RAINFALL VARIABILITY IN PRESENT-DAY KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AF- RICA, DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY D. Nash 1, 2, * , K. Pribyl 1 , J. Klein 3 , G.H. Endfield 4 , D.R. Kniveton 5 , G.C.D. Adamson 1 . 1 School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, UK; 2 School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; 3 Department of Social Sciences, Hedmark University College, Norway; 4 School of Geography, University of Nottingham, UK; 5 Department of Geography, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, UK. E-mail address: d.j.nash@brighton.ac.uk. Attempts at document-based historical climate reconstructions for Africa south of the Sahara are hampered by the comparatively recent development of written cultures in many regions. Exceptions are those areas which were either subject to colonial governance or had a history of contact with Eu- ropean colonial powers. Historical climate information for former Natal and Zululand (now KwaZulu-Natal) in eastern South Africa can be derived from published monographs, long-running newspapers such as the Natal Wit- ness, colonial almanacs and Blue Books, and narratives within unpublished diaries, letters and annual reports produced by various groups of British, American, German and Norwegian missionaries. Here we utilise these sources to produce the first chronology of rainfall variability for Natal and Zululand, spanning the period from the earliest documented travel through the region in the 1820s until 1900. Results for years prior to 1860 are annually-resolved, and for 1860e1900 are seasonally-resolved. We compare our results with reconstructions of rainfall variability from other regions of southern Africa, and consider the influence of global climate modes such as the El Ni~ no-Southern Oscillation upon periods of drought and excess rainfall identified from documentary materials. Keywords: rainfall reconstruction, ENSO, South Africa, 19th century, documentary evidence LATE HOLOCENE TRENDS OF SEDIMENT BASED HEAVY METAL CONCEN- TRATIONS IN LAKE VICTORIA: ECOLOGICAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT M. Andama * , J.B. Lejju, C.U. Tolo. Department of Biology, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. E-mail address: amorgan@must.ac.ug. This study assessed the trends of sediment based heavy metal (Cu, Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni, As, Hg) concentrations and their ecological impact at the inlet of river Kagera (KAG2) and Napoleon Gulf (LVNG2) sites of Lake Victoria in Uganda during the late Holocene. Total heavy metal concentrations were determined by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrom- etry and radiocarbon ages using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry method. Sediments were evaluated based on the United States Environ- mental Protection Agency Sediment Quality Guidelines (USEPA SQGs), Ecological risk factor (Er) and Potential ecological risk index (RI). The re- sults indicate that heavy metals in KAG2 (Hg, Cr, Ni) and LVNG2 (Hg, As) showed increasing concentrations (~0.05) towards the recent years of the late Holocene period. Additionally, Cr, Cu and Ni recorded moderate to heavy pollution in KAG2, ca. 70 cal yrs BP to 2008 AD and no pollution, ca. 250e190 cal yrs BP. These can be attributed to increased anthropogenic activities in recent years. For instance, the concentrations of Hg, As and Cu in LVNG2 after the global industrial period (after 1750 AD to 2008 AD) were higher (~0.05) than concentrations before the industrial period (before 1750 AD). The heavy metals also responded to climatic changes in the past. For instance they recorded decreasing concentrations in LVNG2 during the East Africa drought period (ca. 870e1270 AD) while high con- centrations were recorded in LVNG2 and KAG2 between ca. 1270e1850 AD coinciding with the equatorial East Africa wet period. Mercury posed moderate to considerable potential ecological risk in both KAG2 and LVNG2 between ca. 350 cal yrs BP to 2008 AD. Other heavy metals posed no ecological risk. However, there was an overall low ecological risk in the studied heavy metals in both KAG2 and LVNG2 during the late Holocene. Keywords: Holocene, sediment, metal, Lake Victoria CHANGES IN SOUTH-EAST AFRICAN TROPICAL CYCLONE LANDFALL FRE- QUENCY OVER THE PAST 161 YEARS J. Fitchett * , S. Grab. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. E-mail address: jmf1tch3tt@gmail.com. Little is known about the spatial and temporal trends of tropical cyclone landfalls in the south-west Indian Ocean during recent historical times, specifically the last ca. 100 years. There is a perception, driven primarily by the media, that the frequency of tropical cyclones making landfall on Madagascar and Mozambique is increasing. Through multivariate time series analysis on three storm track records spanning periods of 66 to 161 years, we establish that much of the perceived change in storm numbers can be attributed to improvements in storm detection methods over the past century. Furthermore, we find no statistically significant trends in the frequency of tropical cyclone landfalls over Madagascar and Mozambique over the past six decades, despite the availability of more comprehensive records. There is, however, considerable interannual variability in the number of storms making landfall over the countries investigated; most likely driven by cyclical atmospheric forcing, including ENSO and the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. Spatially, recent trends indicate an increasing number of tropical cyclones tracking to the south of Madagascar, poten- tially associated with the southward shift of the 26  C isotherm, combined with a decrease in the steering flow during La Ni ~ na years. Keywords: tropical cyclones, frequency, tracking direction, south-west Indian Ocean, climate change “BUT WHAT SILENCE! NO MORE GAZELLES…”: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY OCCURRENCE OF MAMMALS IN LESOTHO, SOUTHERN AFRICA S. Grab 1, * , D.J. Nash 2 , P. Morake 1 , S. Mills 3 . 1 School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; 2 School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, UK; 3 University of Plymouth, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth, UK. E-mail address: stefan.grab@wits.ac.za. As human populations and resource demands continue to grow at an ever increasing rate, natural habitats have been in rapid decline and wild fauna decimated at an unprecedented rate. Yet, the dynamics of historical and contemporary mammalian species occurrence and extinctions within given regions are seldom fully understood. Here we investigate the occurrence and status of mammals for the mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, from the late Pleistocene to the present-day. Such work adds valuable knowledge to understanding the historical environmental heritage of the region, which may then be disseminated into national environmental re- ports, the school environmental curriculum, and at National Parks and Heritage Sites. We provide historical timelines and records for all reported mammalian taxa (excluding smaller Rodentia) for Lesotho and the surrounding region; based on six published archaeological excavations, faunal images depicted on San rock art sites, several hundred 19th e 20th C historical documentary records (e.g. missionary letters, newspapers), and 59 recent oral history interviews. All known drought, flood, snow and severe cold events are tracked in parallel with the faunal record from ca. 1830 onwards. Further information on regional interactions with wildlife (e.g. major hunting events), human con- flicts and population expansion are built into the chronology. We record 58 species of mammals for Lesotho and the surrounding region over the past ca 21 000 yrs, of which only 24 remain today. We document some species occurrences which have not previously been known to the region (e.g. Temminck's pangolin). Most species were present during the * Corresponding author. Abstracts / Quaternary International 404 (2016) 174e213 192