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20 - Minerogenic microfossil records of Quaternary environmental change in southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Jennifer M. Fitchett ,
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

Minerogenic microfossils are abundantly preserved in sedimentary sequences from a wide range of aquatic environments, including shallow and deep ocean basins, lakes, wetlands and estuaries, and in environments with a range of pH, temperature, salinity and nutrient loads. In southern Africa, pollen is used more commonly as a palaeoenvironmental proxy than are minerogenic microfossils, despite the wider range of environmental variables to which minerogenic micro-organisms respond. Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in southern Africa that have utilised some of these microfossils demonstrate their value, particularly in multi-proxy analyses, when comparing microfossil community changes with those represented by pollen, charcoal and stable isotopes. This chapter outlines the minerogenic microfossils that are most commonly examined globally, and discusses some specific case studies from southern Africa that demonstrate the utility of microfossils in reconstructing Quaternary palaeoenvironments. We argue that efforts should be made to expand the use of minerogenic microfossils in southern African palaeoenvironmental studies, given the valuable information they provide, both as proxies and through facilitating isotope analysis and dating.

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Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 324 - 348
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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