Rock hyrax middens: A palaeoenvironmental archive for southern African drylands

50,000 years of vegetation and climate change in the southern Namib Desert, Pella, South Africa

“…Rock hyrax middens are stratified accumulations of urine and/or faecal pellets that are deposited as successive layers, often over thousands of years (see Chase et al, 2012). The midden at Pella formed in several distinct lobes (Figure 3c).…”

“…between ~0.3 g and 1.0 g. For a full description of hyrax middens, their development and the sampling and analytical methodologies for the proxies they contain, see Chase et al (2012).…”

“…The pollen records were obtained from two sections of a rock hyrax midden complex recovered from mountains near the town of Pella, South Africa (a full description of rock hyrax middens can be found in Chase et al, 2012). Through this analysis we seek to investigate: 1) the coherence between marine and terrestrial pollen records, 2) the extent that the former may be used as reliable indicators of changes in terrestrial ecosystems, and 3) the hypothesis that mediterranean Fynbos Biome expanded far to the north during the last glacial period as a result of an equatorward shift of the westerly storm track (e.g.…”

A high resolution 15,600-year pollen and microcharcoal record from the Cederberg Mountains, South Africa

“…Chase et al, 2012). A 40 cm section cut into the De Rif midden has been previously analysed for its stable isotope and fossil pollen records (Quick et al, 2011) (section DR2).…”

African hydroclimatic variability during the last 2000 years

“…Holmgren et al, 2003) and more recently hyrax middens (e.g. Chase et al, 2012), have been explored. Pollen records of past vegetation change extracted from lake and swamp sediments are often poorly dated with low temporal resolution, and the complex nature of the region's flora can create fossil pollen assemblages that are difficult to interpret in terms of past shifts in climate regimes (e.g.…”