Rock hyrax middens: A palaeoenvironmental archive for southern African drylands
Rock hyrax middens: A palaeoenvironmental archive for southern African drylands
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DOI：
10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.08.018
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发表时间：
2012-11-21
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Quick, Lynne J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chase, Brian M.;Scott, Louis;Quick, Lynne J.
与世界上许多亚热带地区一样，南部非洲对地球气候系统的变化高度敏感，但由于缺乏可靠的古环境记录，人们对区域环境在百年至数千年的时间尺度上受到的影响知之甚少。在很大程度上，这种敏感性是这些地区在温带和热带环流系统交界处的位置的函数。由于降雨的季节性和不规则性，限制了湖泊和湿地等适合保存古环境档案的发展。本文回顾和评估了岩蛇作为南部非洲新的古环境档案的价值。讨论的内容包括：(1)Hyrax的现代分类、分布和生态；(2)Hyrax Midden的发育机制、物理和化学结构、堆积速率和年龄；(3)Hyrax Midden中保存的古环境指标，包括化石花粉、稳定同位素和生物标志物。评估了这些不同的中层特征提供的解释限制和机会，以期展示这些沉积的潜力，因为它们广泛分布于干旱和半干旱的南部非洲，提供了整个次大陆晚第四纪古环境的更详细和更年代化的观点。(C)2012爱思唯尔有限公司。保留所有权利。
Like many of the world's subtropical regions, southern Africa is highly sensitive to changes in the earth's climate system, but a dearth of reliable palaeoenvironmental records means that relatively little is known about how regional environments have been affected over centennial to multi-millennial timescales. To a large extent this sensitivity is a function of the position of these regions at the interface between temperate and tropical circulation systems. The resulting seasonality and irregularity of rainfall have limited the development of suitable archives, such as lakes and wetlands, for the preservation of palaeoenvironmental proxies.This paper reviews and evaluates the value of rock hyrax middens as novel palaeoenvironmental archives in southern Africa. Considered are (1) the contemporary taxonomy, distribution and ecology of hyraxes, (2) the mechanisms of hyrax midden development, their physical and chemical structure, rates of accumulation and age; and (3) the palaeoenvironmental proxies preserved within hyrax middens, including fossil pollen, stable isotopes and biomarkers. The interpretive constraints and opportunities offered by these various midden characteristics are assessed with a view to demonstrating the potential of these deposits, widespread as they are through arid and semi-arid southern Africa, in providing a more detailed and chronologically resolved view of late Quaternary palaeoenvironments across the subcontinent. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.