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Progress in Botany pp 313–332Cite as

Quaternary Palaeoecology: Africa and its Surroundings

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Part of the book series: Progress in Botany ((BOTANY,volume 69))

The remarkable richness in biodiversity of various African mountain systems poses several problems, which are difficult to solve in terms of Quaternary vegetation history and palaeoecology because, regrettably, good archives which go far back into the past are repeatedly lacking there. These archives should inform us about: (a) how climate and vegetation might have changed there during the Quaternary; (b) whether palaeoclimatic changes had simultaneously happened everywhere in Africa and, if so, whether these changes had always followed identical tendencies; (c) and — last but not least — at which time and with what consequences a remarkable impact of man on his environment began. For solving these problems the biological and sedimentological contents of deep-sea cores are used, as well as all available palaeoecological tracers on land. It will be seen that — in general — a better knowledge exists only for certain phases of the Last Glaciation and for those of the Holocene, and that still only little information exists on the timing of the first remarkable human impact on his environment in different regions, although the history of mankind in Africa goes back into the distant past.

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  1. Institut für Botanik und Botanischer Garten 210, Universität Hohenheim, D-70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Burkhard Frenzel

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  1. TU Darmstadt, Institut für Botanik FB Biologie (10), Schnittspahnstraße 3–5, 64287, Darmstadt, Germany

    Ulrich Lüttge  & Ulrich Lüttge  & 

  2. Fakultät für Biologie Lehrstuhl für Experimentelle Ökologie und Ökosystembiologie, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

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  3. Botanical Gardens Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-0001, Japan

    Jin Murata  & Jin Murata  & 

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Frenzel, B. (2008). Quaternary Palaeoecology: Africa and its Surroundings. In: Lüttge, U., Beyschlag, W., Murata, J. (eds) Progress in Botany. Progress in Botany, vol 69. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72954-9_13

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