Ricerc@Sapienza

Concentrations of trace elements in drinking water affect its safety and acceptability for use. Potentially toxic element (PTE) contaminations are considered extremely hazardous because of toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulative behaviour. Many areas in the Southern African Development Community are data poor and have poor accessibility. The results of our previous research identified the presence of fossil waters in southern Limpopo National Park. Groundwater and river water are the only sources of drinking water for the villages in the study area.

Recent advances in sequencing technologies now permit the analyses of plant DNA from fossil samples (ancient plant DNA, plant aDNA), and thus enable the molecular reconstruction of palaeofloras. Hitherto, ancient frozen soils have proved excellent in preserving DNA molecules, and have thus been the most commonly used source of plant aDNA. However, DNA from soil mainly represents taxa growing a few metres from the sampling point.