https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2579-2020

Characterizing the temporal uncertainty in palaeoclimate records is crucial for analysing past climate change, correlating climate events between records, assessing climate periodicities, identifying potential triggers and evaluating climate model simulations. The first global compilation of speleothem isotope records by the SISAL (Speleothem Isoto...

Significance The Younger Dryas (YD) was an ∼1,300-y period of extreme climate that dramatically reversed the course of global warming that brought the last Ice Age to a close. Understanding what mechanisms triggered and terminated this event remains enigmatic, but it is fundamental for gaining insights into the inner workings of Earth’s climate sys...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Abstract. Characterising the temporal uncertainty in palaeoclimate records is crucial for analysing past climate change, for correlating climate events between records, for assessing climate periodicities, identifying potential triggers, and to evaluate climate model simulations. The first global compilation of speleothem isotope records by the SIS...

We present new high‐resolution oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) records from three NW African speleothems located at ~31°N. The present‐day rainfall patterns at 31°N in NW Africa are linked to negative winter North Atlantic Oscillation phases. However, on multimillennial time scales, our δ¹⁸O records, together with other hydroclimate records, provide new evid...

We present triple oxygen isotope data from speleothems obtained by an O2-CO2 Pt-catalyzed oxygen-isotope equilibration method. The high precision (9 per meg or better, 1σ SD) of our new speleothem Δ¹⁷O (carbonate ¹⁷O anomaly) data is sufficient to resolve subtle hydroclimatic signals. In addition, we determined triple oxygen isotope fractionation f...

Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercom...

The cave of Wintimdouine, located in a semi-arid context in Morocco, comprises the longest-known underground river in Africa. This cave system faces many challenges related to anthropogenic and climate forcing. Therefore, it has become necessary to understand the functioning of the aquifer system of Wintimdouine and how the regional climate affects...