Abstract
ABSTRACT Vankervelsvlei is a floating bog or “schwingmoor” near Knysna which, through investigation of its underlying sediments, provides a unique opportunity to study the details of Quaternary environmental change along South Africa's Western Cape south coast and adjacent interior. Radiocarbon dating of sediments from two cores retrieved from the site reveals a palaeoenvironmental record spanning the past 40 000 years and renders this site one of the most complete late Quaternary records in southern Africa. The geomorphological situation and characteristics of the site, which is located in a fossil (probably Pliocene) dunefield, are remarkable for the fact that floating bogs are rare, if not unheard of, in such temperate environments in the southern hemisphere. Stratigraphy and initial organic matter content analyses indicate significantly differing environmental conditions during the late Pleistocene and Last Glacial Maximum than during the Holocene. Preliminary pollen investigations suggest that sufficient pollen exists in the material collected from the site for a comprehensive palynological investigation to be conducted. Undoubtedly, Vankervelsvlei has the scope to initiate a broad multidisciplinary study into late Quaternary environmental change on the south coast of South Africa.
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