Late Holocene climate variability off southwestern Africa as inferred from coccolithophore assemblages and sediment elemental composition

摘要

Given the latest scenarios by the IPCC (2013), there are major concerns regarding water availability in southeastern Africa and the drastic consequences for the resident population and economies that are to be expected. Consequently, a better understanding of climate dynamics in this region is crucial. Nannofossil analyses, as well as X-ray fluorescence measurements, were performed on a marine sediment core (GeoB 8323-2) that was retrieved from a 93-m water depth off the Olifants River, South Africa, in order to reconstruct paleoceanographic changes in the southern Benguela upwelling system, as well as variations in continental hydrology. These draw a consistent picture for late Holocene environmental change during the last three millennia.