NATURAL PARKS: THEIR VALUE IN UNDERSTANDING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

1. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, Madrid, Spain TheUniversity of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa NATURAL PARKS: THEIR VALUE IN UNDERSTANDING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. Y.Fernandez-Jalvo& L.Scott Researchteam: James Brink, Lloyd Rossouw, Frank Neumann, Graciela Gil-Romera, Eduardo García-Prieto Fronce.

2. Fossils are the key to the understanding of the dynamics of past climatic and biodiversity changes, apart from species evolution (including humans) • ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS

3. ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS

4. Global climate changes have been occurring previously and will continue in the future. Patterns of current and past climatic fluctuations, environmental trends and ecological cycles are all rooted in the past.

5. A FOSSIL SITE Langebaanweg LANGEBAANWEG SITE

6. NATURAL PARKS ARE IMPORTANT ANALOGUES Modern pristine environments provide crucial information for understanding processes that occurred in the past and to reconstruct the palaeo-environment.

7. Palaeo-ecosystems are reflected by fossils like pollen that is direct evidence of plants that grew in the past Many fossil sites contain pollen in their sediments

8. W E Swamp Fynbos Woodland Langebaanwegvegetation reconstruction based on pollen Pollen transport Coast Interior

9. Preservation of fossil plant remains including pollen in sediments Humid/subhumidconditions Arid conditions Lakes/swamps No O2 H2O Seasonal H2O O2 Preservation excellent Preservation poor Caves O2 H2O (vapour) Speleothems O2 No H2O Preservation poor (rare pollen in speleothems) Preservationreasonable = coprolite

10. Hyaena coprolites as fossilized scats are important traps of pollen • The micro-environment inside the scat/coprolite is especially good for pollen preservation

11. Equus Cave: Brown hyaenaden Coprolites are richer in pollen and other plant microfossils than their surrounding sediments

12. 0 50 100 150 200 Equus Cave: brown hyaenaden Coprolite pollen % Sediment pollen % Age ka BP uncalib. Sediment units Herbs+shrubs Herbs+shrubs Grass pollen Grass pollen Depth cm Tree pollen Tree pollen other other 2.4 1A 7.5 9.8 IB 11.9 2A 20.7 27.3 2B 20 40 60 20 40 60 80 20 40 60 80 100 20 20 40 20 40 60 80 20 40 60 20

13. Deelpan (playa) Pollen types: TARCHONANTHUS ANTHOSPERMUM AIZOACEAE TYPE CAPPARIDACEAE OPHIOGLOSSUM LACTUCOIDEAE PELLAEA TYPE SCROPH-TYPE PODOCARPUS CYPERACEAE ASTERACEAE COMMELINA CHENO/Am ARTEMISIA APIACEAE TRIBULUS POACEAE RICCIA OLEA coprolites Surface pollen sites 20 40 60 80 100 20 40 60 20 20 40 60 20 40 60 80

14. Hyaena coprolites are found at many European hyaena den sites KentsCavern (UK) Las ventanas (Spain) Bois Roche (France)

15. Different species of hyaena occurred in Europe during the Pleistocene but are now extinct

16. African Natural Parks are the only places where we can experiment and observe hyaenas today to interpret fossil hyaena traces found elsewhere in the world. Deelpan (playa) Langebaanweg

17. Experimental approach: Advantages of Tswalu Kalahari Feeding place • Current hyaena den • Passageways used by hyaenas • Information of food eaten by prey and hyaenas Gosberg Valley Hyaena den

18. Our subject of investigation is pollen content in hyaena scats. Method: Inner and outer layers. Short term research, seasonal variation. Long term research, climatic parameters. None of these aspects have been studied before. Fresh Crocutacrocuta (spotted hyaena) Africa Holocene Hyaenabrunnea (brown hyaena) Pleistocene Unknown species Spain

19. AIM OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH. Our multidisciplinary project is primarily aimed at questions of how fossil scats can be used in connection with global environmental change but it can also shed light on local conditions and hyaena behaviour in the Kalahari

20. COLLECTING SAMPLES: At the end of each season • Collect scats produced during the season • Collect surface sediment at the scat • Collect aerial pollen by means traps as control • Vegetation maps and weather parameters

21. THE INNER AND OUTER POLLEN CONTENTS OF COPROLITES Comparison between internal and external parts of the coprolite can indicate the influence of different pollen sources on the total pollen spectrum. Inner = dust + diet (including gut prey + skin + plants +water) Pollen rain Pollen rain Pollen from diet and diet of prey Scat

22. THE INNER AND OUTER POLLEN CONTENTS OF COPROLITES • Outer sticky surface derived from pollen rain or pollen transported by insects

23. RESULTS • Noapparentstatisticallyrelevantdifferencebetweeninner and outerparts of scats Modern scats Coprolites

24. If differences were found, special protocols would be needed to extract and study pollen from coprolites and it would be essential to preserve the outer part of the coprolites. Our research on the interior parts of scats can then be used to interpret coprolites in terms of seasonal variations and climatic change.

25. Equus Cave changes in conditions suggestedby coprolite pollen PCA compared with ice core indications of climate change - 33 Holocene Pleistocene - 35 - 37 - 39 δ18 O - 41 - 43 - 45 5000 10000 15000 Temperature conditions 2 1 0 - 1 PC Scale Moisture conditions 1 0 - 1 Equus Cave - 2 - 3 0 5000 10000 15000 cal Years BP

26. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Duncan MacFadyen for facilities and great interest in this project. We are also grateful to the personnel of Tswalu Kalahari Reserve for assistance during sample collection in the park and to our researchteam. The project was initiated through funding by an international collaboration between South Africa (NRF) and Spain (Ministry of Science).