Vegetation history inferred from pollen in Late Quaternary faecal deposits (hyraceum) in the Cape winter-rain region and its bearing on past climates in South Africa |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein, South Africa;2. Quaternary Dating Research Unit, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria, South Africa;1. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;2. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;1. Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA;2. Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA;3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, 46556, USA;4. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA;5. Department of the Interior Southwest Climate Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA;1. School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK;2. Long Term Ecology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK;3. Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, South Africa;1. Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa;2. African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, 6031, South Africa;3. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Natural Resources and the Environment, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa;4. Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA;5. Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, Agricultural Research Council, South Africa;6. Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, South Africa;7. Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa;8. Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Nelson Mandela Drive, 9301, Bloemfontein, South Africa;9. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;10. Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, USA;11. Department of Geography, Environment, and Society, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA;12. Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, 95521, USA;13. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) - Oceans and Atmosphere, Aspendale, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Pollen analysis shed light on vegetation community structure over the last 23,000 year in the western Cape. The pollen from dated hyrax faecal accumulations (hyraceum) relates to the evolution of climate and contributes to proxy records in southern Africa. Principal components analyses of the pollen data and δ13C values of the hyrax dung samples show millennial and shorter scale temperature, moisture and seasonality variations in the winter rain region. The moisture availability at times do not parallel that in previously studied proxy records in the summer rain region showing an asynchronous moist event in the early Holocene and drier conditions in the Middle Holocene. Anomalies in climate between the two regions may depend on the degree of northward or southward shifting of winter- and summer-rain circulation systems. Scenarios with winter-rain or cool growing seasons mostly typify the dung sequence but do not exclude the possibility of southward displacement of the westerly belt under precessional strength with slight summer rain increases during the Last Glacial Maximum. Limited southward displacement is also possible during the Mid Holocene. |
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