Andrew S. Carr

• Lecturer at University of Leicester

South Africa is a key region to reconstruct past changes in atmospheric circulation patterns; i.e. interactions between the temperate westerlies and tropical easterlies. However, due to an overall scarcity of natural archives and the analyses of rather indirect hydrological proxies, South Africa’s climatic evolution during the Holocene remains high...

South Africa is a key region to reconstruct past changes in atmospheric circulation patterns; i.e. interactions between the temperate westerlies and tropical easterlies. However, due to an overall scarcity of natural archives and the analyses of rather indirect hydrological proxies, South Africa's climatic evolution during the Holocene remains deba...

The southwestern Cape of South Africa is a particularly dynamic region in terms of long-term climate change. We analysed fossil pollen from a 25,000 year sediment core taken from a near-coastal wetland at Pearly Beach that revealed that distinct changes in vegetation composition occurred along the southwestern Cape coast. From these changes, consid...

To address long-standing questions concerning Southern Hemisphere climate dynamics and palaeoecological change in southern Africa, a Late Glacial-Holocene alluvial sediment sequence from the relatively dry interior year-round rainfall zone in South Africa was investigated. The study site borders the Fynbos biome and Succulent Karoo biome ecotone, a...

Topography fundamentally influences the distribution and morphology of aeolian landforms via the modification of surface wind flow and the creation of space for sediment deposition. This has been observed at both landform (individual topographic dune forms) and macro-landscape (sand sea) scales. Although previous studies have considered several eff...

A multi-proxy study on a sediment core from Pedro Palo Lake, a mid-altitude endorheic Andean Lake in northern South America, was carried out to understand the effects of human activities and climate variability on tropical mountain freshwater ecosystems. Results indicate that between ~ 7980 and 4110 cal year BP the lake maintained well-mixed, mesot...

Umhlatuzana rockshelter has an occupation sequence spanning the last 70,000 years. It is one of the few sites with deposits covering the Middle to Later Stone Age transition (~40,000–30,000 years BP) in southern Africa. Comprehending the site’s depositional history and occupation sequence is thus important for the broader understanding of the devel...

South Africa is a key region for paleoclimate studies reconstructing and understanding past changes in atmospheric circulation, i.e., temperate Westerlies and tropical Easterlies. However, due to the scarcity of natural archives, the environmental evolution during the late Quaternary remains highly debated. Many archives that are available are peri...

Background: Like with all cancers, multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are the norm in bone tumour and soft tissue sarcoma (BST) management too. Problem in attendance of specialists due to geographical location is the one of the key barriers to effective functioning of MDTs. To overcome this problem, virtual MDTs involving videoconferencing or te...

Background: Like with all cancers, multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are the norm in bone and soft tissue tumour (BST) management too. Problem in attendance of specialists due to geographical location is the one of the key barriers to effective functioning of MDTs. To overcome this problem, virtual MDTs involving videoconferencing or telemedici...

Dryland alluvial successions across interior South Africa are a focus of pedosedimentary research because they provide insights into past hydrogeomorphic changes and improve our understanding of allogenic and autogenic controls on fluvial systems. This paper focuses on an alluvial succession preserved within the Wilgerbosch River, on the Great Esca...

Alluvial and colluvial “cut and fill” deposits preserved in valleys of the Karoo, South Africa, reflect basin-scale adjustments in fluvial process-regime. Such deposits in the Wilgerbosch catchment have previously proven difficult to date using radiocarbon (¹⁴C) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methods. In this paper, we test the suitabi...

South Africa's southern Cape is a highly dynamic climatic region that is influenced by changes in both temperate and tropical atmospheric and oceanic circulation dynamics. Recent research initiatives suggest that the major elements of the regional climate system have acted both independently and in combination to establish a mosaic of distinct clim...

Field studies have shown that active faulting in the SW Tien Shan is distributed across a series of E‐W reverse faults along the range fronts and within basin interiors, with summed shortening rates that are consistent with GPS measurements. In contrast, few field studies have been undertaken to determine the distribution, and the average slip rate...

Alluvial and colluvial “cut and fill” deposits preserved in valleys of the Great Escarpment, South Africa reflect basin-scale adjustments in fluvial process-regime. Such deposits in the Wilgerbosch catchment have previously proven difficult to date using radiocarbon (14C) and luminescence methods. However, low temperature post-IR IRSL methods (pIRI...

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, and much work has gone into identifying the drivers of this diversity. Considered regionally in the context of Quaternary climate change, climate stability is generally accepted as being one of the major factors promoting the abundance of species now present in the C...

The ~400‐km‐long Talas‐Fergana Fault is one of a series of major right‐lateral strike‐slip faults that cross the Tien Shan Range. This fault has been recognized as active in the late Holocene and accommodates part of the deformation induced by the ongoing Indo‐Asian collision. The kinematics and the role of this strike‐slip fault are poorly underst...

In the 1970s and 1980s several late Pleistocene palaeo-lakes were proposed to have existed within the South African interior. In particular, the ~44 km 2 Alexandersfontein pan, south of Kimberley, in the central interior summer rainfall region, was identified as providing evidence for major lake phases at 19 and 17-13 ka. The presence of Middle Sto...

Despite being one of the world’s oldest deserts, and the subject of decades of research, evidence of past climate change in the Namib Desert is extremely limited. As such, there is significant debate regarding the nature and drivers of climate change in the low-latitude drylands of southwestern Africa. Here we present data from stratified accumulat...

The southern Cape coast of South Africa boasts an impressive suite of Plio-Pleistocene aeolian dune deposits (aeolianite). Previous research has shown that in this region onshore dune accumulation was generally focused around interglacial sea level highstands, with the locus of coastal dune accumulation shifting onto the adjacent continental shelf...

Headwater valleys of the Sneeuberg, South Africa contain alluvial and colluvial "cut and fill" deposits of varying thickness, extent and pedogenic overprinting. Determination of their age structure in the Wilgerbosch catchment has been problematic due to: (i) a lack of organic remains for 14 C dating; and (ii) the unsuitability of quartz for lumine...

We demonstrate that a continental interior reverse fault is deforming by aseismic creep, presently, and likely also in the long term. The Karkara Rangefront Fault, part of the larger Main Terskey Front, forms the northern boundary of the high Terskey Tien Shan in southeastern Kazakhstan and is a mature structure with evidence for high slip rates th...

The Mojave Desert presents an array of Pleistocene lacustrine deposits and aeolian landforms to which, at times, it has proved challenging to apply luminescence methods. We tested the suitability of K-feldspar post-IR IRSL methods using two sites with independent radiocarbon dating – shorelines at Harper Lake and Silver Lake – considering: 1) overa...

In 2020, the ESA ExoMars and NASA Mars 2020 missions will be launched to Mars to search for evidence of past and present life. In preparation for these missions, terrestrial analog samples of rock formations on Mars are studied in detail in order to optimize the scientific information that the analytical instrumentation will return. Desert varnishe...

Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS) represents a site of major interest for reconstructing early human behaviours during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Rock shelters such as DRS also potentially preserve information concerning the environmental context for such behaviours. In this respect the organic matter composition of rock shelter sediments has rarely be...

The hydrogen isotope composition of plant leaf wax (δDwax) has been found to record the isotope composition of precipitation (δDp). Hence, δDwax is increasingly used for palaeohydrological reconstruction. δDwax is, however, also affected by secondary factors, such as vegetation type, evapotranspiration and environmental conditions, complicating its...

A multi-proxy study of an offshore core in Saldanha Bay (South Africa) provides new insights into fluvial deposition, ecosystems, phytogeography and sea-level history during the late Paleogene-early Neogene. Offshore seismic data reveal bedrock topography, and provide evidence of relative sea levels as low as -100 m during the Oligocene. 3D landsca...

Africa's southern Cape is a key region for the evolution of our species, with early symbolic systems, marine faunal exploitation, and episodic production of microlithic stone tools taken as evidence for the appearance of distinctively complex human behavior. However, the temporally discontinuous nature of this evidence precludes ready assumptions o...

The 11 July 1889 Chilik earthquake (M-w 8.0-8.3) forms part of a remarkable sequence of large earthquakes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the northern Tien Shan. Despite its importance, the source of the 1889 earthquake remains unknown, though the macroseismic epicenter is sited in the Chilik valley, similar to 100 km southe...

The 11 July 1889 Chilik earthquake (Mw 8.0-8.3) forms part of a remarkable sequence of large earthquakes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the northern Tien Shan. Despite its importance, the source of the 1889 earthquake remains unknown, though the macroseismic epicenter is sited in the Chilik valley, ~100km southeast of Almat...

The southern Cape of South Africa hosts a remarkably rich Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological record. Many of the associated caves and rock shelters are coastal sites, which contain evidence for varied occupational intensity and marine resource use, along with signs of notable landscape, environmental, and ecological change. Here, we review and s...

The lowland savannas (Llanos) of Colombia and Venezuela are covered by extensive aeolian landforms for which little chronological information exists. We present the first optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age constraints for dunes in the Llanos Orientales of lowland Colombia and new ages for dunes in the Venezuelan Llanos. The sampled dunes a...

The southern Cape is a key focus for southern African palaeoenvironmental research as it represents the transitional region between temperate westerlies and sub-tropical rainfall sources. This study presents pollen, plant biomarker, geochemical and charcoal data preserved in the Rietvlei wetland. The bulk of the record spans the last 16 ka, but it...

Desert varnishes are thin, dark mineral coatings found on some rocks in arid or semi-arid environments on Earth. Microorganisms may play an active role in their formation, which takes many hundreds of years. Their mineral matrix may facilitate the preservation of organic matter and is therefore of great relevance to martian exploration. Miniaturize...

We present an 8000-year biomarker and stable carbon isotope record from the Verlorenvlei Estuary, South Africa. We assessed how leaf wax lipids, insoluble macromolecular organic matter, bulk C/N data and compound-specific stable carbon isotopes were linked to the site’s palynological record and to evidence for regional sea level and environmental c...

We analysed leaves from 42 plants from the South African Succulent Karoo. Whole leaf d13C values clearly differentiated 3 different populations, consisting of plants operating under obligate CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism), facultative CAM and C3 modes. In contrast, the leaf wax n-alkane d13C data from these metabolic groups showed a broader ove...

The Cederberg Mountains (Western Cape Province, South Africa) are located within the Fynbos Biome, which exhibits some of the highest levels of species richness and endemism in the world. The region’s post-glacial vegetation history, however, remains largely unknown. Presented here is a high resolution pollen and microcharcoal records spanning the...

The environmental controls on leaf wax n-alkane distributions and associated interpretation of such distributions in geological archives have long remained rather enigmatic. Studies of contemporary vegetation often conflate changing environmental conditions and species differences between biomes, making it difficult to assess the extent to which va...

In recent decades there has been increasing interest, from scientists of many disciplines, in the origins and dynamics of tropical savanna–forest boundaries. These boundaries are rarely present as a smooth gradient from tropical forests to scattered trees and open grassland (Bond and Parr 2010); rather, they are often patchy and irregular, occurrin...

Barrier systems contain lengthy, but complex, records of long-term environmental fluctuations. The Wilderness embayment, South Africa, contains a system of shore-parallel barriers reaching up to 200 m above modern sea level. This study reports the results of chronological, topographical (both on- and off-shore), sedimentological and micromorphologi...

Pyrolysis–gas chromatography mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS) allows the characterisation of complex macromolecular organic matter. In lakes and wetlands this can potentially be used to assess the preservation/diagenesis and provenance of sediment organic matter. It can complement palaeoenvironmental investigations utilising ‘bulk’ sediment variables s...

The existence of lignitic deposits (Knysna Formation) on the South African south coast, near to the town of Knysna has been recognised for more than a century. However, a combination of limited study and few natural exposures has meant that the age and stratigraphic position of the Knysna Formation are unclear, despite its potential as a palaeoenvi...

Presented here are stable nitrogen isotope data from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens from northwestern Namibia that record a series of rapid aridification events beginning at ca. 3800 cal yr BP, and which mark a progressive decrease in regional humidity across the Holocene. Strong correlations exist between this record and other terrestria...

The continental margin of southern South Africa exhibits an array of emergent marginal marine sediments permitting the reconstruction of long-term eustatic sea-level changes. We report a suite of optical luminescence ages and supplementary amino acid racemization data, which provide paleosea-level index points for three sites on this coastline. Dep...

Hyrax middens are unique environmental archives with the potential to provide unprecedented high-resolution palaeoenvironmental records, particularly in the arid regions of southern Africa. This study provides the first detailed characterisation of the organic matter composition of hyraceum and aims to identify biomarker evidence capable of providi...

This study examines two major late Quaternary coastal dune systems situated in the southwestern-most extremity of Africa. The False Bay and Duinefontyn dune plumes formed in close proximity, but under contrasting oceanographic regimes (warm Agulhas and cold Benguela oceanic current systems respectively). The False Bay and Duinefontyn dune plumes ha...

The southern and western coastlines of South Africa have an extensive archaeological record with many sites associated with widespread eolian deposits. While much of this rich archaeological record is based on cave sites, evidence of Late Stone Age occupation is additionally preserved in the form of open-site shell middens. We present here a compar...

Standardized growth curves (SGCs) have recently been developed as a means to reduce measurement times when determining palaeodoses in the standardized luminescence (OSL) dating of quartz, but this approach is not without its critics. We test the performance of SGCs derived from samples from a range of environments in southern Africa and Florida (Un...

The impressive Pleistocene coastal aeolianite exposures in sea cliffs east of Still Bay on the west–southern coast of South Africa host a rich archive of fossil mammalian trackways, including the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Neither the ichnofossils nor their host sediments have been described in any detail and chronologies remained uncer...

Post-depositional mixing or exhumation is common in surficial sediments, yet may be unobservable from field evidence. However, any disturbance may have significant consquences in terms of establishing a reliable luminescence age determination. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements, particularly measurements at the single grain level,...

The southern coastline of South Africa exhibits extensive aeolianites and spectacular barrier dunes; the ages and palaeoenvironmental significance of which have, until recently, received limited attention. We present preliminary results for samples taken from a single 6.5m section in the seaward barrier dune near to the town of Wilderness. The reli...

The complex geomorphology of South Africa’s southern Cape coastal belt comprises Gondwana components and a suite of Quaternary sedimentary deposits, superimposed on the older landscape. Of these, the Wilderness aeolianites have previously been reported. This paper is the second of two which focus on the inland coversands. It has a three-fold purpos...

Luminescence (OSL) dating has revolutionised the understanding of Late Pleistocene dryland activity. However, one of the key assumptions for this sort of palaeoenvironmental work is that sedimentary sequences have been preserved intact, enabling their use as proxy indicators of past changes. This relies on stabilisation or burial soon after deposit...

South Africa's winter-rainfall zone is a climatically sensitive region, lying at the interface of the earth's temperate and sub-tropical climatic systems. Its seasonally arid climate has generally prevented the preservation of long and organic-rich sedimentary deposits, producing a spatially limited and temporally biased Quaternary record. This pap...

Located at the interface between the temperate westerly and sub-tropical climate systems, South Africa's winter rainfall zone (WRZ) is a key location in understanding Late Quaternary atmospheric circulation dynamics. Inactive eolian deposits in the WRZ, comprising pan-fringing lunette and coastal dunes, were investigated to establish their depositi...

The southern Cape region of South Africa has extensive coastal aeolianites and barrier dunes. Whilst previously reported, limited knowledge of their age has precluded an understanding of their relationship with the climatic and sea-level fluctuations that have taken place during the Late Quaternary. Sedimentological and geomorphological studies com...