The role of naturally varying vegetation in influencing the climate variabi
lity in the West African Sahel is explored in a coupled atmosphere-land-veg
etation model. The Sahel rainfall variability is influenced by sea-surface
temperature variations in the oceans. Land-surface feedback is found to inc
rease this variability both on interannual and interdecadal time scales. In
teractive vegetation enhances the interdecadal variation substantially but
can reduce year-to-year variability because of a phase lag introduced by th
e relatively slow vegetation adjustment time. Variations in vegetation acco
mpany the changes in rainfall in particular the multidecadal drying trend f
rom the 1950s to the 1980s.