Pollen analysis and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of late quaternary sediment exposures in the eastern orange free state, south africa

The palynological results from sediment exposures near Clarens provide information on the nature of the vegetation in the area during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The record for the Late Pleistocene is incomplete but suggests that slightly different fynbos associations existed in the area at c. 20 000 and c. 12 600 BP. Conditions at 20 000 BP were cooler and/or drier than at 12 600 BP but both phases were subhumid. After 12 600 BP but presumably before 10 700 BP temperatures similar to the present seem to be indicated with the persistence of relatively moist conditions for a period and then the development of a drier climate. Slightly wetter conditions returned gradually at the beginning of the Holocene. The record for the last 10 000 years is also incomplete but there is evidence that a relatively wet climate prevailed late in the Holocene. The results suggest that winter drought was less severe during the subhumid phases in the Late Pleistocene than at present.