Dynamics of a Kalahari long-lived mega-lake system: hydromorphological and limnological changes in the Makgadikgadi Basin (Botswana) during the terminal 50 ka

Journal article

Authors/Editors

Shemang, Elisha

Research Areas

No matching items found.

Publication Details

Author list: Riedel F, Henderson ACG, Heussner KU, Kaufmann G, Kossler A, Leipe C, Shemang E, Taft L

Publisher: Springer

Place: DORDRECHT

Publication year: 2014

Journal: Hydrobiologia (0018-8158)

Journal acronym: HYDROBIOLOGIA

Volume number: 739

Issue number: 1

Start page: 25

End page: 53

Number of pages: 29

ISSN: 0018-8158

eISSN: 1573-5117

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

View in Web of Science | View on publisher site | View citing articles in Web of Science

Abstract

The Kalahari features a long-lived lacustrine system which may exist since the Early Pleistocene. The emergence of an extant cichlid fish radiation from this (palaeo-) lake during the Middle Pleistocene indicates an ancient lake character. The early history of the system remains speculative, but it is established that lake extensions matching modern Lake Victoria in size have occurred during the Late Pleistocene. It has been assumed that the hydrographical dynamics chiefly depended on the inflow from the Okavango River and thus on ITCZ-controlled precipitation. Our studies, which focused the hydromorphological and palaeolimnological development of the Makgadikgadi Basin during the last 50 ka, suggest that from c. 46-16 ka it did not receive water from the Okavango River but from palaeo-rivers located in the northern and south-western catchment. A northward shift of the winter rainfall zone during the Last Glacial Maximum sustained a high lake level for a period of c. 6 ka. During Heinrich Event 1 (17-16 ka) the lake probably desiccated abruptly and completely. Higher lake levels, controlled by water from the Okavango river system, were reached again during the Holocene before the lake dried up in the middle of the last millennium.

Keywords

Basin geomorphology, Kalahari Desert, Long-lived lacustrine system, Palaeolake modelling, Palaeolimnology, Southern hemisphere

Documents