El Niño, an oceanic phenomenon that affects worldwide weather patterns, significantly affected the number of enslaved Africans transported from West Africa to the Americas between the mid-1600s and mid-1800s, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.  The study, published in the American Meteorological Society journal Weather, Climate and Society, bridges atmospheric science with African history. It also shares lessons for today amid a warming future that threatens to exacerbate human conflict and migrations.