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Fire plays a pivotal role in driving ecological shifts between Mediterranean‐type vegetation and subtropical ecosystems in South Africa. This study investigates long‐term environmental dynamics and ecological regime changes at the Mediterranean‐type vegetation /subtropical boundary using a 6000‐year palaeoecological sequence from the Baviaanskloof – a region of South Africa characterized by high levels of biodiversity and climate dynamism. Combining fossil pollen and microcharcoal data from a rock hyrax Procavia capensis midden, we analyse vegetation responses to environmental changes. Our findings reveal that Mediterranean‐type vegetation resilience prevailed until ca 2800 cal year BP when a major fire event triggered a transition to a subtropical thicket‐dominated environment. This abrupt ecological turnover underscores the significance of fire as a major driver of vegetation change at the Mediterranean‐type vegetation /subtropical boundary. Our study emphasizes the vulnerability of Mediterranean‐type vegetation ecosystems to global environmental change, suggesting potential implications for similar biome boundaries worldwide. By integrating multi‐proxy palaeoecological evidence, we gain insights into the resilience and vulnerability of these ecosystems, aiding in understanding future responses to climate change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complexities surrounding the determination of ownership for pets and fine art. It highlights the inadequacies of the legal framework in resolving ownership disputes, citing factors such as unclear statutes, questionable acquisition methods, and financial constraints. The article also discusses the challenges of using adverse possession and lost property statutes to establish ownership. It further explores the evolving recognition of pets as more than just property in divorce cases and the need for statutory clarification. The author, Brian Chase, is the general counsel for Michelson Philanthropies, including the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. [Extracted from the article]

Significance: Recent research reveals that the arid western interior of South Africa has experienced substantially more humid conditions on several occasions during the last 70 000 years. These findings, likely regional in scope, speak to changes to the resource base available to prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Together with recent archaeological findings from this region, there has emerged a growing recognition that previously archaeologically overlooked areas of South Africa's arid interior need to be included in models of human history. This presents new challenges for archaeologists and palaeoclimatologists, particularly given the prevalence of surficial, rather than stratified, archaeological evidence throughout much of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first continuous multi-proxy record of climate and vegetation change from the central Namib Desert extending over much of the last ca. 39,000 years. Derived from rock hyrax middens, evidence from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, pollen, and microcharcoal reveals significant differences between glacial-age and Holocene climates and vegetation types. Although still arid to semi-arid, conditions during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages (MIS) 2–3 were significantly more humid than in the Late Holocene. Considerable associated vegetation change is apparent, with cooler temperatures and higher/more-regular rainfall promoting the westward expansion of relatively mesic shrubby karroid vegetation during MIS 2–3. With the last glacial–interglacial transition, increasing temperatures and less/less-regular rainfall resulted in marked vegetation changes and the establishment of current xeric grasslands. The inter-plant spacing of the karroid vegetation promoted by wetter conditions does not carry fire effectively, and the microcharcoal record indicates that more extensive fires may develop only with the development of grassier vegetation under drier conditions. As with other terrestrial records from the Namib Desert and environs, no Cape flora elements were found to support previously hypothesised expansion of the Fynbos Biome during the last glacial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the timing and drivers of Pleistocene hydrological change in the interior of South Africa is critical for testing hypotheses regarding the presence, dynamics, and resilience of human populations. Combining geological data and physically based distributed hydrological modeling, we demonstrate the presence of large paleolakes in South Africa's central interior during the last glacial period, and infer a regional-scale invigoration of hydrological networks, particularly during marine isotope stages 3 and 2, most notably 55 to 39 ka and 34 to 31 ka. The resulting hydrological reconstructions further permit investigation of regional floral and fauna responses using a modern analog approach. These suggest that the climate change required to sustain these water bodies would have replaced xeric shrubland with more productive, eutrophic grassland or higher grass-cover vegetation, capable of supporting a substantial increase in ungulate diversity and biomass. The existence of such resource-rich landscapes for protracted phases within the last glacial period likely exerted a recurrent draw on human societies, evidenced by extensive pan-side artifact assemblages. Thus, rather than representing a perennially uninhabited hinterland, the central interior's underrepresentation in late Pleistocene archeological narratives likely reflects taphonomic biases stemming from a dearth of rockshelters and regional geomorphic controls. These findings suggest that South Africa's central interior experienced greater climatic, ecological, and cultural dynamism than previously appreciated and potential to host human populations whose archaeological signatures deserve systematic investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fynbos and afrotemperate forest exist as alternate stable states in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. In parts of Table Mountain National Park, afrotemperate forest has expanded in recent decades. The aim of this project was to explore the drivers of this change and distinguish whether this expansion represents a recovery of forest after previous clearance during the 18th century or is a novel expansion of forest range that resulted from policies of fire suppression in the 20th century. To determine the relationships between forest and fynbos and its key drivers, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, stable isotope ratios (δ13C) and major and trace elements were analysed from late-Holocene sediments extracted from Orange Kloof. Pollen data show that forest cover has fluctuated over the past 3690 years. At the start of the record, under drier conditions from 1670 BCE to ~170 CE, forests contracted, and dry, asteraceous fynbos dominated the landscape. Around ~170 CE there was a shift to ericaceous fynbos as water availability increased. Weak signals of Khoekhoen pastoralists may be visible in the record around 50 CE, indicated by increased spores and charcoal. A regime shift towards increased dominance of the forest occurred ~250 CE, associated with wetter climate. Clear anthropogenic signals are associated with European settlement from 1650 CE. Reinforced by human clearance of forest, fynbos expanded during the cool conditions of the late phase of Little Ice Age (~1750–1850 CE). Forest expansion in the 20th century likely reflects fire suppression and recovery from past forest clearance. Fire needs to be managed accordingly if further expansion of forest into fynbos is to be curbed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION In just a few decades the adult film industry has grown from underground and largely illegal to virtual ubiquity. And, as might be expected in an industry whose principals [...]

Variations in the nature and extent of southern Africa's winter rainfall zone (WRZ) have the potential to provide important information concerning the nature of long-term climate change at both regional and hemispheric scales. Positioned at the interface between tropical and temperate systems, southern Africa's climate is influenced by shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the westerlies, and the development and position of continental and oceanic anticyclones. Over the last glacial-interglacial cycle substantial changes in the amount and seasonality of precipitation across the subcontinent have been linked to the relative dominance of these systems. Central to this discussion has been the extent to which the region's glacial climates would have been affected by expansions of Antarctic sea-ice, equatorward migrations of the westerlies, more frequent/intense winter storms and an expanded WRZ. This paper reviews the developing body of evidence pertaining to shifts in the WRZ, and the evolution of ideas that have been presented to explain the patterns observed. Dividing the region into three separate axes, along the western and southern margins of the continent and across the interior into the Karoo and the Kalahari, a range of evidence from both terrestrial sites and marine cores is considered, and potential expansions of the WRZ expansions are explored. Despite the limitations of many of the region's proxy records, a coherent pattern has begun to develop of a significantly expanded WRZ during phases of the last glacial period, with the best-documented being between 32-17 ka. While more detailed inferences will require the recovery and analysis of longer and better-dated records, this synthesis provides a new baseline for further research in this key region. Keywords: southern Africa; winter rainfall zone; Quaternary; palaeoenvironment; westerlies: Last Glacial Maximum