Objective In stark contrast to the abundance of high quality palaeoenvironmental records obtained from the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, terrestrial palaeoenvironmental information from southern Africa's drylands comes from discontinuous deposits with poor absolute age control and ambiguous palaeoclimatic significance. Confronted with the possibility of future environmental and social disruption as a result of climate change, the need for reliable records from southern Africa has never been so acute. This project seeks to develop rock hyrax middens as novel palaeoenvironmental archives to investigate long-term climate change. Hyrax middens (fossilised accumulations of urine and faecal pellets) contain a range of palaeoenvironmental proxies, including fossil pollen and stable isotopes. As part of a pilot study, I have created new collection and sampling methodologies, establishing the proof of principle and showing that middens provide continuous sub-annual to multi-decadal multi-proxy records of environmental change spanning the last 50,000 years. This work has been exceptional in terms of its ability to elucidate long-term climate dynamics at the local scale, and I now intend to apply my techniques to studying environmental change across the whole of southern Africa, a climatically sensitive, but poorly understood region of the globe. Developing new sites, proxies and analytical techniques, HYRAX will provide the first opportunity to study rapid climate change events, the extent and phasing of major climatic phenomena, and the direction and potential impacts of future climate change. Fields of science natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-PE10 - ERC Starting Grant - Earth system science Call for proposal ERC-2010-StG_20091028 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS EU contribution € 1 356 762,00 Address RUE MICHEL ANGE 3 75794 Paris France See on map Region Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Brian Mc Kee Chase (Dr.) Administrative Contact Jocelyn Mere (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS France EU contribution € 1 356 762,00 Address RUE MICHEL ANGE 3 75794 Paris See on map Region Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Brian Mc Kee Chase (Dr.) Administrative Contact Jocelyn Mere (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER United Kingdom EU contribution € 127 284,00 Address UNIVERSITY ROAD LE1 7RH Leicester See on map Region East Midlands (England) Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire Leicester Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Marie Adams (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
