Abstract At the height of its extent, during strong glacials, the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP, south coast of South Africa) was the size of Ireland, sometimes doubling the size of the extant Cape Floristic Region (CFR). During strong interglacial climates, the PAP was mostly submerged and its ecosystems destroyed or restricted to small slivers. Scientists have largely ignored the PAP, presumably because it is submerged. We argue the PAP contributed to the diversification of the mega-diverse CFR biota and was the most productive foraging habitat available to the early modern humans that inhabited the famous archaeological sites along the current coast. We synthesize the palaeo-archival evidence and modeling results from this special issue, and other results, and propose a general model for the Last Glacial Maximum PAP, and offer suggestions as to conditions during marine isotope stages (MIS) 6 and 4. Unlike the region today, the PAP included abundant nutritious grassland, savanna-like floodplains, numerous wetlands, and a soft and highly dynamic coastline. Grasslands dominated the northern plains and fynbos shrublands the southern plains, both cut by broad meandering rivers with extensive floodplain woodlands and grasslands. The high productivity of the northern sector PAP supported a diverse plains fauna and rich habitats for humans living along its northern fringe, and during MIS 4 they had access to large ungulates on the grasslands, coastal resources, and plant foods from the plain and interior. The Holocene and historical contact period provide our current model of human and ecological conditions in the CFR region, but should be interpreted as a low-resource outlier.

中文翻译：

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古阿古拉斯平原：开普省植物区更新世异常灭绝生态系统的时空变化

摘要 在强冰期期间，古阿古拉斯平原（PAP，南非南海岸）在其范围的高度，是爱尔兰的大小，有时是现存的开普植物区（CFR）的两倍。在强烈的间冰期气候期间，PAP 大部分被淹没，其生态系统被破坏或仅限于小条子。科学家们在很大程度上忽略了 PAP，大概是因为它被淹没了。我们认为，PAP 促成了种类繁多的 CFR 生物群的多样化，并且是居住在当前海岸著名考古遗址的早期现代人类可用的最具生产力的觅食栖息地。我们综合了本期特刊的古档案证据和建模结果以及其他结果，并提出了末次冰期最大值 PAP 的通用模型，并就海洋同位素阶段 (MIS) 6 和 4 的条件提出建议。与今天的地区不同，PAP 包括丰富的营养草地、热带稀树草原般的漫滩、众多湿地和柔软且高度动态的海岸线。北部平原以草原为主，南部平原以蕨类灌木地为主，两者都被宽阔的蜿蜒河流切割，拥有广阔的洪泛平原林地和草原。北部地区 PAP 的高生产力为生活在其北部边缘的人类提供了多样化的平原动物群和丰富的栖息地，在 MIS 4 期间，他们可以接触到草原上的大型有蹄类动物、沿海资源以及来自平原和内陆的植物性食物。全新世和历史接触时期提供了我们当前的 CFR 地区人类和生态条件模型，