Late Pleistocene and Holocene subtropical vegetation dynamics recorded in perched lake deposits on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Donders, Timme H.; Wagner, Florian; Visscher, Henk

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.04.008

Cited by 75 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This warmer period is followed at ~5 ka by the onset of large scale climate variability caused by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena, and a trend toward drier conditions (Haug et al 2001;Gontz et al 2015), followed by an abrupt increase in ENSO magnitude ~3 ka years ago (Donders et al 2007). At this time (~3000 years ago) palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from Fraser Island show the development of a heterogeneous and mosaic vegetation, which seems to be linked to a rise in climate variability and increased ENSO activity (Donders et al 2006;Smith 2016). There is also evidence of European arrival and settlement with distinct changes to fire management.…”

Section: Background and Gaps In Present State On Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vegetation of Fraser Island is laterally zoned following the contours of successive parabolic dune systems that run parallel to the islands coastline (Donders et al 2006), with younger parabolic dunes to the east. Nutrient availability increases with the age of the sand and amount of detritus initially then declines due to retrogressive succession with 'Wallum' heath occupying the oldest dunes.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nutrient availability increases with the age of the sand and amount of detritus initially then declines due to retrogressive succession with 'Wallum' heath occupying the oldest dunes. (Walker et al 1981;Longmore and Heijnis 1999;Donders et al 2006). Pollen and micro charcoal (particles >10 to <125 microns) analysis was undertaken on the core at intervals of five cm and following the method developed by van der Kaars (1991) and described in detail by Moss et al (2013).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, Horton (1982), Mooney et al (2011), Notora et al (2011 and Williams et al (2015) Fire is a natural occurring event on Fraser Island and is an important recycling mechanism to sustain plant growth (Donders et al 2006). This island is dominated by a mix of fire adapted ecosystems, including heathlands, eucalypt forest/woodlands and wet sclerophyll forest, as well as pyrophobic communities such as rainforest and mangroves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coomboo and Lake MacKenzie, are located in perched lake systems situated in the Pleistocene high dunes and all have a hiatus that coincides with the LGM (Longmore 1997;Longmore and Heijnis 1999;Donders et al 2006;Hembrow et al 2014;Atahan et al 2015). The other record, which is located close to the study site discussed in this paper, was taken from a lowland Empodisma minus wetland and provides a 35,000 year record, which observes continuous sedimentation during the LGM .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Stewart¹

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The focus of the study is to investigate regional and local past, present and future changes in fire regimes of tropical and subtropical Queensland and shifts in vegetation composition and structure. Fire has been shown to be a significant driver of ecosystem evolution, composition and distribution through its impact on biota. Within Australia fire has long played a role in shaping the landscape, with increased fire frequency, associated with heightened aridity, over the last five million years promoting the expansion of fire adapted sclerophyll vegetation across the continent. Evidence of anthropogenic fires date back to approximately 50 ka (thousand years ago) with the advent of Aboriginal occupation and fire-stick practices, however with the arrival of Europeans there was a decline in fire frequencies, related to fire exclusion that observes an increase in fire intensity and severity.A review of the introduction of tropical African perennial grasses to improve grazing in tropical and semi-arid regions of northern Australia was also undertaken. This introduction has resulted in some exotic grass species such as Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), Mission grass (Cenchrus polystachios syn. Pennisetum polystachion) and Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus syn. Panicum maximum Jacq. var. trichoglume) becoming invasive pests. Invasion by these exotic grasses has serious implications for ecosystem function, altering fire regime dynamics through increasing the distribution and abundance of fine fuels. With increased fine fuels there is a serious danger that there will be an increase in fire frequency and intensity resulting in higher severity burns and higher vegetation mortality, with possible local species extinctions and habitat modification or change.Macro charcoal and pollen records were used from Fraser Island, subtropical eastern Australia to identify fire and vegetation histories, which show substantial temporal and spatial changes in past fire frequencies and vegetation composition for the last 24,000 years. Pollen records show pyrophobic rainforest taxa dominated and then declined while pyrogenic sclerophyll arboreal taxa increased correlating with an increase in fire frequencies, and a dryer climate. This was followed by a dramatic increase in Restionaceae values at the beginning of the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) that dropped off as a marked peak in mangroves, primarily the Rhizophoraceae and Melaleuca iii occurred, possibly linked with sea level rise approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago, which was also associated with lower fire frequencies. Restionaceae then recovered from around 2 ka to the European settlement period, when a dramatic change in fire frequency occurred linked to fire suppression and was followed by vegetation thickening (i.e. increase in arboreal taxa) in the mid to late 20 th century. Identifying past and present fire regimes and vegetation composition are important for fire modelling as this provides possible scenario based probabilities for changes in fire frequency and intensity....

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Section: Background and Gaps In Present State On Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Stewart¹

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Without management interventions, endemic wet‐sclerophyll forest is transitioning to rainforest in World Heritage listed K’gari (Fraser Island), Australia

Krishnan

Robinson

Firn

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Wet‐sclerophyll forests are unique ecosystems that can transition to dry‐sclerophyll forests or to rainforests. Understanding of the dynamics of these forests for conservation is limited. We evaluated the long‐term succession of wet‐sclerophyll forest on World Heritage listed K'gari (Fraser Island)—the world's largest sand island. We recorded the presence and growth of tree species in three 0.4 hectare plots that had been subjected to selective logging, fire, and cyclone disturbance over 65 years, from 1952 to 2017. Irrespective of disturbance regimes, which varied between plots, rainforest trees recruited at much faster rates than the dominant wet‐sclerophyll forest trees, narrowly endemic species Syncarpia hillii and more common Lophostemon confertus. Syncarpia hillii did not recruit at the plot with the least disturbance and recruited only in low numbers at plots with more prominent disturbance regimes in the ≥10 cm at breast height size. Lophostemon confertus recruited at all plots but in much lower numbers than rainforest trees. Only five L. confertus were detected in the smallest size class (<10 cm diameter) in the 2017 survey. Overall, we find evidence that more pronounced disturbance regimes than those that have occurred over the past 65 years may be required to conserve this wet‐sclerophyll forest, as without intervention, transition to rainforest is a likely trajectory. Fire and other management tools should therefore be explored, in collaboration with Indigenous landowners, to ensure conservation of this wet‐sclerophyll forest.

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Using calibrated surface roughness dating to estimate coastal dune ages at K'gari (Fraser Island) and the Cooloola Sand Mass, Australia

Patton

Shulmeister

Rittenour

et al. 2022

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Here we present a novel application of landscape smoothing with time to generate a detailed chronology of a large and complex dune field. K'gari (Fraser Island) and the Cooloola Sand Mass (CSM) dune fields host thousands of emplaced (relict) and active onlapping parabolic dunes that span 800 000 years in age. While the dune fields have a dating framework, their sheer size (~1930 km2) makes high‐resolution dating of the entire system infeasible. Leveraging newly acquired (n = 8) and previously published (n = 20) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from K'gari and the CSM, we estimate the age of Holocene dunes by building a surface roughness (σC)–age relationship model. In this study, we define σC as the standard deviation of topographic curvature for a dune area and we demonstrate an exponential relationship (r2 = 0.942, RMSE = 0.892 ka) between σC and timing of dune emplacement on the CSM. This relationship is validated using ages from K'gari. We calculate σC utilizing a 5 m digital elevation model and apply our model to predict the ages of 726 individually delineated Holocene dunes. The timing of dune emplacement events is assessed by plotting cumulative probability density functions derived from both measured and predicted dune ages. We demonstrate that both dune fields had four major phases of dune emplacement, peaking at <0.5, ~1.5, ~4, and ~8.5 ka. We observe that our predicted dune ages did not create or remove major events when compared to the OSL‐dated sequence, but instead reinforced these patterns. Our study highlights that σC–age modelling can be an easily applied relative or absolute dating tool for dune fields globally. This systematic approach can fill in chronological gaps using only high‐resolution elevation data (3–20 m resolution) and a limited set of dune ages.

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Late Pleistocene and Holocene subtropical vegetation dynamics recorded in perched lake deposits on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Cited by 75 publications

References 41 publications

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Without management interventions, endemic wet‐sclerophyll forest is transitioning to rainforest in World Heritage listed K’gari (Fraser Island), Australia

Using calibrated surface roughness dating to estimate coastal dune ages at K'gari (Fraser Island) and the Cooloola Sand Mass, Australia

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