@article{2cacc53039f94889bd47fc9789941c79,
title = "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",
abstract = "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 (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) 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 C4 and C3 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 C4 vegetation than MIS 5a and MIS 3.",
keywords = "Cape Floristic Region, Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, Palaeoclimatology, Pleistocene, South Africa, Speleothems, Stable isotopes",
author = "Kerstin Braun and Miryam Bar-Matthews and Alan Matthews and Avner Ayalon and Tami Zilberman and Cowling, {Richard M.} and Fisher, {Erich C.} and Herries, {Andy I.R.} and Brink, {James S.} and Marean, {Curtis W.}",
note = "Funding Information: The constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. We thank the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) and School of Human Evolution and Social Change staff at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Mossel Bay Archaeology Project (MAP) staff for their assistance, the Dias Museum for field facilities, South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and Heritage Western Cape (HWC) for permits, and the Geological Survey of Israel for research support. We also thank the owners of the property hosting Herolds Bay Cave for allowing access to the site, the owners of Efflux Cave for permission to use the broken samples that were found inside the cave. We acknowledge funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Marie Curie People program FP7/2007–2013 through funding of the Initial Training Network “ GATEWAYS ” ( http://www.gatewaysitn.eu ) under the grant number 238512 . This research was further funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (to C.W. Marean, BCS-0524087 and BCS-1138073 ), the Hyde Family Foundations , the IHO at ASU, and the John Templeton Foundation to the IHO at ASU (grant ID 48952 ). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of these funding organizations. Funding Information: The constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. We thank the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) and School of Human Evolution and Social Change staff at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Mossel Bay Archaeology Project (MAP) staff for their assistance, the Dias Museum for field facilities, South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and Heritage Western Cape (HWC) for permits, and the Geological Survey of Israel for research support. We also thank the owners of the property hosting Herolds Bay Cave for allowing access to the site, the owners of Efflux Cave for permission to use the broken samples that were found inside the cave. We acknowledge funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Marie Curie People program FP7/2007–2013 through funding of the Initial Training Network “GATEWAYS” (http://www.gatewaysitn.eu) under the grant number 238512. This research was further funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (to C.W. Marean, BCS-0524087 and BCS-1138073), the Hyde Family Foundations, the IHO at ASU, and the John Templeton Foundation to the IHO at ASU (grant ID 48952). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of these funding organizations. Funding Information: The constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. We thank the Institute of Human Origins (IHO) and School of Human Evolution and Social Change staff at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Mossel Bay Archaeology Project (MAP) staff for their assistance, the Dias Museum for field facilities, South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and Heritage Western Cape (HWC) for permits, and the Geological Survey of Israel for research support. We also thank the owners of the property hosting Herolds Bay Cave for allowing access to the site, the owners of Efflux Cave for permission to use the broken samples that were found inside the cave. We acknowledge funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Marie Curie People program FP7/2007?2013 through funding of the Initial Training Network ?GATEWAYS? (http://www.gatewaysitn.eu) under the grant number 238512. This research was further funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (to C.W. Marean, BCS-0524087 and BCS-1138073), the Hyde Family Foundations, the IHO at ASU, and the John Templeton Foundation to the IHO at ASU (grant ID 48952). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of these funding organizations. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = may,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.025",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "235",
journal = "Quaternary Science Reviews",
issn = "0277-3791",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}