Influence of tropical easterlies in southern Africa's winter rainfall zone during the Holocene

Holocene sea level and environmental change on the west coast of South Africa: evidence from plant biomarkers, stable isotopes and pollen

“…Verlorenvlei, where we see a weak trend from relatively drier conditions 3,500-2,500 cal yr BP to 539 more humid conditions 2,500 cal BP (Chase et al 2015). Such changes were interpreted to have 540 been driven by the varying impact of easterly-derived rainfall and the distinct contrast with the late 541…”

CREST (Climate REconstruction SofTware): a probability density function (PDF)-based quantitative climate reconstruction method

“…Recent work has shown the potential of the models upon which CREST has been based, particularly in regards to long-term climate reconstructions (Chase et al, 2015;Truc et al, 2013). Our goal with CREST is to make these techniques more accessible to the wider scientific community, and it is our hope that this tool will be applied to study other areas where long-term climate variations still need to be quantitatively described.…”

Stable isotope analyses of rock hyrax faecal pellets, hyraceum and associated vegetation in southern Africa: Implications for dietary ecology and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

“…Changes in hyraceum isotopic signals have 34 been inferred to largely relate to the stable isotope composition of the animal's diet and thus, to 35 environmental controls on plant isotopic composition in the midden environs (Chase et al, 2012). It 36 has been argued that this interpretation is supported by facets of the midden geochemistry (Carr et 37 al., 2010) and by: 1) the close correlations in temporal isotopic trends between discrete midden 38 (colony) records ; 2) correlations of such trends with independent 39 palaeoenvironmental archives, which furthermore show the isotopically opposite responses to those 40 predicted by dominantly metabolic controls on urine stable isotope composition (Chase et al, 2009;41 20112015b); and 3) good correlations between isotope and pollen data from the same midden 42 (Chase et al, 2015a;Chase et al 2015b). 43 Notwithstanding, the fundamental isotope systematics of the diet-herbivore system within 44 rock hyrax habitats remain to be fully elucidated.…”

“…Several studies have developed palaeoclimatic records using 31 sequential analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes through stratified hyraceum, the 32 crystallised urinary material (cf. faecal pellets) that forms many hyrax middens (Scott and Vogel, 2000; 33 Chase et al, 2009;2011;2015a;2015b). Changes in hyraceum isotopic signals have 34 been inferred to largely relate to the stable isotope composition of the animal's diet and thus, to 35 environmental controls on plant isotopic composition in the midden environs (Chase et al, 2012).…”