Stephan Woodborne

iThemba Labs - Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science · iThemba LABS (Gauteng)

During recent field surveys, a new Ceylon iron wood (Manilkara hexandra) population was discovered in the Upper Ganga Ramsar Site, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The largest specimen located at Van Khan-deshwar partially collapsed in 2012, which led to a canopy impairment. The rupture enabled direct extraction of samples close to the pith of the main s...

Our species and other hominins have used earth mineral pigments since at least ~500,000 years ago, if not earlier. Its preservation and ubiquity within archaeological records across sub-Saharan Africa are well documented, but regional-scale networks of mineral selection, mining, transport, and use is an underdeveloped field. Here, we present a fram...

Current trends in coastal erosion combined with projected climate change impacts place half of the global sandy beaches at risk of extinction. Approximately 190 million people are likely to experience coastal environmental risks by 2100, and mitigation of the risk related to coastal erosion requires insight into the underlying causes. Here we use a...

Background Antarctic environments are dominated by microorganisms, which are vulnerable to viral infection. Although several studies have investigated the phylogenetic repertoire of bacteria and viruses in these poly-extreme environments, the evolutionary mechanisms governing microbial immunity remain poorly understood. Results Using genome resolv...

We report radiocarbon dates obtained from on-shore marine and near-shore terrestrial deposits near Yzerfontein, on the West Coast of South Africa. These deposits include Late Pleistocene shell concretions from the southern end of 16 Mile Beach and a marine shell deposit inland of the coastal Rooipan (Red Pan); mid-Holocene coastal pan deposits expo...

A high-resolution climate archive was reconstructed based on carbon isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of the Chapman baobab in northeastern Botswana. The Chapman baobab, which exhibited an open ring-shaped structure composed of six stems, collapsed in January 2016 during an intense El Niño event. Two samples belonging to the oldest stems were...

The histology and growth of reptilian and crocodilian claws (ungues) have been extensively studied; however, Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus ) claws have not received adequate attention. Furthermore, age estimations for reptilian claws remain unexplored, despite Nile crocodile claws being used in long‐term dietary reconstruction studies, assu...

Angola is a source of many major rivers in southern Africa and is referred to as the “water tower” of the region. The lack of a defined area delineating the Angolan Highlands water tower (AHWT) limits the conservation of this important freshwater source. This study hydrologically defines the boundary of the AHWT as areas > 1274 m above mean sea lev...

Water quality monitoring has been used for decades in South Africa to trace sources of environmental stress on aquatic ecosystems, but this remains a relatively imprecise process when trying to identify the primary source of stress. This is due to many key traces such as, the primary nutrients used in photosynthesis (nitrates and phosphates), or...

Southern Africa is dominated by arid and semi-arid savanna environments where the landscape structure is determined by the complex interaction between climate, vegetation and consumers. However, in Africa, an increase in rainfall and reduced fire can transition a savanna landscape towards a forest state. Observations of these savanna-forest interac...

The chance discovery of a 500-year-old cattle-horn container in a painted rock shelter on the farm La vie D’Antan in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa sheds new light on the antiquity of traditional medicines in the region. We report the micro-residue and GC-MS results of the solidified substance found inside the horn container. Several pla...

This article describes the radiocarbon analysis of the large Indian banyan (Ficus benghalensis) at Narora, Uttar Pradesh (UP). It was discovered during floristic surveys in the Upper Ganga Ramsar site in UP and ranks as the tenth largest banyan tree in the world with its 4069 sq. m crown spread. The tree has a unique architecture, with just four pr...

Shoreline analysis in response to the rapid erosion of sandy beaches has evolved along with geospatial and computer technology; it remains an essential task for sustainable coastal management. This severe and rapid erosion has been reported at several sandy beaches worldwide, including Yzerfontein beaches, on the southwest coast of South Africa. We...

Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) populations that exist outside of protected areas are under threat in South Africa. They are believed to predominantly feed on fish, but they also take prey from the terrestrial system, which brings them into conflict with humans and hampers their management. Here, we use stable light isotope analysis to explor...

The Omusati region belongs to historic Ovamboland, an area of northern Namibia populated by tribes of the Ovambo group. Four very large African baobabs of Omusati played an important role in historic events of the area, such as the tribal wars and the Namibian War of Independence. The four historic baobabs are the Ombalantu baobab (8 stems; circumf...

Drought negatively impacts health systems, agriculture, economies, energy, and the natural environment. The vulnerability of the Angolan Highlands rural communities that are dependent on rain-fed agriculture is a concern due to the prospect of climate change and the trajectory of increasing frequency of droughts in the region. The Angolan Highlands...

The Angolan Highlands region includes the Angolan miombo woodland ecoregion which supports miombo woodland, grasslands, subsistence agricultural land, and peatland deposits. Extensive fires, slash and burn agriculture, peat fuel extraction, and peatland drainage are among the anthropogenic practices that threaten these peatland deposits. Peat fires...

Stable isotope analysis is ubiquitous as a method to investigate food-web dynamics at various scales in aquatic ecology. Most studies make use of dorsal muscle tissue, which involves lethal sampling of the fish. The sampling of muscle tissue is often followed by chemical lipid extraction pre-treatment before stable isotope analysis. In this study w...

Peatlands are carbon-rich ecosystems that comprise the largest terrestrial carbon store. Peatland preservation has been acknowledged on the global scale as a key nature-based component in addressing climate change. Despite their importance, there is no globally recognised definitions for peat or peatland, which influences efforts in quantifying glo...

Freshwater systems in southern Africa are under threat of climate change, not only from altered flow regimes as rainfall patterns change, but also from biologically significant increases in water temperature. Statistical models can predict water temperatures from air temperatures, and air temperatures may rise by up to 7 °C by 2100. Statistical wat...

Southern Africa is dominated by fire-prone arid and semi-arid landscapes that are expected to experience increased maximum temperatures, rainfall variation and frequency of extreme rainfall events in the future. These conditions will affect fire and vegetation dynamics, but feedback and interactions among fire, rainfall and woody cover limit our ab...

We report on a programme of work to remediate Kruger Cave, a Later Stone Age painted rock shelter in the western Magaliesberg, South Africa. Kruger Cave, originally excavated in the 1980s and never backfilled or stabilised, has deteriorated through forty years of erosional and quotidian processes that have significantly reduced the extent of the ar...

Indigenous communities depend on natural capital and adapt their livelihoods to changing environmental conditions and ecosystem services. This paper aims to understand how southwestern Malagasy living around the Mikea National Park and the Mangoky River, have adapted their subsistence strategies to decreasing rainfall over time. We analyzed charcoa...

Low-cost uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become ubiquitous, and advanced UAV systems are affordable for many field ecologists and wildlife managers. Many hobbyist UAVs have been applied to ecological studies, but proprietary software limits their widespread application with little quantification with regards to their accuracy and efficiency in...

The Angolan highlands are hydrologically and ecologically important, supporting peatland deposits. Peatlands are carbon rich ecosystems and are the largest terrestrial carbon store. We present a first estimate of the extent of peatlands in the Angolan Highlands, using Google Earth Engine. Our conservative estimate of peatland coverage is 1634 km²,...

This paper presents the pollen data and its interpretation of a small lake in southwest Madagascar.

Over the past years, our research on baobabs mainly focused on the largest Malagasy species, namely the Reniala or Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.). The biggest A. grandidieri are located in the Morombe area, especially in the so-called Andombiry Forest. This giant forest of Reniala hosts well over 6000 mature individuals, out of wh...

Madagascar experienced environmental change during the Late-Holocene, and the relative importance of climatic and anthropogenic drivers is still the subject of an ongoing debate. Using palaeoecological records from the southwest region at Lake Longiza, we provide additional records to elucidate the complex history of the island and to identify the...

After the abandonment of Mapungubwe, the Limpopo Valley was reoccupied first by Sotho people, making Icon pottery, and then by Kalanga speakers making Khami pottery. The senior Kalanga chief, in this case Twamamba, was based at Machemma about 60 km to the south, while several petty chiefs administered various portions of the valley itself. Because...

Rationale: The diet of wild Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) is difficult to assess because they are cryptic, nocturnal predators that are extremely sensitive to disturbance by observers, and stomach content analysis is challenging, especially in large specimens. Stable light isotope analysis provides a means of assessing their diet but diet...

During recent field surveys, a new Ceylon iron wood (Manilkara hexandra) population was discovered in the Upper Ganga Ramsar Site, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The largest specimen located at Van Khan-deshwar partially collapsed in 2012, which led to a canopy impairment. The rupture enabled direct extraction of samples close to the pith of the main s...

Research in the Limpopo Valley has documented over 500 Middle Iron Age sites (AD 900–1320) relevant to the origins of Mapungubwe – the capital of the first indigenous state in southern Africa. Fifteen new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates from 11 of these archaeological sites establish the boundaries of the ceramic facies that form the cult...

Here, we aim to establish possible morphogenetic associations between periglacial phenomena (sorted circles and turf-/stone-banked lobes) by examining (a) rock surface weathering rinds by thin section microscopy and SEM-EDX analysis, and (b) alpine shrub growth patterns of Helichrysum trilineatum supported by AMS 14 C age determination. The study a...

The Rhino Early Iron Age site near Thabazimbi in the far north of South Africa is a sixth- to eighth-century AD example of an agricultural settlement that followed the principles of the Central Cattle Pattern. In addition to settlement features, salvage excavations yielded a fragment of a ‘Lydenburg Head’ in association with Happy Rest pottery. Tog...

Intense heat waves are occurring more frequently, with concomitant increases in the risk of catastrophic avian mortality events via lethal dehydration or hyperthermia. We quantified the risks of lethal hyperthermia and dehydration for 10 Australian arid-zone avifauna species during the 21st century, by synthesizing thermal physiology data on evapor...

Previously we (Woodborne et al., 1995) and many others have attempted to pinpoint the seasonality of hunter gatherer site visits by assessing the ‘ages at death’ of animals with a restricted birth season. We used seal remains from two late Holocene sites along the Cape west coast. In this reevaluation, including larger samples of both modern and ar...

Background: The archaeological incidence of ancient human faecal material provides a rare opportunity to explore the taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity of the ancestral human intestinal microbiome (IM). Here, we report the results of the shotgun metagenomic analyses of an ancient South African palaeo-faecal specimen. Methods: Following...

Salvage excavations in the 1970s uncovered a sizeable commoner occupation at Great Zimbabwe, as well as evidence for the early construction of an elite stonewalled enclosure. As a result of these excavations, we can revise somewhat the chronology of Great Zimbabwe. The most important changes are the extension of Period IV a, lasting from AD 1285±10...

Differences in the diets of urban and rural avian predators could indicate potential niche vulnerability in a particular habitat. This study compares the core-isotopic niche areas and diet disparity of a declining peri-urban Verreaux’s eagle (Aquila verreauxii) population with a stable rural population in South Africa. In addition to stable isotope...

The balance of nutrients in soil is critical for microbial growth and function, and stoichiometric values below the Redfield ratio for C:N:P can negatively affect microbial ecosystem services. However, few studies have assessed the relationships between nutrient balance and biological productivity in extremely nutrient-poor habitats. The Mackay Gla...

The article presents the radiocarbon investigation of the baobab of Jhunsi, Allahabad and the Parijaat tree at Kintoor, two old African baobabs from northern India. Several wood samples extracted from these baobabs were analysed by using AMS radiocarbon dating. The radiocarbon date of the oldest samples were 779 ± 41 BP for the baobab of Jhunsi and...

The article discloses the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating results of the Big Reniala of Isosa, which is a massive Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.) of Madagascar. The investigation of this baobab shows that it consists of 5 perfectly fused stems and exhibits a cluster structure. The calculated wood volume of th...

Terrace farming flourished in Bokoni from the sixteenth century CE onwards. Bokoni farmers’ resilience strategies, however, were severely tested during the third occupation phase (approx. 1780 to 1840 CE ), when the mfecane destabilised the region. In order to reflect on the environmental conditions Bokoni farmers faced in this period the stable ca...

The year 2016 witnessed the fall of a symbol of the botanical world: the historic Chapman baobab of Botswana. This article presents the results of our investigation of the standing and fallen tree. The Chapman baobab had an open ring-shaped structure composed of six partially fused stems. Several wood samples collected from the stems prior and afte...

Following the recovery of a single desiccated palaeo-faecal specimen from Bushman Rock Shelter in Limpopo Province, South Africa, we applied a multi-proxy analytical protocol to the sample. Our results indicate that the distal IM of the Neolithic ‘Middle Iron Age’ (c. AD 1485) Bantu-speaking individual exhibits features indicative of a largely mixe...

SIA is a recognised form of impact assessment, and is implemented in many parts of the world. The difference between emerging and developed economies provides a background to the social context in which SIA takes place, and project-scale benefits of SIA are often lost due to factors that operate at a much broader scale. Deteriorating governance and...

Significance We synthesized physiological and behavioral data to evaluate the risks of acute, lethal effects of extreme heat events versus the sublethal costs of chronic exposure to sustained hot weather for birds inhabiting southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert over the course of the 21st century. The risk of mass mortality events similar to those pre...

The scarcity of free-standing water sources is a key determinant of animal and plant community structure in arid environments, and an understanding of the extent to which particular species use surface water is vital for modeling the effects of climate change on desert avifauna. We investigated interspecific variation in the use of artificial water...

Bats play important ecological roles in tropical systems, yet how these communities are structured is still poorly understood. Our study explores the structure of African bat communities using morphological characters to define the morphospace occupied by these bats and stable isotope analysis to define their dietary niche breadth. We compared two...

Doubly labelled water (DLW) is routinely used to measure energy expenditure and water turnover in free‐ranging animals. Standard methods involve capture, blood sampling for baseline measurement, injection with isotopic tracers, captivity for an equilibration period, post‐dose blood sampling, release and subsequent recapture for final blood sampling...

The scarcity of free-standing water sources is a key determinant of animal and plant community structure in arid environments, and an understanding of the extent to which particular species use surface water is vital for modelling the effects of climate change on desert avifauna. We investigated interspecific variation in the use of artificial wate...

The scarcity of free-standing water sources is a key determinant of animal and plant community structure in arid environments, and an understanding of the extent to which particular species use surface water is vital for modelling the effects of climate change on desert avifauna. We investigated interspecific variation in the use of artificial wate...

Stable isotope analyses are a powerful tool in understanding diets, defining trophic networks, inferring geographical origins of animals and in forensic tracing of the origins of deceased humans or illegally traded animal and plant material. African grey parrots Psittacus erithacus are one of the most traded animal species in the world, and the ori...

The scarcity of free-standing water sources is a key determinant of animal and plant community structure in arid environments, and an understanding of the extent to which particular species use surface water is vital for modelling the effects of climate change on desert avifauna. We investigated interspecific variation in the use of artificial wate...