Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T00:31:44.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Environmental change during the Pleistocene and Holocene: Estuaries and lagoons of southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Ander M. de Lecea ,
Andrew N. Green  and
J. Andrew G. Cooper
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Get access

Summary

Abstract

The South African coast contains abundant estuaries and lagoons, most of which originated as river valleys incised during Quaternary sea-level fall and subsequently drowned and/or infilled during rising interglacial sea levels. This chapter discusses these changes and highlights the geomorphological and sedimentological evolution of several southern African estuaries during the Pleistocene to present. The development, infilling and positioning of incised valley systems is mainly controlled by sea-level variation as well as fluvial and marine sediment supply. Most contemporary estuaries in southern Africa show dramatic responses to shorter term sea-level fluctuations and sediment supply during the Holocene. Barring anthropogenic interference, the dynamic behaviour of estuaries, dictated by their transient position and geomorphic character within an incised valley, is considered to fluctuate on centennial to millennial timescales.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 219 - 233
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barwis, J. H. and Tankard, A. J. (1983). Pleistocene shoreline deposition and sea-level history at Swartklip, South Africa. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 53, 1281–1294.Google Scholar
Bateman, M. D., Carr, A. S., Dunajko, A. C., Holmes, P. J., Roberts, D. L., McLaren, S. J., Bryant, R. G., Marker, M. E. and Murray-Wallace, C. V. (2011). The evolution of coastal barrier systems: a case study of the Middle-Late Pleistocene Wilderness barriers, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30, 63–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, A. J. and Meadows, M. E. (1999). Evidence for Holocene sea-level change at Verlorenvlei, Western Cape, South Africa. Quaternary International, 56, 65–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begg, G. (1978). The Estuaries of Natal. Report 41. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Town and Regional Planning Commission, 657pp.Google Scholar
Boyd, R., Dalrymple, R. W. and Zaitlin, B. Z. (1992). Classification of clastic coastal depositional environments. Sedimentary Geology, 80, 139–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, G. M., Bally, R., Bennett, B. A., de Decker, H. P., Fromme, G. A. W., Heÿl, C. W. and Willis, J. P. (1985). Synopsis of the impact of artificially opening the mouth of the Bot River Estuary: Implications for management. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 45, 465–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camoin, G. F., Montaggioni, L. F. and Braithwaite, C. J. R. (2004). Late glacial to post glacial sea-levels in the Western Indian Ocean. Marine Geology, 206, 119–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cawthra, H. C., Neumann, F. H., Uken, R., Smith, A. M., Guastella, L. A. and Yates, A. (2012). Sedimentation on the narrow (8 km wide), oceanic current-influenced continental shelf off Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Marine Geology, 323–325, 107–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaumillon, E., Tessier, B. and Reynaud, J.-Y. (2010). Stratigraphic records and variability of incised valleys and estuaries along French coasts. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, 181, 75–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, J. S. (2001). Holocene sea-level fluctuations inferred from the evolution of depositional environments of the southern Langebaan Lagoon salt marsh, South Africa. The Holocene, 11, 395–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, J. S. (2011). Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations and human evolution on the southern coastal plain of South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30, 506–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, J. S. and Franceschini, G. (2005). Holocene geoarchaeology of the sixteen mile beach barrier dunes in the Western Cape, South Africa. Quaternary Research, 63, 99–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. A. G. (1993). Sedimentation in a river dominated estuary. Sedimentology, 40, 979–1017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J.A.G. (1994). Lagoons and microtidal coasts. In Coastal Evolution: Late Quaternary Shoreline Morphodynamics, ed. Carter, R. W. G. and Woodroffe, C. D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 219–265.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. A. G. (2001). Geomorphological variability among microtidal estuaries from the wave-dominated South African coast. Geomorphology, 40, 99–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. A. G., Green, A. N. and Wright, C. I. (2012). Evolution of an incised valley coastal plain estuary under low sediment supply: a “give-up” estuary. Sedimentology, 59, 899–916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. A. G., Kilburn, R. N. and Kyle, R. (1989). A late Pleistocene molluscan assemblage from Lake Nhlange, Zululand, and its palaeoenvironmental implications. South African Journal of Geology, 92, 73–83.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. A. G., Wright, C. I. and Mason, T. (1999). Geomorphology and sedimentology. In Estuaries of South Africa, ed. Allanson, B. R. and Baird, D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalrymple, R. W. (2006). Incised valleys in time and space: An introduction to the volume and an examination of the controls on valley formation and filling. In Incised Valleys in Time and Space, ed. Dalrymple, R. W., Leckie, D. A. and Tillman, R. W.. Tulsa, OK: SEPM Special Publication 85, pp. 5–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalrymple, R. W., Zaitlin, R. A. and Boyd, R. (1992). A conceptual model of estuarine sedimentation. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 62, 1130–1146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dingle, R. V., Siesser, W. G. and Newton, A. R. (1983). Mesozoic and Tertiary Geology of Southern Africa. Rotterdam: Balkema, 375pp.Google Scholar
Dladla, N. N. (2014). Seismic stratigraphic models for Late Pleistocene/Holocene incised valley systems on the Durban continental shelf. MSc Thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 110pp.Google Scholar
Franceschini, G., McMillan, I. and Compton, J. (2005). Foraminifera of Langebaan Lagoon salt marsh and their application to the interpretation of late Pleistocene depositional environments at Monwabisi, False Bay coast, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology, 108, 285–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garland, G. G. and Moleko, L. (2000). Geomorphological impacts of Inanda Dam on the Mgeni Estuary, north of Durban, South Africa. Bulletin of Engineering, Geology and Environment, 59, 119–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gile, L. H. and Hawley, J. W. (1968). Age and comparative development of desert soils at the Gardner Spring radiocarbon site, New Mexico. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 32, 709–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N. (2009). Palaeo-drainage, incised valley fills and transgressive systems tract sedimentation of the northern KwaZulu-Natal continental shelf, South Africa, SW Indian Ocean. Marine Geology, 263, 46–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. (2011). The late Cretaceous to Holocene sequence stratigraphy of a sheared passive upper continental margin, northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Marine Geology, 289, 17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N., Cooper, J. A. G., Leuci, R. and Thackeray, Z. (2013a). Formation and preservation of an overstepped segmented lagoon complex on a high-energy continental shelf. Sedimentology, 60, 1755–1768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N., Cooper, J. A. G. and Salzmann, L. (2014). Geomorphic and stratigraphic signals of postglacial meltwater pulses on continental shelves. Geology, 42, 151–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N., Cooper, J., Wiles, E. and de Lecea, A. M. (2015). Seismic architecture, stratigraphy and evolution of a sub-tropical marine embayment: Maputo Bay, Mozambique. Marine Geology. 369, 300–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N., Dladla, N. N. and Garlick, G. L. (2013b). Spatial and temporal variations in incised valley systems from the Durban continental shelf, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Marine Geology, 335, 148–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, A. N. and Garlick, G. L. (2011). A sequence stratigraphic framework for a narrow, current-swept continental shelf: The Durban Bight, central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 60, 303–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grindley, J. R., Rogers, J., Pether, J. and Woodborne, M. W. (1989). Holocene evolution of Rietvlei near Cape Town, deduced from the palaeoecology of some mid-Holocene estuarine Mollusca. Palaeoecology of Africa, 19, 347–353.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. O. (1979). Barrier island morphology as a function of tidal and wave regime. In Barrier Islands, ed. Leatherman, S. P.. New York: Academic Press, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Hobday, D. and Jackson, M. (1979). Transgressive shore zone sedimentation and syndepositional deformation in the Pleistocene of Zululand, South Africa. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 49, 145–158.Google Scholar
Illenberger, W. (1996). The geomorphologic evolution of the Wilderness dune cordons, South Africa. Quaternary International, 33, 11–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J. P. and Milliman, J. D. (2004). Reconsidering melt-water pulses 1A and 1B: Global impacts of rapid sea-level rise. Journal of Ocean University of China, 3, 183–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meadows, M., Baxter, A. and Parkington, J. (1996). Late Holocene environments at Verlorenvlei, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Quaternary International, 33, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, W. R. (1998). The Bathymetry, Sedimentology and Seismic Stratigraphy of Lake Sibaya-Northern KwaZulu-Natal. MSc Thesis, University of Natal, 94pp.Google Scholar
Mkhize, N. E. (2014). Sequence and Lithostratigraphy of Incised Valley Fills: Evolution of the Durban Bay system. MSc Thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 126pp.Google Scholar
Nordfjord, S., Goff, J. A., Austin, J. A. Jr and Sommerfield, C. K. (2005). Seismic geomorphology of buried channel systems on the New Jersey outer shelf: Assessing past environmental conditions. Marine Geology, 214, 339–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norström, E., Risberg, J., Gröndahl, H., Holmgren, K., Snowball, I., Mugabe, J. A. and Sitoe, S. R. (2012). Coastal paleo-environment and sea-level change at Macassa Bay, southern Mozambique, since c 6600 cal BP. Quaternary International, 260, 153–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perissinotto, R., Stretch, D. D. and Taylor, R. H. (2013). Ecology and Conservation of Estuarine Ecosystems: Lake St. Lucia as a Global Model. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 511pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillay, D., Branch, G. M. and Steyn, A. (2009). Complex effects of the gastropod Assiminea globulus on benthic community structure in a marine-dominated lagoon. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 380, 47–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, P. J. (1995). 9000 years of sea-level change along the southern African coastline. Quaternary International, 31, 71–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, P. J. and Cooper, J. A. G. (2002). Late Quaternary sea-level change in South Africa. Quaternary Research, 57, 82–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddering, J. S. V. and Rust, I. C. (1990). Historical changes and sedimentary characteristics of southern African estuaries. South African Journal of Science, 86, 425–428.Google Scholar
Rogers, J. (1980). First report on the Cenozoic sediments between Cape Town and Eland’s Bay. Pretoria: Geological Survey of South Africa Open File Report 0136, 64pp.Google Scholar
Salzmann, L., Green, A. N. and Cooper, J. A. G. (2013). Submerged barrier shoreline sequences on a high energy, steep and narrow shelf. Marine Geology, 346, 366–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schalke, H. (1973). The upper Quaternary of the Cape Flats area (Cape Province, South Africa). Scripta Geologica, 15, 1–57.Google Scholar
Scott, L. and Steenkamp, M. (1996). Environmental history and recent human disturbance at coastal Lake Teza, Kwazulu/Natal. South African Journal of Science, 92, 348–350.Google Scholar
Stevenson, I. R. and McMillan, I. K. (2004). Incised valley fill stratigraphy of the Upper Cretaceous succession, proximal Orange Basin, Atlantic margin of southern Africa. Journal of the Geological Society, 161, 184–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Heerden, I. L. (1987). Sedimentation in the greater St Lucia complex as related to palaeo-sea-levels. 6th National Oceanographic Symposium, Stellenbosch, Paper 157, B-106.Google Scholar
Wright, C. I. (2002). Aspects of the Cenozoic Evolution of the Northern KwaZulu-Natal Coastal Plain, South Africa. Pretoria: Bulletin of the Council for Geoscience 132, 120pp.Google Scholar
Wright, C., Cooper, J. and Kilburn, R. (1999). Mid Holocene palaeoenvironments from Lake Nhlange, northern Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Journal of Coastal Research, 15, 991–1001.Google Scholar
Wright, C. I., Miller, W. R. and Cooper, J. A. G. (2000). The late Cenozoic evolution of coastal water bodies in Northern Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Marine Geology, 167, 207–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaitlin, B. A., Dalrymple, R. W. and Boyd, R. (1994). The stratigraphic organization of incised-valley systems with relative sea-level change. In Incised Valley Systems: Origin and Sedimentary Sequences, ed. Dalrymple, R. W., Boyd, R. and Zaitlin, B. A.. Tulsa, OK: SEPM Special Publication 51, pp. 45–60.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×