Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments in the central semi-arid region of South Africa from pollen in cave, pan, spring, stream and dung deposits

L. Scott; M. Sobol; F. H. Neumann; G. Gil Romera; Y. Fernández-Jalvo; C. B. Bousman; L. K. Horwitz; A. C. van Aardt

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.065

Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments in the central semi-arid region of South Africa from pollen in cave, pan, spring, stream and dung deposits

L. Scott, M. Sobol, F. H. Neumann, G. Gil Romera, Y. Fernández-Jalvo, C. B. Bousman, L. K. Horwitz, A. C. van Aardt

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19 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have reassessed the palynological record of Equus Cave in the Savanna Biome of the southern Kalahari, one of the longest Late Quaternary pollen records for the semi-arid central interior of South Africa. We combined published pollen results from the cave, derived from hyena coprolites and the rubified deposits in which they occur, into a single sequence. By re-considering the chronology of this sequence, we critically evaluated the palaeoenvironmental record for the site. We compared the pollen evidence from Equus Cave to that from the longer Wonderwerk Cave records (stalagmite, sediments and dung), also located in the Savanna Biome. Then, we contrasted Equus and Wonderwerk records with other previously published pollen sequences derived from a range of sources from several sites in central South Africa. These sites follow a broad northwest to southeast transect of c. 500 km through the Grassland and Nama Karoo Biomes of the Free State and Eastern Cape. Applying Principal Components Analysis to the pollen data, we derived climatic signals at a regional scale to refine reconstructions of Late Quaternary changes for central South Africa.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	84-97
Number of pages	14
Journal	Quaternary International
Volume	614
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.065
State	Published - 20 Mar 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA

Funding

LS was supported by the National Research foundation (South Africa) (NRF Grant no. 85903). Any opinion, finding, and conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors, and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard. The Leakey Foundation (USA) and the National Science Foundation (USA) respectively supported CBB's work at Baden-Baden and Blydefontein. LS appreciates Juan Ochando Tomas' collaboration relating to hyena coprolites in Project CGL-PID2019-1049449GB-I00 (FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain). We acknowledge the work of Peter Beaumont who initiated research at Wonderwerk Cave, Equus Caves and Kathu Pan, and provided the first polleniferous deposits from these sites. LS was supported by the National Research foundation (South Africa) (NRF Grant no. 85903 ). Any opinion, finding, and conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors, and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard. The Leakey Foundation (USA) and the National Science Foundation (USA) respectively supported CBB's work at Baden-Baden and Blydefontein. LS appreciates Juan Ochando Tomas' collaboration relating to hyena coprolites in Project CGL-PID2019-1049449GB-I00 ( FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain ). We acknowledge the work of Peter Beaumont who initiated research at Wonderwerk Cave, Equus Caves and Kathu Pan, and provided the first polleniferous deposits from these sites.

Funders	Funder number
South Africa)
National Science Foundation	CGL-PID2019-1049449GB-I00
Leakey Foundation
National Research Foundation	85903
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
European Regional Development Fund

Keywords

Equus Cave
Hyena coprolites
Palynology
Southern Hemisphere
Taphonomy

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10.1016/j.quaint.2020.10.065

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title = "Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments in the central semi-arid region of South Africa from pollen in cave, pan, spring, stream and dung deposits",

abstract = "We have reassessed the palynological record of Equus Cave in the Savanna Biome of the southern Kalahari, one of the longest Late Quaternary pollen records for the semi-arid central interior of South Africa. We combined published pollen results from the cave, derived from hyena coprolites and the rubified deposits in which they occur, into a single sequence. By re-considering the chronology of this sequence, we critically evaluated the palaeoenvironmental record for the site. We compared the pollen evidence from Equus Cave to that from the longer Wonderwerk Cave records (stalagmite, sediments and dung), also located in the Savanna Biome. Then, we contrasted Equus and Wonderwerk records with other previously published pollen sequences derived from a range of sources from several sites in central South Africa. These sites follow a broad northwest to southeast transect of c. 500 km through the Grassland and Nama Karoo Biomes of the Free State and Eastern Cape. Applying Principal Components Analysis to the pollen data, we derived climatic signals at a regional scale to refine reconstructions of Late Quaternary changes for central South Africa.",

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Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments in the central semi-arid region of South Africa from pollen in cave, pan, spring, stream and dung deposits

Abstract

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Keywords

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