Late Pleistocene vegetation and climate history of Lake Selina, western Tasmania

Colhoun, Eric A.; Pola, Jeremy S.; Barton, C. E.; Heijnis, Henk

doi:10.1016/s1040-6182(98)00046-9

Cited by 85 publications

(79 citation statements)

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“…1), which provides a crucial southern midlatitude perspective on paleoecological changes over the past 130 ka (26). The pollen record indicates that cool temperate rainforest was present during MIS 5e and the Holocene (MIS 1), with grassland, herbs, and heath vegetation dominating throughout the intervening period (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Dashed line denotes (minimum) overlap between most recent megafaunal remains and earliest human arrival in Tasmania. Summary plots of vegetation change (26), charcoal concentration (26), and ␦ 13 C of bulk sediments (this work) are from Lake Selina. Sea-salt sodium (ssNa) flux is a measure of winter sea-ice cover in the Southern Ocean, as recorded in the EPICA ice core (28); note that the ssNa flux scale is inverted.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction

Turney

Flannery

Roberts

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Establishing the cause of past extinctions is critical if we are to understand better what might trigger future occurrences and how to prevent them. The mechanisms of continental late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, however, are still fiercely contested. Potential factors contributing to their demise include climatic change, human impact, or some combination. On the Australian mainland, 90% of the megafauna became extinct by Ϸ46 thousand years (ka) ago, soon after the first archaeological evidence for human colonization of the continent. Yet, on the neighboring island of Tasmania (which was connected to the mainland when sea levels were lower), megafaunal extinction appears to have taken place before the initial human arrival between 43 and 40 ka, which would seem to exonerate people as a contributing factor in the extirpation of the island megafauna. Age estimates for the last megafauna, however, are poorly constrained. Here, we show, by direct dating of fossil remains and their associated sediments, that some Tasmanian megafauna survived until at least 41 ka (i.e., after their extinction on the Australian mainland) and thus overlapped with humans. Furthermore, a vegetation record for Tasmania spanning the last 130 ka shows that no significant regional climatic or environmental change occurred between 43 and 37 ka, when a land bridge existed between Tasmania and the mainland. Our results are consistent with a model of human-induced extinction for the Tasmanian megafauna, most probably driven by hunting, and they reaffirm the value of islands adjacent to continental landmasses as tests of competing hypotheses for late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. Paleoclimate ͉ Pleistocene ͉ sea level change ͉ island colonization ͉ human hunting

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction

Turney

Flannery

Roberts

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Subsequent work suggests that conditions were also cooler across temperate eastern Australia immediately prior to the LGM (e.g. Colhoun et al, 1999;Forbes et al, 2007;Kershaw et al, 2007;Petherick et al, 2008), with wetter conditions than present implied by both higher lake levels in some lacustrine systems (Wasson and Donnelly, 1991;Harrison, 1993) and increased fluvial activity . Importantly, these studies hinted at a possible correlation between temperature and effective precipitation, a pattern which was observed across continental Australia, leading to the hypothesis that the last full glacial cycle saw the wettest interstadials of the Quaternary (Nanson et al, 1992;Kershaw and Nanson, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia – a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup

Petherick

Bostock

Cohen

et al. 2013

Quaternary Science Reviews

117

122

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Dosseto, A. (2013). Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia -a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup. Quaternary Science Reviews, 74 58-77.Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia -a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup AbstractTemperate Australia sits between the heat engine of the tropics and the cold Southern Ocean, encompassing a range of rainfall regimes and falling under the influence of different climatic drivers. Despite this heterogeneity, broad-scale trends in climatic and environmental change are evident over the past 30 ka. During the early glacial period (∼30-22 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (∼22-18 ka), climate was relatively cool across the entire temperate zone and there was an expansion of grasslands and increased fluvial activity in regionally important Murray-Darling Basin. The temperate region at this time appears to be dominated by expanded sea ice in the Southern Ocean forcing a northerly shift in the position of the oceanic fronts and a concomitant influx of cold water along the southeast (including Tasmania) and southwest Australian coasts. The deglacial period (∼18-12 ka) was characterised by glacial recession and eventual disappearance resulting from an increase in temperature deduced from terrestrial records, while there is some evidence for climatic reversals (e.g. the Antarctic Cold Reversal) in high resolution marine sediment cores through this period. The high spatial density of Holocene terrestrial records reveals an overall expansion of sclerophyll woodland and rainforest taxa across the temperate region after ∼12 ka, presumably in response to increasing temperature, while hydrological records reveal spatially heterogeneous hydro-climatic trends. Patterns after ∼6 ka suggest higher frequency climatic variability that possibly reflects the onset of large scale climate variability caused by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Petherick, L., Bostock, H., Cohen, T. J., Fitzsimmons, K., Tibby, J., Fletcher, M. -S., Moss, P., Reeves, J., Mooney, S., Barrows, T., Kemp, J., Jansen, J., Nanson, G. & Dosseto, A. (2013). Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia -a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup. Quaternary Science Reviews, 74 58-77. Australian coasts. The deglacial period (~18-12 ka) was characterised by glacial recession and eventual disappearance resulting from an increase in temperature deduced from terrestrial records, while there is some evidence for climatic reversals (e.g. the Antarctic Cold Reversal) in high resolution marine sediment cores through this period. The high spatial density of Holocene terrestrial records reveals an overall expansion of sclerophyll woodland and rainforest taxa across the temperate region after ~12 ka, presumably in response to increasing temperature, while hydrological records reveal spatially heterogeneous hydro-climatic trends. Patterns after ~6 ka suggest higher frequency climatic variability that possibly reflects the onset of large scale climate variability caused by...

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“…Only eight sites are known to preserve significant (>2%) relative abundances of Gymnoschoenus-type pollen: the three Mount Field sites, Ooze Lake in far southern Tasmania (Macphail 1975a(Macphail , 1986Macphail and Colhoun 1985;Colhoun 1996), the 'Tarn Shelf ' site and Lake Selina in the Tyndall Ranges area of western Tasmania (Colhoun et al 1999;M.K. Macphail unpubl.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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Late Pleistocene vegetation and climate history of Lake Selina, western Tasmania

Cited by 85 publications

References 0 publications

Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction

Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction

Climatic records over the past 30 ka from temperate Australia – a synthesis from the Oz-INTIMATE workgroup

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

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