Sie befinden Sich nicht im Netzwerk der Universität Paderborn. Der Zugriff auf elektronische Ressourcen ist gegebenenfalls nur via VPN oder Shibboleth (DFN-AAI) möglich. mehr Informationen...
DRY LAKES OR PANS OF THE WESTERN FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF DEELPAN AND POSSIBLE EARLY HUMAN IMPACTS
Ist Teil von
Changing Climates, Ecosystems and Environments Within Arid Southern Africa and Adjoining Regions, 2016, Vol.33, p.47-64
Ort / Verlag
United Kingdom: CRC Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2016
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Dry lakes dominate a number of semiarid world landscapes. There is no generally
accepted technical designation but many regional names with different linguistic
roots: playa lakes (Mexican, Spanish), alkali or salt flats (American English), sebkha
(French, Arabic), pan (Afrikaans), and so forth. Pans in enclosed basins tend to be
elliptical and hold water seasonally or after sporadic heavy rains. Typically floored by
clays, they are infused to varying degree by salts of several kinds. While the episodic
waters are fresh they attract a myriad of insects, birds, ungulates and people in ecological succession, and the waters recharge shallow aquifers that may promote clusters of
hygrophytic vegetation such as sedges, reeds, true grasses, cattails and salt brush. As
the waters evaporate and turn brackish, or are infected with botulism (Dr. Richard
Liversidge, pers. comm.), antelopes or cattle stop visiting, leaving only salt brush and
hardy animal forms burrowing in the mud. Sodium salts settle out or effloresce on the
faces of contacting sediments.