Multiproxy geochemical and pollen data from a Late Glacial sedimentary sequence, high Drakensberg, Lesotho

Malin E. Kylander

We present a multi-proxy geochemical dataset as well as pollen and age model data for a sedimentary sequence from a well-stratified infill occupying a lower slope basin in the high Drakensburg (Lesotho) which covers the Late Glacial.

Understanding late Quaternary paleoclimatic change in southern Africa is hampered by a lack of available, reliably-dated records. This data works to fill this gap with the aim to reconstruct paleoclimatic variability in the high Drakensberg (Lesotho) during the Late Glacial, a period marked by considerable climatic fluctuation and bi-directional environmental change.

In 2016 samples were extracted from the lower section of an erosion gully side-wall using a stainless-steel knife from a freshly cleaned surface as well as a Russian corer (50 cm long, Ø 4.75 cm) at the gully base. The analyses made on this sequence (SEK2016), covering 17,060 to 13,400 cal yr BP, include pollen, total organic carbon and nitrogen, δ13C, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectral and elemental data made on contiguous samples with high temporal resolution (10 to 80 years per sample).

Citation

Malin E. Kylander (2021) Multiproxy geochemical and pollen data from a Late Glacial sedimentary sequence, high Drakensberg, Lesotho. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/kylander-2021-lesotho-1

References

Kylander ME, Holm M, Fitchett J, Grab S, Martinez Cortizas A, Norström E, Bindler R (2021) Late glacial (17,060-13,400 cal yr BP) sedimentary and paleoenvironmental evolution of the Sekhokong Range (Drakensberg), southern Africa. PLOSoNE (accepted).

Data description

Excel (xlsx) file with five spreadsheets:

1. Sample list with ID, sample depth and sample age
2. Age model built using Bacon and 10 ¹⁴C dates where one outlier was excluded
3. Elemental data (X-Ray Florescence elemental data) as well as Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN), by depth and age
4. FITR Data: raw spectral data for each sample, with the wave number on the vertical and the sample on the horizontal
5. Pollen: the studied species, by depth and age

The xlsx file contains all original data from the SEK2016 sequence which was collected from Lesotho in 2016. Coordinates: 29° 36’ 31” S, 29° 15’ 54” E. Samples were collected using a Russian corer further down (C2) and then cut from an exposed gully wall (C1 in the middle and C3 at the top).

The same data are also provided in five comma-separated values (csv) files, one file corresponding to each sheet in the xlsx file. Character set: Unicode (utf-8).

Note that the elemental and pollen data are made roughly every other sample while the FTIR is made every sample.

Comments

Please, cite the article by Kylander et al. (2021) when using this dataset.