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Brian Chase

Brian CHASE - Director of Research CNRS
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Présentation

My Research primarily focuses on the study of past environmental change in the arid to sub-humid environments of southern Africa. While this region is highly sensitive to cycles of regional and global environmental change, and has the potential to be a valuable indicator of past climatic variability, only a very few palaeoenvironmental archives have been recovered from the area, and its environmental history remains poorly understood. As a result, models that have been developed to elucidate the dynamics of regional ecosystems, and the environmental context for human and cultural evolution are often contentious, lacking sufficient evidence to make robust interpretations. This paucity of palaeoenvironmental information is largely a function of the region’s climate that often precludes the preservation of organic proxy data sources. My research concentrates on overcoming these obstacles by identifying and analyzing proxy archives that have either not experienced or are resistant to the effects of the region’s pronounced seasonality. I am presently exploring several primary research themes: 1. The development of fossilised rock hyrax middens as new palaeoenvironmental archive. 2. Studies of sediment cores from coastal wetlands in South Africa. 3. The development of *pdf*-based botanical-climatological transfer functions to derive quantitative estimates of palaeoclimatic parameters from palaeobotanical datasets. 4. Statistical methods for time -series and spatial analyses that improve the reliability and interpretations of individual records, and the combination and comparison of records. 5. Methods for data-model comparison that maximise the potential to infer the dynamical processes responsible for the environmental processes observed in the fossil record. 6. The assessment of the impact of past climate change on the development of the Cape Floristic Region. 7. The assessment of the impact of past environmental change on the development of early modern humans. [Google Scholar Metrics](https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=CnGmVGcAAAAJ&hl=en "Google Scholar Citations")

Publications

979981

A high-resolution record of Holocene climate and vegetation dynamics from the southern Cape coast of South Africa: pollen and microcharcoal evidence from Eilandvlei

Lynne J Quick , Brian M. Chase , Michael Wündsch , Kelly Kirsten , Manuel Chevalier
Journal of Quaternary Science, 2018, 33 (5), pp.487-500. ⟨10.1002/jqs.3028⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02123504v1

Biome-scale characterisation and differentiation of semi-arid and arid zone soil organic matter compositions using pyrolysis–GC/MS analysis

Andrew Carr , Arnoud Boom , Brian Chase , Michael Meadows , Zoë Roberts
Geoderma, 2013, 200-201, pp.189 - 201. ⟨10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.02.012⟩
Article dans une revue hal-01817546v1

Rock hyrax middens: A palaeoenvironmental archive for southern African drylands

Brian Chase , Louis Scott , Michael Meadows , Graciela Gil-Romera , Arnoud Boom
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2012, 56, pp.107-125. ⟨10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.08.018⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02131851v1

A 19.5kyr vegetation history from the central Cederberg Mountains, South Africa: Palynological evidence from rock hyrax middens

James Sadler , Matthieu Carré , Moufok Azzoug , Andrew Schauer , Jesus Ledesma
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2011, 309 (3-4), pp.253-270. ⟨10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.06.008⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02131876v1

Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens: Implications for African Monsoon dynamics and the ‘‘African Humid Period’’

Brian Chase , Michael Meadows , Andrew Carr , Paula Reimer
Quaternary Research, 2010, 74 (1), pp.36-45. ⟨10.1016/j.yqres.2010.04.006⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02131887v1

Late Quaternary dynamics of southern Africa's winter rainfall zone

Brian Chase , Michael Meadows
Earth-Science Reviews, 2007, 84 (3-4), pp.103-138. ⟨10.1016/j.earscirev.2007.06.002⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02131943v1

Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments of the winter-rainfall zone of southern Africa: Palynological and sedimentological evidence from the Agulhas Plain

Andrew Carr , David S.G. Thomas , Mark D Bateman , Michael Meadows , Brian Chase
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2006, 239 (1-2), pp.147-165. ⟨10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.01.014⟩
Article dans une revue hal-02131949v1