Ref ID:	28196
Ref Type:	Journal Article
Authors:	Bird, Michael I. Boobyer, Ella M. Bryant, Charlotte Lewis, Helen A. Paz, Victor Stephens, W. Edryd
Title:	A long record of environmental change from bat guano deposits in Makangit Cave, Palawan, Philippines
Date:	2007
Source:	Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Abstract:	We present the first record of Holocene and Pleistocene environmental change derived from the chemical and stable-isotope composition of a tropical cave guano sequence from Makangit Cave in northern Palawan (Philippines). The 180 cm sequence of guano, derived predominantly from insectivorous bats and birds, consists of two distinct units. An upper section of reddish-brown oxidised guano to 110 cm was deposited since the mid-Holocene while a lower section of black, reduced guano was deposited through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to >30 000 BP. Carbon-isotope ( 13C) values in guano deposited during the LGM are as high as 13·5‰ indicating that a C4-dominated grassland existed in the area around the cave at this time. Guano 13C values of 25‰ to 28‰ suggest that this open vegetation was replaced by C3-dominated closed tropical forest, similar to that of the present, by the mid-Holocene. The results suggest that the climate of northern Palawan was substantially drier at the LGM than is currently the case.
Date Created:	3/20/2014
Volume:	98
Page Start:	59
Page End:	69