Comparison of climate and environment on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain to the Little Karoo (South Africa) in Marine Isotope Stages 5-3 as indicated by speleothems

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

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Article

Braun, Kerstin^1,2,3,4  Bar-Matthews, Miryam^2,3  Matthews, Alan⁴  Ayalon, Avner³  Zilberman, Tami³  Cowling, Richard M.²  Fisher, Erich C.^1,2  Herries, Andy I. R.^5,6  Brink, James S.⁷  Marean, Curtis W.^1,2 

[1] Arizona State Univ, Sch Human Evolut & Social Change, Inst Human Origins, POB 874101, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA

[2] Nelson Mandela Univ, African Ctr Coastal Palaeosci, POB 77000, ZA-6031 Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa

[3] Geol Survey Israel, 32 Yeshayahu Leibowitz St, IL-6962100 Jerusalem, Israel

[4] Hebrew Univ Jerusalem, Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Inst Earth Sci, Edmond J Safra Campus Givat Ram, IL-9190401 Jerusalem, Israel

[5] La Trobe Univ, Dept Archaeol & Hist, Melbourne, Vic, Australia

[6] Univ Johannesburg, Palaeo Res Inst, Johannesburg, South Africa

[7] South African Natl Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

关键词: Palaeoclimatology;    Pleistocene;    South Africa;    Speleothems;    Stable isotopes;    Cape Floristic Region;    Palaeo-Agulhas Plain;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.025

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Given the steep present-day climatic gradients in southern South Africa, comparative studies of its coastal and inland paleoclimate provide important insight into the region's spatial climate dynamics. We present a comparative study of new speleothem stable oxygen (delta O-18) and carbon (delta C-13) isotopic composition from Efflux Cave (EC; 113-19 ka, hiatus between 105 and 94 ka) in the Little Karoo inland basin and Herolds Bay Cave (HBC; 93-62 ka) at the boundary between the Cape coastal lowlands and the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain. Gaussian kernel based cross-correlation analyses against palaeoclimate proxy records show that rainfall seasonality at EC is related to rainfall amount in the South African interior, whereas HBC is similar to the South African east coast. Our new proxy records, corroborated by archaeological evidence from the Cape coastal lowlands and the Little Karoo, suggest that in both regions, surface water was readily available and grassland ecosystems with variable amounts of C-4 and C-3 grasses as well as fynbos communities could be found nearby. Cross-correlation analyses of the new records from EC and HBC compared to previously published speleothem records from southern South Africa show only limited statistical correlation. However, there are some similarities in overall trends of palaeoclimate change in the Cape coastal lowlands and the Little Karoo whereby Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5b (mainly Greenland Interstadial 22) and 4 generally have more summer rainfall and higher abundances of C-4 vegetation than MIS 5a and MIS 3. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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