Diatomite evidence for a small palaeo mountain lake at 3400 m asl, Lesotho, southern Africa

The Eastern Lesotho Highlands experience an excess of rainfall sufficient to form the country's primary export, supplying the economic hub of southern Africa, Gauteng South Africa. However, there is currently only one natural lake in the country, Letšeng‐la Letsie, and evidence of palaeolakes in the region is therefore of particular interest. This study presents the analysis of a diatomite outcrop from a depression northwest of Mafadi Summit, at 3400 m asl. The presence of diatomite, dominated by the facultative planktonic species Staurosirella pinnata and Staurosira construens and abundant planktonic Aulacoseira ambigua, is indicative of the continuous presence of a shallow lake between ~4600 and 100 cal a  bp. Comparative analysis of rainfall for the Mafadi and Letšeng‐la Letsie regions from CHIRPS gridded rainfall data demonstrates sufficient rainfall for a lake of comparable size, if not larger, as Mafadi receives considerably more rainfall than Letšeng‐la Letsie. Analysis of the SRTM 30‐m Digital Elevation Model and Topographic Position Index calculations demonstrate the feasibility of a shallow surface water feature at Mafadi. The conversion of this palaeolake into the contemporary wetland is hypothesized to be the result of post‐industrial warming, possibly augmented by migration of livestock into the Eastern Lesotho Highlands.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Journal of Quaternary Science

• Publication date

  2024-07-08

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/jqs.3643
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Fine-resolution analysis of the spatiotemporal characteristics of heatwaves in the Maloti-Drakensberg region, southern Africa: 1979–2021

  2023cited by this paper
• Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis

  2023influential reference
• Ecological stability of Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Lesotho, southern Africa, facilitated human upland habitation

  2023cited by this paper
• “The sun has become intolerably hot”: local views and memories about Lesotho’s weather – present and past

  2023influential reference
• Geochemical focusing and burial of sedimentary iron, manganese, and phosphorus during lake eutrophication

  2022cited by this paper
• Integrating Climate Change, Hydrology, and Water Footprint to Measure Water Scarcity in Lesotho, Africa

  2022cited by this paper
• An extended last glacial maximum in the Southern Hemisphere: A contribution to the SHeMax project

  2022cited by this paper
• Diatoms from the Spring Ecosystems Selected for the Long-Term Monitoring of Climate-Change Effects in the Berchtesgaden National Park (Germany)

  2022cited by this paper
• Late glacial (17,060–13,400 cal yr BP) sedimentary and paleoenvironmental evolution of the Sekhokong Range (Drakensberg), southern Africa

  2021cited by this paper
• Chronostratigraphic palaeo-climate phasing based on southern African wetlands: From the escarpment to the eastern seaboard

  2021cited by this paper
• Montane Palustrine Wetlands of Lesotho: Vegetation, Ecosystem Services, Current Status, Threats and Conservation

  2021cited by this paper
• Periglacial landforms in the high Drakensberg, Southern Africa: morphogenetic associations with rock weathering rinds and shrub growth patterns

  2021cited by this paper
• Synthesising the pollen records for the Drakensberg-Maloti through quantitative modelling

  2021cited by this paper
• Natural archives of long-range transported contamination at the remote lake Letšeng-la Letsie, Maloti Mountains, Lesotho.

  2020influential reference
• “But what silence! No more gazelles…”: Occurrence and extinction of fauna in Lesotho, southern Africa, since the late Pleistocene

  2020cited by this paper
• Recent climate-driven ecological changes in tropical montane lakes of Rwenzori Mountains National Park, central Africa

  2020cited by this paper
• SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–55,000 Years cal BP

  2020influential reference
• What is diatomite?

  2020cited by this paper
• Classifying and mapping rainfall seasonality in South Africa: a review

  2019cited by this paper
• Neoglacial trends in diatom dynamics from a small alpine lake in the Qinling mountains of central China

  2019cited by this paper
• Niche dimensionality and herbivory control stream algal biomass via shifts in guild composition, richness, and evenness.

  2019cited by this paper
• Seasonal prediction and regional climate projections for southern Africa

  2018cited by this paper
• Late-Holocene climate and vegetation dynamics in eastern Lesotho highlands

  2018influential reference
• Influence of mountain geomorphology on alpine ecosystems in the Drakensberg Alpine Centre, Southern Africa

  2018influential reference
• Late Quaternary palaeoclimates and human-environment dynamics of the Maloti-Drakensberg region, southern Africa

  2018cited by this paper
• The validity of the Asteraceae: Poaceae fossil pollen ratio in discrimination of the southern African summer- and winter-rainfall zones

  2017cited by this paper
• Chrysocoma ciliata L. (Asteraceae) in the Lesotho Highlands: an anthropogenically introduced invasive or a niche coloniser?

  2017influential reference
• Historical vegetation–environment patterns for assessing the impact of climatic change in the mountains of Lesotho

  2017influential reference
• Some attributes of snow occurrence and snowmelt/sublimation rates in the Lesotho Highlands : environmental implications

  2017cited by this paper
• Holocene climatic variability indicated by a multi-proxy record from southern Africa’s highest wetland

  2017influential reference
• SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF PLANT AND SOIL

  2016cited by this paper
• A multi-disciplinary review of late Quaternary palaeoclimates and environments for Lesotho

  2016cited by this paper
• The sensitivity of Afromontane tarns in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of South Africa and Lesotho to acidic deposition

  2016cited by this paper
• A multi‐proxy analysis of late Quaternary palaeoenvironments, Sekhokong Range, eastern Lesotho

  2016cited by this paper
• The occurrence, identification and environmental relevance of vivianite in waterlogged soils and aquatic sediments

  2016cited by this paper
• Notable increases in nutrient concentrations in a shallow lake during seasonal ice growth.

  2016cited by this paper
• Elevation-dependent warming in mountain regions of the world Mountain Research Initiative EDW Working Group

  2015cited by this paper
• The Lesotho Highlands Water Project: Dams, Development, and the World Bank

  2015cited by this paper
• Diatom communities and vegetation of springs in the south-western Alps

  2015cited by this paper
• Projections of rapidly rising surface temperatures over Africa under low mitigation

  2015cited by this paper
• The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes

  2015influential reference
• Paleo-environment and flooding of the Limpopo River-plain, Mozambique, between c. AD 1200–2000

  2015cited by this paper
• East African lake evidence for Pliocene millennial-scale climate variability

  2014cited by this paper
• DIATOM METHODS | Diatomites: Their Formation, Distribution, and Uses

  2013cited by this paper
• Temperature variability over Africa during the last 2000 years

  2013influential reference
• Shifting westerlies and precipitation patterns during the Late Pleistocene in southern Africa determined using glacier reconstruction and mass balance modelling

  2012cited by this paper
• Aquatic ecosystem responses to Holocene climate change and biome development in boreal, central Asia

  2012cited by this paper
• Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process

  2011influential reference
• Normalizing XRF-scanner data: A cautionary note on the interpretation of high-resolution records from organic-rich lakes

  2011cited by this paper
• Late Holocene Neoglacial conditions from the Lesotho highlands, southern Africa: phytolith and stable carbon isotope evidence from the archaeological site of Likoaeng

  2011cited by this paper
• The Lesotho Highlands Water Project: Water, Culture, and Environmental Change

  2011cited by this paper
• Hydrological evolution during the last 15 kyr in the Tso Kar lake basin (Ladakh, India), derived from geomorphological, sedimentological and palynological records

  2010cited by this paper
• Palaeolimnological evidence of environmental change over the last 400 years in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda

  2010cited by this paper
• Quantifying Recent Ecological Changes in Remote Lakes of North America and Greenland Using Sediment Diatom Assemblages

  2010influential reference
• “A sky of brass and burning winds”: documentary evidence of rainfall variability in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Southern Africa, 1824–1900

  2010cited by this paper
• EPILITHIC DIATOMS FROM RHEOCRENE SPRINGS IN THE EASTERN ALPS (VORARLBERG, AUSTRIA)

  2010cited by this paper
• Documentary evidence of climate variability during cold seasons in Lesotho, southern Africa, 1833–1900

  2009cited by this paper
• Paleolimnological records of recent glacier recession in the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda-D. R. Congo

  2009cited by this paper
• Rainfall and temperature attributes on the lesotho–drakensberg escarpment edge, southern africa

  2008cited by this paper
• A 140-year record of recent changes in aquatic productivity in a remote, tropical alpine lake in the Rwenzori Mountain National Park, Uganda

  2008cited by this paper
• Responses of Fragilarioid-dominated diatom assemblages in a small Arctic lake to Holocene climatic changes, Russell Island, Nunavut, Canada

  2008cited by this paper
• Integrating Social Vulnerability into Water Management in the Lesotho Highlands: The Case Of Ha Tsiu

  2007cited by this paper
• Diatom Paleolimnological Record of Holocene Climatic and Environmental Change in the Altai Mountains, Siberia

  2006cited by this paper
• Environmental Changes at the Desert Margin: An Assessment of Recent Paleolimnological Records in Lake Qarun, Middle Egypt

  2006cited by this paper
• The ‘little ice age’: re‐evaluation of an evolving concept

  2005cited by this paper
• Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data using CANCO

  2005cited by this paper
• A precisely‐dated lake‐level rise marked by diatomite formation in northeastern Ireland

  2004cited by this paper
• Fragilaria and Staurosira (Bacillariophyceae) from sediment surfaces of 40 lakes in the Austrian Alps in relation to environmental variables, and their potential for palaeoclimatology

  2004cited by this paper
• Political Ecology of Large Dams: a Critical Review

  2003cited by this paper
• Role of sediment and internal loading of phosphorus in shallow lakes

  2003cited by this paper
• THE FLORA OF THE DRAKENSBERG ALPINE CENTRE

  2003cited by this paper
• Characteristics and palaeoenvironmental significance of relict sorted patterned ground, Drakensberg plateau, southern Africa.

  2002cited by this paper
• A note on needle‐ice mound formation in the High Drakensberg, Southern Africa

  2002cited by this paper
• Goodness of fit of biplots and correspondence analysis

  2002cited by this paper
• Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results

  2001cited by this paper
• Navicula sensu stricto ; 10 genera separated from navicula sensu lato ; Frustulia

  2001cited by this paper
• Do diatoms in the Swiss Alps reflect the length of ice-cover?

  2000cited by this paper
• Diatoms of Low-Alkalinity Lakes in the Northeastern United States

  2000cited by this paper
• Lacustrine Sedimentary Organic Matter Records of Late Quaternary Paleoclimates

  1999cited by this paper
• Rainfall and flow variations in the Lesotho Highlands

  1998cited by this paper
• A diatom-inferred water depth reconstruction for an Upper Peninsula, Michigan, lake

  1998cited by this paper
• A 40,000-yr Pollen and Diatom Record from Lake Tritrivakely, Madagascar, in the Southern Tropics

  1998cited by this paper
• DIATOM COMMUNITIES OF SPRINGS IN THE SOUTHERN ALPS

  1998cited by this paper
• A NOTE ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF MINIATURE SORTED STRIPES AT MAFADI SUMMIT, HIGH DRAKENSBERG

  1996cited by this paper
• THE NON-LACUSTRINE-DIATOMITE DEPOSITS OF UNST, SHETLAND

  1996cited by this paper
• Grassland degradation and livestock rearing in Lesotho

  1995cited by this paper
• Implications of changes to the transhumance system for conservation of the mountain catchments in eastern Lesotho

  1994influential reference
• Holocene diatom paleolimnology of Elk Lake, Minnesota

  1993cited by this paper
• The petrology and geochemistry of the karoo sequence basaltic rocks in the Natal Drakensberg at Sani Pass.

  1992cited by this paper
• Bacillariophyceae, 2. teil: Bacillariaceae, Epithemiaceae, Surirellaceae

  1990cited by this paper
• Hypothesized resource relationships among African planktonic diatoms

  1986cited by this paper
• Early Proterozoic climates and plate motions inferred from major element chemistry of lutites

  1982cited by this paper
• The high mountains of Lesotho - a botanical paradise

  1981cited by this paper
• A systematical and ecological study of the diatom flora of Lesotho : with special reference to the water quality

  1973cited by this paper
• DIATOMS IN ALKALINE, SALINE LAKES: ECOLOGY AND GEOCHEMICAL IMPLICATIONS1

  1973cited by this paper
• The diatoms of the United States exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii

  1966cited by this paper
• THE EXCHANGE OF DISSOLVED SUBSTANCES BETWEEN MUD AND WATER IN LAKES, II

  1941cited by this paper
• Diatoms

  1915cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.