Annual Report 1998
Centre for Palynology and Palaeoecology
Biennial Report 1997-8
School of Geography and Environmental Science
Monash University
Clayton
Victoria 3168, AustraliaTel. (03) 9905 2910 IDD + 61 3 9905 2910
Fax. 61 3 9905 2948CONTENTS
Introduction 5
Overview of Activities 5
Personnel 12
Current Research Projects 18
1. Modern Studies 18
1.1. Modern pollen deposition 18
1.2. Modern diatom ecology 18
1.3. Modern beetle distribution studies 19
2. Quaternary Studies 19
2.1. Indonesia 19
2.2. Thailand 22
2.3. Northern Australia 23
2.4. Southeastern Australia 26
2.5. Equatorial Pacific 28
2.6. Antarctica 29
2.7. Kenya 30
2.8. Turkey 30
3. Pre-Quaternary Studies 30
Consultancies 30
Publications 31Introduction
The Centre was established in 1990 to provide a focus for research, teaching and collaboration with industry, government departments and other universities in aspects and applications of stratigraphic and ecological palynology and palaeoecology. The Centre has fully equipped microfossil preparation and microscope laboratories, a pretreatment and palaeomagnetism laboratory, a constant temperature core store, a variety of corers for lake and swamp sediment sampling and a boat and drilling platform for facilitating lake coring. Recent additions to facilities include a substantial upgrade of microscopes and cameras for macrofossil as well as microfossil studies, tree ring measurement and image analysis equipment. For pollen studies, there is a collection of over 3000 modern reference slides with good coverage of the floras of eastern Australia, New Zealand and Macquarie Island and fair coverage of Thailand and Indonesia. Within the last 2 years, additional pollen reference material has been obtained from the Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituyt, Groningen, and the Herbarium Bogoriense, Indonesia. For diatom studies, the Centre has acquired an extensive taxonomic reference library and a substantial catalogue of microscope slides and photomicrographs.
There are currently 27 people attached to the Centre within the School of Geography and Environmental Science, including two tenured academic staff members, one ARC QEII Fellow, two Logan Fellows, one Monash Research Fellow, two research associates, 15 postgraduate students, two honours students, an honorary fellow and a part-time technical assistant. In addition, there are a number of people from other Departments and Institutions associated with the Centre including two research students receiving supervision within the Centre.
Overview of Activities
The number of people in the Centre stabilised over the last two years but the strength of the Centre has been substantially enhanced by the addition of fellows, two of whom we hope will last out their 6 year contracts. Bruno David arrived in 1997 as a Logan Fellow and has added significant archaeological expertise to the School and the Centre. His initial focus on the reconstruction of human/environmental relationships in northeastern Australia complements well existing palynological interests in the area and a broader regional and consistent story of Aboriginal occupation and impact over the last 40,000 years is emerging. Comparison of both cultural and environmental changes and patterns on a variety of temporal and spatial scales will no doubt be a continuing theme within activities of the Centre. Bruno has also been involved more directly in palaeoecological research through his collaborative studies with research student Nic Dolby and honours student Cassandra Rowe on examination of macrocharcoal and molluscs respectively from his archaeological sites. He has recently signed contracts with Leicester University Press to publish a book on the archaeology of the Dreamtime and with University of Hawaii Press to co-edit a book on cultural landscapes with Meredith Wilson, a Visiting Fellow in the Centre.
Remarkably the Centre gained another Logan Fellow, Simon Haberle, in 1998, making one per year in the first three years of the operation of the Monash scheme. Simon then added the even more prestigious Australian Research Committee Queen Elizabeth (QEII) Fellowship to the Logan Fellowship. His major project is on fine resolution pollen and charcoal analysis of sites across the Pacific from Indonesia and North Queensland to the Galapagos Islands in an attempt to detect temporal and regional responses to ENSO activity, and to separate the influences of ENSO from those of human impact. This ambitious project has already been broadened by the addition of tree ring studies.
Research into environmental change and human/environment interaction in Thailand has continued through 1998-1999. Since the completion of his Ph.D in late 1998, Dan Penny has been quietly working on a pollen record from Phayao, north-west Thailand, funded by the Monash University Research Fund (MURF). Dan will be leaving the Centre as of January 2000 to develop his research skills in the UK , but he will maintain strong collaborative links with the Centre in the future.
Logan Fellow Sander van der Kaars continues to pump out palynological records from marine, lake and swamp environments in the Indonesian region and northern Australian seas. Publication of the long, detailed records from Lombok Ridge and Banda Sea appears to be only the first stage of extracting a great deal of information from analysis of these sites. A new marine record provides the first substantial palaeoecological information from northwest Australia and is providing important tests of the questions, is the west different, and when did Aboriginal people arrive and what has been their relationship with the environment within more arid parts of the Australian continent? The picture of environmental change in the general region is likely to be temporally and spatially extended from analysis of additional cores carefully selected by Sander on the IMAGES-IV cruise in Indonesian waters in June 1998. Sander continued his association with Rien Dam, Netherlands Institute of Applied Geosciences in collection and analysis of cores from key lake and swamp sites in the Birds Head Peninsula of New Guinea and other islands of Indonesia. Interpretation of some of these records is being refined by the addition of diatom analyses, undertaken on the side by Jennie Fluin, Dan Penny and John Tibby. The most notable terrestrial record is that from the volcanic crater site of Rawa Danau in west Java which is likely to be the key to the documentation and understanding of lowland tropical climate change during the Last Glacial Maximum. In relation to field trip experiences, that to Lake Sentarum in West Kalimantan was a highlight for Sander and Peter Kershaw. Initial reconnaissance by research student Gusti Anshari demonstrated the potential of this important heritage region for the study of environmental variability and change from inland peat and lake sediments. Gustis only concern was social stability after the devastation he witnessed as a result of local racial conflict. No people problems were experienced on this second field trip - just access problems due to constant fire haze and lack of water associated with the severity of the 1997 El Niño. And the lakes had disappeared. However, Gustis negotiating and organisational skills did result in aquisition of the support necessary to collect good material and also the few aircraft seats available to get out of the country. An interesting picture of the history of environmental instability and human impact is now being revealed by Gusti from the generated pollen data. A comparison between the history of the peat forests at this inland site, which have been present for at least the last 30,000 years, and that from more coastal Central Kalimantan, recently constructed by Asha Thamotherampillai, which, like all investigated coastal peatlands, formed only during the Holocene, should prove very informative. Jennie Fluin accompanied Rien Dam on a coring trip to Lake Tondano, northern Sulawesi where a series of cores were extracted from the lake margin. In addition, two days were spent collecting modern diatom samples from both littoral and planktonic environments in the Lake Tondano and thermal pools in the catchment in order to assess the influence of spatial and habitat variability.
As usual, northeast Queensland was a popular destination for research and associated activities. John Grindrod, Dan Penny and Nerida Bleakley, together with Jon Luly of James Cook University (Townsville), eventually conquered the weather and crocodiles to extract a core from the almost inaccessible Three-Quarter Mile Lake on Cape York Peninsula, while others stuck to the well trodden paths of the Atherton Tableland. The Centre was well represented at the Climates of the Past (CLIP) meeting at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville where CLIMEX maps of the world at the climatic extremes of the Last Glacial Cycle were finalised, and on the associated Tableland excursion, as well as at the joint Collaborative Research Centre for Rainforest Ecology and Management and Smithsonian conference in Cairns on Rainforests: Past and Future - Historical and Ecological Determinants of Diversity in Tropical Rainforests. Peter Kershaw, Patrick Moss and Russell Wild, in between bouts of field work, were involved with both ABC and BBC film crews on the Atherton Tableland in the making of the 1997 Quantum and Horizon documentaries respectively on the then topical issue of early arrival and impact of Aboriginal people in Australia (c 140-170 ka BP). As part of a general move to reassess evidence for the timing of Aboriginal arrival from archaeological and palaeoecological sites, Lynchs Crater was re-revisted by Kershaw, Simon Haberle, Jon Luly, and Chris Turney of the ANU, to collect a core for re-examination of the 38,000 BP charcoal peak and subsequent climate/fire/vegetation/people interactions featuring the contamination free elemental carbon methodology of Chris and Michael Bird. Simon took the opportunity to check out sites for his refined palaeoecological studies and decided on the site of Lake Euramoo, the place where it all began.
Patrick Moss is ready to submit his PhD on the marine record from northeast Queensland, the source of much of the interest in early Aboriginal impact along with the Lombok Ridge data of Sander van der Kaars and Xuan Wang. However, the story is changing against Aboriginal impact with marine evidence for substantial sustained change in the climate of northern Australian region during the Mid Pleistocene which may involve major changes in the West Pacific Warm Pool and ENSO activity.
There has been a great deal of interest in results from long and older Quaternary palynological records from sites in southeastern Australia. Merna McKenzie orchestrated a major drilling of the remote highland site of Caledonia Fen in order to extend the already remarkable 8 m record from a small enclosed basin. Despite some scepticism from others, in particular Kershaw, Mernas hunch that there may be a lot more was correct and the group collapsed at the end of the day having recovered 18 m of core. A combination of exhaustion, bad light and equipment capacity prevented the site being bottomed. Mernas subsequent calls for another attempt will probably go unheeded until all present personnel have left the Centre. Besides, the analysis of 18 m at 4 cm intervals should keep Merna occupied for a few years to come. Analysis is progressing well and the top 7 m appear to provide an extremely detailed and complete record of the last glacial cycle. We await consistent results from radiocarbon, uranium/thorium and optically-stimulated luminescence dating, and also a verdict from Meredith Orr, looking at the general landscape setting of the site, as to why it has managed to accumulate such a substantial amount of sediment. Barbara Wagstaff has completed analysis of the polleniferous 70 m portion of the, unfortunately discontinuous, core from Pejark Marsh on the western plains of Victoria and is presently attacking a similar, but more continuous core, from the nearby crater of Yaloak Marsh. The Pejark Marsh record spans the period 740 to 960 ka according to the fission track dates of Dr Paul OSullivan of Latrobe University, and provides an important glimpse into earlier Quaternary environments. Cyclicity is evident as is the disappearance of a number of taxa, although the picture may be complicated by contamination from some reworked Tertiary taxa. The comparison of this record with that produced by Russell Wild for an almost identical period in the marine ODP 820 pollen record from northeast Queensland should prove extremely interesting, as should comparison with Donna DCostas record from Lake Terang, a crater which may have produced the tuff sealing the Pejark marsh record and which provided the fission track date for the top of the Pejark Marsh record. A further extension of the Quaternary record is possible in 1998 with the discovery of old volcanic lake sediments in the northern part of the western plains by Kale Sniderman, a student from the University of Ballarat, who wishes to undertake their pollen analysis for his honours project.
Pollen studies have been largely restricted to more humid environments, at least at the present day, but Cathy Greenwood has succeeded in producing, what appears to be, a complete Holocene record with a consistent set of AMS radiocarbon dates from the semi-arid Wimmera region of Victoria. Ellyn Cook has also had success in extending the pollen record from Lake Bolac at the drier end of the Western Plains and in obtaining a reasonable set of dates.
Nick Porch, as expected from fossil beetle people, has been attempting to demonstrate the superiority of fossil insects over pollen for palaeoclimatic reconstruction. From June97-July98 he spent 12 months with Dr. Scott Elias, based at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, Boulder, from where he visited major US insect collections and Quaternary coleopterist Dr. Allan Ashworth and his awesome beetle collections in Fargo. Back in Australia, he has been an invaluable member of teams extracting glacial material likely to contain insects as well as pollen, except when diverted by modern beetle collection. Although he has yet to produce estimates of past temperatures from his assemblages, he appears to have demonstrated, from key sites, that insect material provides more accurate radiocarbon dates than pollen samples.
Relationships with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation were cemented with the appointment of research student Kate Harle to post-doctoral fellowship there in early 1997 responsible largely for the coordination of the joint project with Monash and other universities on High Resolution Palaeoclimatic records. Although delaying the finalisation of her PhD and giving her the opportunity to pursue aspects of it in even greater depth, most notably the successful application of the Joel Guiot analogue method to the production of quantitative palaeoclimatic estimates from the Lake Wangoom record, we are pleased that the thesis has been submitted and was very well received by her examiners. We congratulate also Donna DCosta, Michael Reid and Dan Penny for the award of their PhDs. Donna has moved with her husband and children to Auckland and is keen to get back into pollen research, Michael moved across campus to a fellowship in the CRC for Freshwater Ecology while, as mentioned, we have retained Dan.
Diatomists have maintained a high profile, and none more so than Jennie Fluin and John Tibby who got married and then went to London to conceive. In addition, Jennie took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the Environmental Change Centre, University College, while John undertook teaching in the Department of Geography at the same institution as well as continuing his collaboration on African and Turkish diatom records established on his last extended visit to the UK . They will return to finalise their PhD theses and give birth. Jennie Fluin and Jason Sonneman are currently authoring an iconograph of diatom species from temperate Australian stream environments. It is hoped that this volume, which includes both ecological and taxonomic information on 150 of the most common Australian stream diatoms, will become the primary reference for stream diatom workers.
Nerida Bleakey, liking a larger form of diatom, opted to undertake a high resolution study of fjord sediments in Antarctica, continuing her interest in this continent initiated in her masters degree at Victoria University of Wellington. With Andrew McMinn at the University of Tasmania as her co-supervisor, she divides her time between Monash, Hobart and Antarctica, except for visits to conference venues elsewhere.
Major conference participation over the last two years has been relatively low, possibly because of some exhaustion in the Centre after hosting major meetings in the previous two years and the lack of International Quaternary Association (INQUA) and International Palynological Conference (IPC) events. However, there has been high participation in publications from the previously held conferences. Research undertaken within the Centre featured in 4 papers within the special issue of The Australian Journal of Botany on Australian Palaeoclimates: Refinement of Estimates from the Palaeobotanical Record from the 1995 Monash meeting, 2 papers from the 1995 INQUA Berlin Congress in the special issue of Quaternary International Palaeoclimates of the Southern Hemisphere During the Last 200,000 Years: Data, Models and Regional Syntheses, 3 papers from 1996 Houston IPC in the special issue of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, and an expected 4 papers in the book to be published by Catena Verlag from the 1996 Monash Meeting The Environmental and Cultural History and Dynamics of the Southeast Asian - Australian Region. All publications have editorial contributions from the Centre. Although not derived from a conference a second volume of research from the Southeast Asian region is planned, largely to accommodate Quaternary records being generated by members of the Centre and collaborators. This volume, provisionally titled Late Quaternary Environmental Change in the Indonesian Region has been accepted as a special issue of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology with Rien Dam, Sander van der Kaars and Peter Kershaw as editors. One major conference The Southern Connection meeting in Valdivia, Chile, in 1997 did attract 3 members of the Centre and enthusiasm is mounting for the next meeting in New Zealand in 1999. However, there has been good attendance at, and participation in, local meetings which have included the Australian Quaternary meeting on Fraser Island, the Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology meeting at the Academy of Science in Canberra, and the IGBP PAGES PEP2 and BIOME 6000 workshop in association with the Institute of Australian Geographers Conference in Western Australia.
The diatomists might take exception to this overview as the Centre did host the Third Australian Diatom Workshop from the 7th-9th February, 1998. The workshop, attended by over 40 people from five states and territories, was divided into formal presentations in the morning and taxonomy sessions in the afternoon. The diversity of Australian diatom research was highlighted with presentations from a wide range of fields (theoretical and applied) given by both academics and industry representatives, with members of the Centre presenting a total of six papers. From the First Australian Diatom Workshop at Warrnambool, members of the Centre contributed 5 of the 12 papers published in the proceedings and over half the papers if recently departed Centre members are included.
The Centre was fortunate to have Professor Jim Clark of Duke University, North Carolina, as a visitor in 1998. He was brought out to Australia by CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry, to develop papers with Malcolm Gill of CSIRO and Peter Kershaw on the history and modelling of fires in Australia for a forthcoming conference Bushfire 99, and a volume on Flammable Australia as an update of the successful book Fire and Australian Biota. Jim has been awarded a Monash Visitor Award to return in 1999 and further cement collaboration with the Centre. The Centre will also host Professor Andy Cohen from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1999 who will be on sabbatical writing a book on palaeolimnology. Andy is a specialist in the evolutionary ecology of large lakes. He is currently working on projects on lakes in both the East African Rift and in western North America.
The Centre has received good support in the form of grants from both inside and outside of Monash although there is no provision for regular funding from Monash. The mainstay of research continues to be the acquisition of large grants from the Australian Research Committee with important dating support from AINSE grants. Success in obtaining grants has lessened the need to pursue outside consultancies although it is anticipated that there will be a necessary move to more applied research, and consequently support from both private and more local government bodies, in the future.
Personnel
Gusti Anshari, Ir (Tanjungpura), MES (Dalhousie) Ph.D. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Rainforest ecology; paleoecology; forest fires;
environmental and vegetation history; Kalimantan.
E-mail: gusti.anshari@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9544 5758 (b) 9905 8104Nerida Bleakley, B.Sc.(Hons.), M.Sc.(Victoria University of Wellington), Ph.D. candidate
Position: Research student
Interests and expertise: Palaeoclimatology/ecology and environmental
variability; Neogene, Quaternary and modern marine to lacusterine diatom
analysis; micropalaeontology; stratigraphy, sedimentology &
biogeochemistry; Antarctica & Australasia.
E-mail: nerida.bleakley@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9544 7111 (b) 9905 2939Ellyn Cook, B.A. (Hons.) Monash, Ph.D. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: palaeoenvironmental reconstruction using palynology,
geomorphology and pedology; geoarchaeology; Aboriginal prehistory; soil
formation; sustainable land use and management, southeast Australia.
E-mail: ellyn.cook@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9580 7416 (b) 9905 2919Donna DCosta, B.A. (Hons), M.Sc., Ph.D candidate
Position: Honorary Fellow
Interests and expertise: Late Quaternary climatic, sea level and vegetation
change; palaeobiogeography of rainforest species; impact of prehistoric
people on vegetation; Victoria and Tasmania
Address: 142 Woodlands Park Rd, Titirangi, Auckland 1007
E-mail: donna.dcosta@xtra.co.nz
Phone: (h) 69 9 816 8399
Fax: 69 9 816 8030Dr. Bruno David, B.A. (Hons) (ANU), M.A. (ANU), PhD (UQ)
Position: Logan Fellow
Interests and expertise: archaeology of Aboriginal Australia; Pacific
prehistory; archaeology of the American Southwest; archaeology of rock
art; people-land relations in archaeology; archaeology and anthropology of
cultural landscapes; archaeology of the Dreaming; links between
archaeology and social anthropology.
E-mail: Bruno.David@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: 9905 2938Nic Dolby, B.A. (Hons) (La Trobe), M.A. Candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Archaeobotany; charcoal analysis and taphonomy;
fuelwood selection and use, north Queensland and Tasmania.
E-mail: nic.dolby@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9383 3694 (b) 9905 2919Isabel Ellender, B.Sc (Hons.) (La Trobe) M.A. candidate
Position: Lecturer, contract archaeologist, research student
Interests and expertise: Archaeological survey and excavation; Aboriginal
studies; environmental archaeology; Victoria.
E-mail: isabel.ellender@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9848 7363 (b) 03 9902 6348Jennie Fluin, B.A. (Hons.) (Adelaide), Ph.D. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Water quality; diatoms; palaeoecology; South Australia
and Victoria.
E-mail: jennie.fluin@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9534 9894 (b) 9905 2939Cathy Greenwood, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Sask.) Ph.D candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Late Quaternary palynology and palaeoclimates;
vegetation history of sub-humid and semi-arid zones in Victoria.
E-mail: cathy.greenwood@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9557 5363 (b) 9905 2919Dr. John Grindrod, B.A. (Hons.) (Monash), M.Sc., Ph.D (ANU)
Position: Lecturer
Interests and expertise: Palynology; mangrove history and ecology; coastal
geomorphology and sea level change; Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions;
Australia and Thailand.
E-mail: john.grindrod@arts. monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9877 5376 (b) 9905 4621
Dr. Simon Haberle, B.A. (Hons.) (ANU), Ph.D (ANU)
Position: ARC QEII Fellow
Interests and expertise: Palynology; palaeoecology of tropical and southern temperate rainforests; prehistory of agriculture; tree-ring analysis and
climate variability.
See web page: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges/staff/shaberle.html
E-mail: simon.haberle@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9754 6926 (b) 9905 2932Rochelle Johnston, B.A. (Hons.) (La Trobe), M.Sc. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Archaeological and geological survey; environmental
archaeology; Tasmania and Victoria.
E-mail: rochelle.johnston@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9429 8789 (b) 9905 1427Professor Peter Kershaw, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Wales), M. Sc. (Durham), Ph.D.(ANU)
Position: Director of the Centre
Interests and expertise: Cainozoic and particularly Quaternary palynology;
peatlands and coals; palaeoclimates; human impact; Australasia and
Southeast Asia.
E-mail: peter.kershaw@artsmonash.edu.au
Phone/fax : (h) 9561 3886 Phone (b) 9905 2910Paul Leahy, B.Sc (Hons) candidate
Position: Honours Student
Interests and expertise: Diatoms and blue-green algae; seasonal variation in
river diatoms in relation to physico-chemical factors and human impact;
southeastern Australia.
E-mail: pjea1@student.monash.edu.auPatrick Moss, B.Sc./B.A. (Hons) (Melbourne), Ph.D candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Quaternary marine and terrestrial palynology;
mangrove and sea level history of Australian and Sarawak; impact of
people in north eastern Queensland and north western Tasmania.
E-mail: Pmoss@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9347 5497 (b) 9905 5299Dr. Merna McKenzie, B.Sc., Dip.Ed. (Melbourne), M. EnvSc., Ph.D.
Position: Research Associate.
Interests and expertise: Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental history and plant
extinctions; rainforest/wet sclerophyll dynamics and rainforest refugia;
palaeoecology of Nothofagus cunninghamii; quantification of Holocene
climates; fine resolution fossil pollen , charcoal and macrofossil studies.
E-mail: Merna.McKenzie@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9571 0621 (b) 9905 5299Dr. Daniel Penny, B.A. (Hons.) Ph.D.
Position: Monash University Research Fellow
Interests and Expertise: Late Quaternary palynology and palaeoecology;
Pleistocene/Holocene palaeoclimates and human activity in Southeast Asia
using fossil pollen and diatoms.
E-mail: dpenny@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: 9905 2939 or 9905 8171.Ursula Pietrzak, B.Sc. (Warsaw), Ph.D. candidate (Earth Sciences)
Position: Laboratory Technician, Research Student
Interests and expertise: Environmental geology; soil science; pollen
preparation
E-mail: ursula.pietrzak@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9509 0837 (b) 9905 1427Nick Porch, BA (Hons.) (La Trobe), Grad. Dip. Env. Stud. (Hons)(Tasmania),
PhD candidate
Position: Research Student, Fulbright Fellow
Interests and expertise: Australian archaeology; settlement patterns, and human
palaeoecology; geoarchaeology - micromorphology; Quaternary history of
non-marine molluscs and insects; bioclimatic analysis; climate change
impacts; southeastern Australia.
E-mail: Nick.Porch@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9531 5311 (b) 9905 2919Jason Sonneman, B.Sc. (Hons.) Melbourne, Ph.D. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Dinoflagellates and freshwater algae particularly
diatoms; taxonomy and ecology; biological assessment and management
of streams; Victoria.
E-mail: jason.sonneman@sci.monash.edu.au
Phone: 9903 2746
Fax: 9571 3646Kale Sniderman, B.Sc Ballarat, B.Sc (Hons.) candidate
Position: Honours Student
Interests and expertise: Biogeography and geological and palaeoecological
history of the Daylesford area; Quaternary, particularly early Quaternary
palynology; Victoria.
E-mail: sniderman@giant.net.auAsha Thamotherampillai, B.Sc (1994), Grad. Dip. Env. Sci. (1995),
M.A. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: History and dynamics of tropical peat swamp forests,
Kalimantan.
E-mail: atha1@student.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9827 5616 (b) 9905 2939John Tibby, B.A.(Hons.), PhD. candidate
Position: Research Student, Associate Lecturer
Interests and expertise: Diatom palaeoecology, eutrophication and quantitative
palaeoenvironmental change, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey and East Africa.
E-mail: john.tibby@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9534 9894 (b) 9905 2203Dr Sander van der Kaars, B.Sc. (Amsterdam), M.Sc. (V.U., Amsterdam),
Ph.D. (Amsterdam)
Position: Logan Fellow
Interests and expertise: Marine and terrestrial palynology; vegetation, climate
and human history; Indonesian and Mediterranean regions.
E-mail: sandervanderkaars@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 95317239 (b) 99055257Dr Barbara E. Wagstaff, B.Sc. (Hons.), Ph.D
Position: Research Associate
Interests and expertise: Quaternary palynology, southeastern Australia;
Mesozoic and Cainozoic palynology, biostratigraphy, palynofacies,
dinoflagellates, Australia.
E-mail: bwagstaf@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9890 3644 (b) 9905 5299Xuan (Sue) Wang, B.Sc (Qingdao), M.Sc. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Marine geology, isotope chemistry and
sedimentological records of products of biomass burning.
E-mail: sue.wang@uow.edu.au
Phone: 02 4221 4586
Fax: 02 4221 4250Russell Wild, B.A. (Hons.), Monash, M.A. candidate
Position: Research Student
Interests and expertise: Quaternary marine and terrestrial palynology; Victoria
and Queensland.
E-mail: rwil3@student.monash.edu.au
Phone: (h) 9561 9157 (b) 9905 1427Current Research Projects
1. Modern Studies
1.1 Modern Pollen Deposition- Indonesian/northwest Australian region - Surface pollen samples from both marine and terrestrial environments continue to be analysed in order to improve the understanding of modern vegetation/pollen relationships and broader pollen transport and deposition mechanisms. Specific studies on peatlands of Central Kalimantan by Asha Thamotherampillai in association with Jack Rieley of the University of Nottingham and Sue Page of the University of Leicester, and by Sander van der Kaars on core tops from eastern Indonesia, are being prepared for publication.
- Queensland coastal lowlands - Continuing from several previous studies by Gay Crowley, John Grindrod and Peter Kershaw, designed to characterise modern pollen deposition from lowland rainforest and other coastal environments, Patrick Moss has examined deposition in major river estuaries to help fill in the picture and particularly to help with the understanding of patterns of pollen deposition on the continental shelf and continental slope. This information is being used to refine interpretation of Holocene pollen diagrams from the shelf and longer Quaternary pollen diagrams from cores collected by the Ocean Drilling Program.
- Recent pollen data base - Donna DCosta has extended the recent pollen data base of 71 pre-European pollen spectra derived from fossil pollen diagrams in southeastern Australia by Peter Kershaw and Dave Bulman, to 135 spectra from additional sites on the mainland and all known sites from Tasmania. This data set, in combination with climatic estimates for each site from the bioclimatic prediction system BIOCLIM. are providing a firm basis for more refined interpretation of fossil pollen diagrams in vegetation and climatic terms from the region. Preliminary examination of pollen variation in relation to climate, undertaken by Donna DCosta and Peter Kershaw has been published in the Australian Journal of Botant and is being used presently in BIOME reconstructions from the Australian region. The pollen and climate data sets are available on the World Wide Web (http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges) under the Centres section of the School.
- Overview - Workers from the Centre have produced data bases containing well over 1000 modern diatom samples with associated water quality information from both stream and lake environments. In addition, the recent acquisition of the Omnidia diatom data base will greatly enhance knowledge of stream diatom ecology.
- Lake productivity - John Tibby has successfully developed a diatom-total phosphorus transfer function for temperate Australian lake systems, which has been applied to cores from Burrinjuck Reservoir (see below). John has approval to utilise water chemistry data from Melbourne Water and NSW Dept. of Land and Water Conservation sites to expand the transfer functions range.- Phosphorus and salinity - Jennie Fluin has established a modern data set from over 100 different lakes and rivers in the River Murray region which compares diatom assemblages to differing phosphorus and salinity concentrations. The optima derived from this set is being applied to to fossil diatoms found in the sediments of the Murray system in order to quantitatively reconstruct past records of water quality.
- River quality - Jason Sonneman is focussing his research on modern diatom assemblages of rivers in southeastern Australia in order to provide a rapid means of assessing the value of diatoms as indicators of water quality. He is monitoring diatoms in a number of stream sites for which water quality data exist and developing a transfer function, based on ecological optima of common diatom species, which will be used as the basis for determination of water quality.
1.3. Modern beetle distribution studies
- Nick Porch is continuing the accumulation of modern beetle data by collecting material in the field, and by visiting major museum collections. Initial work on modern material has shown that even common taxa are represented by far more undetermined material in museum collections than several recent taxonomic revisions would suggest. A collection program focussing on riparian and hygrophilic beetle assemblages from various sites throughout southeastern Australia is beginning. This program is providing the high quality distribution data necessary for analysis of beetle bioclimates and is revealing many new species, especially in the better known Hydraenidae and tachyine Carabidae.
2. Quaternary Studies
- IMAGES IV cores - Sander van der Kaars spent a month in 1998 on the French RV Marion Dufresne during the IMAGES (International Marine Global Change Study) IV cruise of the Indonesian waters. Twenty-nine cores up to 50m in length were collected, in total. From these cores, several were selected by Sander for palynological study. These include one from the North Australian Basin (core MD982167) which will be analysed in collaboration with Bradley Opdyke, Department of Geology, Australian National University. A pilot study indicated that this core, probably covering the last 500,000 years, can provide a first detailed vegetation and climate history for the Kimberley region. This record could provide an important test of the Gif Miller proposal that Aboriginal buring during the last glacial period altered the vegetation to such a degree that the extent of penetration of the monsoon into Australia was substantially diminished. A core from Kau Bay (MD982180), taken from inside the small marine basin enclosed by the northern arms of Halmahera and separated from the Philippine Sea by a 40-m-deep sill will extend the record constructed from the terrestrial Kau Plain Swamp which is being prepared for publication by Sander and Rien Dam. Work on the marine record, that at times of low sea level during glacial periods when the sea level stood below the sill depth would have been lacustrine, is being carried out in collaboration with Simon Troelstra (Institute of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), François Guichard (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de lEnvironnement, CNRS-CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette) and Patrick De Deckker, Department of Geology, ANU. Its location is important for understanding the history of the West Pacific Warm Pool. A third site, Aru Sea core MD982175, will be analysed in collaboration with Luc Beaufort, Laboratoire de Geologie du Quaternaire, CNRS, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence and François Guichard. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope data are already available from this core, indicating that the record covers the last 130,000 years.
- Lake Tondano, northern Sulawesi - Sander van der Kaars and Jennie Fluin, in collaboration with Rien Dam (Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience, Haarlem, The Netherlands) have extended the record from this large, 12 x 6 km, lake located at 700 m elevation in an intramontane basin on the northern tip of the northern arm of Sulawesi to encompass the last 12,000 years. Diatom analysis highlighted distinct lake level changes and fluctuations in both pH and TP over time. Results also illustrated the enormous potential for diatom- based palaeo-reconstructions in this region, as valves were abundant, were excellently preserved, with a high level of community diversity. By necessity, sampling resolution was coarse due to the length of the core, but there are plans to extract further cores with hopes of obtaining one from the centre of the lake basin and then examining key periods in more detail.
- Peat swamp forest project, Central Kalimantan - Asha Thamotherampillai has virtually completed pollen analysis of a 10 m core from the extensive peat forest of Setia Alam. This will be interpreted with assistance from a range of surface pollen samples taken in association with vegetation plot descriptions of Dr Jack Rieleys group centred at the Univeristy of Nottingham. The record is important in demonstrating substantially drier conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum with grasses dominant, and the importance of fire at this time. In contrast to most coastal peats which are Holocene in age, peat formation here began at least by the end of the Pleistocene, well before sea level rise could have had an influence. It is hoped that supporting geochemical data from the University of Berne, and macrofossil data from the Univeristy of Maine, will be available to further assist in undertanding the development of this peatland. Results will contribute to the European Union supported project Natural Resource Functions, Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands.
- Rawa Danau, West Java, - Sander van der Kaars, Dan Penny, Jennie Fluin and John Tibby in collaboration with Rien Dam (Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience, Haarlem, The Netherlands) and Papay Suparan (Geological Research and Development Centre, Bandung, Indonesia), have completed pollen and diatom analysis on the original 17 m sediment core taken from the old Danau caldera, West Java and a manuscript has been submitted for publication. The record provides evidence for substantial environmental change from the Late Pleistocene, and is one of the few tropical lowland sites to combine pollen and diatom analysis. Further coring by Sander van der Kaars and Rien Dam in 1998 extended the core length to 26 m. The longer Rawa Danau core, which has been incorporated into the ANSTO supported High Resolution Palaeoclimate Records project, has provided a well dated, detailed high resolution environmental history for the last 23,000 years. The record demonstrates very substantial vegetation change for the Glacial - Holocene transition, suggesting a significant change in climatic conditions. This core location is one of the few true lowland sites in the Indonesian region and has provided an important insight into glacial-interglacial vegetation and climate development in the lowland tropics, which appears much more dynamic than previously thought. Given the setting of the site within a large caldera and the apparently continuous sedimentation in a deep lake environment, this location should be selected for deep drilling in order to provide the world with the first long and high resolution palaeoecological lowland, tropical record. Data integration (pollen, sediments and stable carbon isotopes) is in progress.
- Banda Sea - the refined pollen, charcoal and elemental data of Sander van der Kaars and Xuan Wang in relation to the clear isotope record of François Guichard has provided detailed and well dated evidence of vegetation, climate and biomass burning over the last 160,000 years for eastern Indonesia and northern Australia. This record has been accepted for publication and attention has now turned to investigation of patterns of change in relation to major climate forcing factors. Presently, there is collaboration with Steve Clemens, Dept of Geological Sciences, Brown University, US, on examination of the influences of orbital frequences and phases on individual components of the record.
- Lake Sentarum, West Kalimantan - Gusti Anshari has constructed four pollen records from the environmentally complex area of Lake Pemerak, situated on the equator, within the Lake Sentarum region. It appears that peat swamp forests were more extensive during the middle part of the last glacial period, and have been replaced, to some degree by lake systems since this time. However, unlike Holocene coastal peats, some peat forests have been continuously present for at least the last 30,000 years. In this region, wet conditions appear to have persisted through the Last Glacial Maximum although there is evidence, from lowland invasion of some montane taxa, that temperatures at sea level were several degrees lower than today. There is evidence of increasing disturbance on the peat forests through the last 30,000 years from charcoal evidence although substantial human impact may have been restricted to within the last 2000 years. More detailed investigation of the sedimentary history of the area will be required to fully understand environmental change within this region and landscape evolutionist Meredith Orr of this School will be involved in further research, if access is possible in the next few years.
- Birds Head Peninsula, West Irian - Preliminary pollen analysis is being undertaken by Sander van der Kaars and Simon Haberle on four cores from the Birds Head area in collaboration with Rien Dam. Sander is looking at the lower altitude sites where the shorter Ayamura record, covers the last 3700 years while the longer Kebar record, covers the last 28800 years. Simon is investigating two cores from the Anggi Lakes, a montane region where traditional agriculture mirrors that practiced in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. He will investigate these cores for evidence of early forest clearance and burning associated with agricultural activity.
- North-west Thailand - Following the completion of his Ph.D thesis, Dan Penny has shifted his focus to the north-western highlands of Thailand. This one year project, due for completion at the end of 1999, will analyse microfossils preserved in a lake sediment core from a large lake, Kwan Phayao, around 100 km north-east of Chiang Mai. The 6-metre core extracted from this lake by Dr. Lisa Kealhofer (Department of Archaeological Research, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA ), Dr. Joyce White (University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, USA) and Dr. Peter Grave (School of Human & Environmental Studies, University of New England, NSW , Australia) has been dated to at least 20,000 years BP, making it one of the very few records of such antiquity in the region. This research will contribute greatly to the understanding of climatological conditions (particularly monsoon circulation) over time, and provide a detailed biogeographical perspective on the rich archaeology of the area. It is hoped that the results of this research will be of some use to groups such as the Forest Restoration Unit (FORRU), a privately funded group of researchers from the University of Chiang Mai concerned with the rehabilitation of degraded tropical forests in north-west Thailand.
- Tam Koop Peninsula Thailand - In light of Peter Kershaws great despair at the lack of enthusiasm over the Tam Koop record, Dan Penny showed pity and has recently completed the analysis of the Tam Koop sediment core. This record, collected by Peter in collaboration with Brigitte Urban (Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen) and archaeologist Dr Gert Albrecht (University of Tuebingen), was extracted from one of the few sites suitable for palynological analysis in this region of Thailand. Dating problems remain, but the palynological results provide a unique fine-resolution record of vegetation change over the last several hundred years. Dan will soon complete the analysis of diatoms within this core and publish the results.
- Exmouth Plateau -research on an Exmouth Plateau core, northwest Australian waters, in collaboration with Patrick De Deckker, Department of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra, is almost complete. This palaeoecological record, prepared by Sander van der Kaars, is one of the very few that exist for the northwestern Australian region. Preliminary palaeoecological reconstructions and integration with foraminiferal, stable carbon isotope and oxygen isotope data have been undertaken. The record shows subtle vegetation changes through a picture of overall stability in Western Australia around the Exmouth area during the last 130,000 years.
- Lake Carpentaria - High resolution palynological analysis as part of the multidisciplinary, multi-core Gulf of Carpentaria project (headed by Professor Allan Chivas, School of Geosciences, University of Wollongong) is in progress. First results from the top 145 cm from three cores indicate a mosaic of open swamp and lacustrine conditions for the Gulf area during times of low sea level during the last glacial period, when ocean waters could not enter the Gulf area, and dryland or lake conditions prevailed. These results also show a good correlation between major changes in pollen assemblages and the change from lacustrine to marine sedimentation. Fourteen samples have been submitted for radiocarbon dating.
- Queensland Continental Shelf and deep ocean cores - John Grindrod, Patrick Moss and Sander van der Kaars have recently combined the results of continental shelf and deep sea core studies to suggest a model of contrasting phases of mangrove colonisation on transgressive and regressive coasts in the north Australia - Indonesian region. Continental shelf sediment profiling (by James Cook Universitys Precision Depth Recorder) and palynology of sediment cores from selected continental shelf localities indicate enhanced mangrove development during transgressive phases, particularly in submerged river or tidal channels. These results compare well with the upper section of the ODP 820 core, from the adjacent continental slope, which covers the period of the Last Glacial Marine Transgression. The long Quaternary mangrove records from the ODP 820 core and two other deep ocean cores from Indonesia (SHI-9014 and G6-4) provide evidence of cycles of mangrove development and decline at a regional scale. These appear to be more closely determined by relative sea level changes, than prevailing climate.
- ODP Core 820 marine record - Patrick Moss has completed his detailed palynological study on the last 250,000 years of this 1.4 million year core, taken from the continental slope adjacent to the Atherton Tablelend. The record compares well with many aspects of the similarly aged record from Lynchs Crater on the Tableland, establishing a regional picture of vegetation and climate change in relation to global glacial cyclicity. The record also reveals progressive changes in the vegetation which may be a function of biomass burning associated with increased climatic variability as a result of the establishment of the West Pacific Warm Pool in addition to activites of Aboriginal people.
Details of the an earlier period within this core are being elucidated by Russell Wild. He has established a picture of vegetation responses to climate forcing during the the Early-Mid Pleistocene transition that can be compared with both the latter Quaternary at this site and a similar time period recorded in Pejark Marsh on the Western Plains of Victoria.- Rock-art - Bruno David has been interested in the rock-art of north Queensland and the Northern Territory since the 1980s. He has been documenting the distribution of different artistic conventions across space and through time, using AMS radiocarbon dating to date the art. The North Queensland Rock-art project aims to investigate patterns of change and continuity in the geographical distribution of artistic conventions through the course of prehistory in NE Australia. The ultimate aims are to arrive at an understanding of the emergence of the regional artistic behaviour noted during ethnographic times. He has been able to show so far that regionalism in the area between Cairns and Princess Charlotte Bay, westward to the Koolburra Plateau, emerged from relatively widespread, homogeneous artistic tradition around 3500 years ago. These changes in artistic behaviour towards increased regionalism has major, hitherto unexpected implications for the dynamics of social, political and territorial systems in northern Australian history.
- Dry Rainforests of SE Cape York - The Mitchell-Palmer limestone zone is a long belt of Upper Silurian to Lower Devonian karst towers (430-390 million years old) located some 180km NW of Cairns, north Queensland. The limestone towers often exceed 1km in length and 500m in width, jutting >100m above the surrounding landscape. They are impressive rock formations possessing regionally distinctive soils and vegetation communities. Many shallow rockshelters and deep caves occur near the junction of the towers and their surrounding pediments, some of which possess evidence of ancient human occupation. This project aims to investigate some of these places, in particular a series of caves on Palmerville Station, towards the northern end of the limestone zone. We focus on how Aboriginal people responded to environmental changes during the course of prehistory, particularly during the last glacial maximum 21,000-17,000 years ago, the period of peak aridity (21,000-13,000 BP), and during the early to mid Holocene, 9000-6000 years ago when conditions were very wet. In order to investigate the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence, a team of specialists has been working together on this project: botanist Justine Shaw (University of Queensland), geologist Bob Bultitude (Department of Minerals and Energy), zoologists Dr. Les Hall, Dr. Glen Ingram, Conrad Macrokanis, Dr. John Stanisic and Dr. Joan Whittier (University of Queensland and the Queensland Museum), and archaeologist Chris Clarkson (Australian National University). Some of the specific research questions that this team is addressing include: 1, what is the antiquity and nature of Aboriginal occupation in a sample of caves from the region? 2, can we identify any changes in Aboriginal cultural practices over the long term? 3, where did Aboriginal people obtain their resources from, including the stone for their tools, plants and animals for foods, and ochres for paintings and stencils? 4, can we identify changes in resource catchments through time, and how do these compare with the timing of environmental changes? This project is jointly directed by Bruno David and Dr. Harry Lourandos (University of Queensland).
- Ngarrabullgan - Bruno David has been undertaking archaeological research in Ngarrabullgan in northeast Australia. Ngarrabullgan (Mt. Mulligan) is an 18km-long, 6.5km-wide Dreaming mountain at the heart of Djungan Aboriginal country in north Queensland. Almost entirely surrounded by 200 to 400m-high cliffs, it forms a dramatic sandstone monolith surrounded on all sides by undulating volcanic and metamorphic sediments; it is in this sense a geological and biogeographic island. Ngarrabullgans creation story was recorded many years ago by a local resident, and tells the tale of how Eekoo, a dangerous spirit, took-up residence on the mountain. Eekoos presence means that the mountain-top is not suitable for general camping. Our archaeological studies have revealed that, consistent with the Dreaming story, there are very few signs of recent occupation on the mountain. But what of earlier times? Could it be that the ancestors of the present-day Djungan community abandoned the mountain when belief in Eekoo began? Can we date the antiquity of this Dreaming belief by tracing back in time its archaeological signature, the beginning of abandonment? With this aim in mind, the Ngarrabullgan Archaeological Project attempts to investigate the antiquity of this perception of the mountain by studying changing uses of the landscape through time. After excavating every known rockshelter on the mountain-top and a few at its base 16 in all we found that the mountain was extensively used from about 38,000 to 700 years ago. But by around 650 years ago occupation had ceased at every site. We conclude that major changes took place in the way Aboriginal people related with the mountain during the 14th century AD. Contrary to the way they are reported in the popular media, Ngarrabullgan presents evidence for dynamism in Aboriginal society and in the Dreaming itself.
- Nick Dolby has analysed macrocharcoal from a major Ngarrabullgan archaeological site to reveal details of vegetation change and Aboriginal utilization of wood materials. A change from Callitris to eucalypt domination of charcoal from the Pleistocene to Holocene may be indicative of broad regional decline in Callitris as a similar pattern has been recorded in pollen from the more humid site of Lynchs Crater on the Atherton Tablelend.
- Caledonia Fen, Snowy Ranges - The refined pollen record from an 8 m core from Caledonia Fen, Alpine National Park obtained with support from a small ARC grant reveals fluctuations in dryland trees, sub-alpine vegetation and aquatics. The record covers the Holocene and all or part of the last glacial. Further ARC support enabled the core depth to be increased to 18 m. This, together with OSL dating by Bert Roberts, should clarify whether the period covered by the existing record extends beyond the last glacial to the penultimate glacial and interglacial. The identification of the pollen of taxa which are not at present recorded in the region, together with the details of major and minor vegetation changes in the record, provide a good basis for understanding the present vegetation cover of southeastern Australian high montane and subalpine areas. The collection of three short cores in December 1998 has allowed Nick Porch to extract a small number of insect taxa from late last-glacial sediments between 2 and 3.5 m: identification of taxa present will hopefully provide some indication of the nature of last-glacial habitats in the area, to complement the pollen record.
- Burrinjuck Reservoir - Diatom analysis of five sediment cores from this site in southern New Wales have revealed a high resolution record of changing nutrient status from 1925-1995. Application of John Tibbys diatom-total phosphorus transfer function has shown that the system has apparently undergone two major periods of eutrophication, one in the late 1930s and a larger shift in the late 1960s. Understanding of the diatom record from Burrinjuck Reservoir has been greatly enhanced by research of past and present members of CSIRO Land and Water.
- Murray Basin - Jennie Fluin is examining the history of productivity and salinity in the Lower Murray River system, particularly the periods of pre and post non-indigenous settlement and pre and post river regulation. A constructed modern diatom and water quality data set is being used to interpret records being constructed from both Lake Alexandrina and from Lake Cullulleraine, Victoria. Three cores were analysed from Lake Alexandrina with diatom analyses suggesting that the system has been eutrophic for at least the past 5000 years, with enhanced eutrophication in the past 200 years. The Lake Cullulleraine record concentrates on the post river regulation period (1922 to the present) and shows major changes in the river and lake plankton community concurrent with the development of locks and also Lake Hume. Interestingly, diatom communities in both Lake Alexandrina and Lake Cullulleraine are strikingly similar and further research is currently being proposed to assess this apparent homogeniety in River Murray assemblages.
- Western Plains of Victoria - Research, supported by a large ARC grant is continuing on the production of a long biostratigraphic, vegetation and palaeoenvironmental record contained in old volcanic craters in the southern part of the Western Plains. Fission track dating has been carried out on tuffs associated with the discontinuous palynological record from Pejark Marsh, by Paul OSullivan from La Trobe University. This has resulted in the determination of an Early Pleistocene age for the core. Palynological analysis of material, show two glacial cycles in the younger part of the record, with no well-defined cycles in the older part. The last appearances of some Tertiary taxa are also recorded. Work has commenced on the longer and more complete core from Yaloak Marsh, near Garvoc. So far the record shows an upper section contaminated by introduced taxa, underlain by a glacial cycle.
Attention has also focused on the relatively recent site of Northwest Crater at Tower Hill, originally analysed by Donna DCosta. This site has the potential to provide the most detailed record of environments since the last glacial maximum and Rochelle Johnston is exploiting this to provide a refined picture, from multi-proxy evidence, of the nature of the transition from glacial to Holocene conditions.
In the drier part of the region, study of the Greater Lake Bolac region by Ellyn Cook, aimed at the production of a late Quaternary environmental history for climate reconstruction and elucidation of the history of people and megafauna, is well advanced. There is a major emphasis on AMS radiocarbon and cosmogenic exposure dating to provide a good chronology for the sediments which possess very little organic material.- The Wimmera - Cathy Greenwood has demonstrated that pollen is present through at least the Holocene period in three shallow saline lakes, Jacka Lake, North Jacka Lake and Tea Tree Swamp, within the Wimmera region and has completed detailed analysis of Jacka Lake. The results are helping fill in the record of late Quaternary vegetation and landscapes from the drier part of southeastern Australia, providing a picture of the nature and degree of European impact within the region. and contributing to the existing research of Linda Taylor at the ANU on the hydrological history of the lake systems.
- King Island - Vertebrate palaeontology and dunefield history. Three palaeontological excavations have been completed at Egg Lagoon to a depth of at least 8 m, by John Grindrod and other members of the Centre, and in conjunction with Sanja van Huet (Department of Earth Sciences, Monash University). The intention is to investigate the environmental circumstances surrounding megafaunal extinctions at this site. Megafaunal fossil remains, mainly Macropus titan, were recovered in each excavation between 7 and 8.5 m. Age determinations so far at Egg Lagoon indicate the fossils to be older than 80 ka, though attempts to refine the chronology, by Henk Heinjis (AINSE), are in progress. The work has been supported by ARC Small Grants and a National Geographic Field Research Grant.
Meanwhile further Quaternary environmental reconstruction at King Island is underway through mapping and analysis of dunes and dune palaeosols. This project is funded by a Monash Arts Faculty grant to Meredith Orr and John Grindrod, and has begun with sample collecting and analysis by School of Geography undergraduate soils students Andrea Delaney, Mathew Peel, Dru Marsh and Jonathan Brown. The results will complement Sanjas current regional palaeontological studies, and broaden the late Quaternary environmental record already available for King Island from Donna DCostas Egg Lagoon pollen record and the megafaunal study.- Glacial beetles from southeastern Australia - Nick Porch is focussing on a number of sites, including Pulbeena Swamp in Tasmania, Spring Creek in western Victoria and possibly Caledonia Fen in the Victorian highlands, to reconstruct last glacial temperatures, poorly known to date, using the sensitive indicators, beetles. A considerable amount of time has been spent picking through floated organics for beetle and other insect fossils. Comparative AMS radiocarbon dating of insects, plant macrofossils, and pollen from both Spring creek and Pulbeena has suggested pollen is giving unexpectedly young ages: at least the macrofossil dates are concordant. The Spring Creek material dates to >40,000 B.P., and contains taxa suggesting a climate similar to the present, although with a variety of taxa found today in regions to the east of the site. Current work on Pulbeena Swamp material dating to the end of isotope stage 3 and during stage 2 is revealing relatively species poor assemblages with those from late stage 3 containing taxa indicating, not surprisingly, wet forest/scrub habitats. Several potential sites have been examined and found to contain surprisingly few insect fossils given the abundance of plant macrofossils (Henty Bridge in western Tasmania in particular).
- Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Galapagos Islands - Simon Haberle is developing an integrated high-resolution palaeoecological study from pollen and charcoal preserved in lake sediments over the last 6000 years. Each area has been selected for its sensitivity to the El Niño phenomenon and its human occupation history. The proposal will use a range of high-resolution palaeoecological techniques to: (i) produce the first high-resolution records of vegetation change and burning events within the last 6000 years from three key areas selected for their sensitivity to fundamental dynamic aspects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon; (ii) correlate changes in individual plant taxa abundance with independent sources of information about the past (historical climate records, tree-ring records, coral growth records), in order to establish the strengths and limitations of the fossil pollen and charcoal record in resolving the biotic responses to climate changes; (iii) examine the potential effects of major disturbance events (climate change and variability, volcanism, tectonism and fire) on forest community composition, structure and function; and (iv) develop links between groups working on palaeoecological data from different biotic communities to improve our understanding of the way these communities respond to disturbance.
The study of modern biotic community dynamics using traditional small-scale ecological approaches encompasses too little time and space to understand how these communities assemble and endure. This project aims to compare long-term palaeoecological records from biotic communities in close geographic proximity that document patterns in taxa abundance during the Holocene at decadal to century resolution. This will enable us to determine the response of vegetation assemblages to natural and human induced changes across similar geographic space and at timescales relevant to modern ecological processes. A range of climate proxy data will be examined including high-resolution sediment records (sampled at sub-decadal resolution), coral growth rings (annual variability [jointly with Dr John Pandolfi, Smithsonian Washington DC, and Dr Mike Gagan, ANU]) and tree-rings (annual variability). The role of major disturbance, including El Niño events, in extinction, speciation and migration of plant species, and associated fauna, will be considered. Information on the rate of change in vegetation (and other) communities with respect to climate variability, changing fire regime, and the impact of human occupation is essential in formulating better management strategies for sustaining biodiversity within threatened ecosystems.-Taynaya Bay, Vestfold Hills. Nerida Bleakley is studying the ecology and paleoecology of Taynaya Bay, Antarctica. Taynaya Bay contains a number of, in most cases, permanently ice covered merimictic basins which preserve phytoplankton exceptionally well in the sediment record. The sea ice and water column chemistry (nutrients, salinity, temperature and chlorophyll) and diatom and phytoplankton assemblages have been studied in the modern environment. Analysis of surface sediment chemistry (opal, organic carbon, nutrients) and diatom assemblange has been undertaken on samples taken throughout the fjord at different water depths. The modern information collected is used for the interpretation of sediment chemistry, particle size and diatom assemblage variations detected in three sediment cores. Changes down core reflect palaeoenvironmental variation within the bay reflecting paleoclimate records in the area throughout late Holocene times.
- Naivasha systems - In collaboration with researchers from the University of Ghent (Dirk Verschuren and Christine Cocqyut) and the University of Plymouth (Neil Roberts), John Tibby has applied diatom-salinity transfer functions and direct gradient analysis to cores from saline lakes in the Naivasha systems, Kenya. These analyses (see publications) have allowed a greater understanding of the response of diatoms and other biota to hydrological change.
- Santorini - John Tibby has returned to analysis of diatom and other microfossil data from Golhisar Golu in southwest Turkey, along with Warren Eastwood (Birmingham), Neil Roberts (Plymouth), Henry Lamb (Aberystwyth) and John Birks (Bergen). The significance of the Santorini (Thera) volcanic eruption on the lake and its catchment have been assessed using multivariate hypothesis testing. A manuscript is in preparation and John hopes to apply this method to a number of records produced in the centre.
3. Pre-Quaternary Studies
Barbara Wagstaff has been working in conjunction with Dr. Stephen Gallagher (School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne) and Guy Holdgate, investigating the possibility of finding climate signals in the palynology of Miocene offshore cores from the Gippsland Basin. It is hoped that the pollen record will support the information provided by the foraminiferal fauna and tie in with the onshore brown coal stratigraphy established by Guy Holdgate in association with members of the Centre.
Consultancies
Bioaerosol samples - RAAF Base Tindal - Dan Penny and Ellyn Cook analysed a series of Burkard trap samples collected at the Tindal RAAF base in the Northern Territory. This research, commissioned by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation via the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Northern Territory University, was designed to provide background levels of microscopic bioaerosols over a 6 day period in April 1999. The samples were analysed with a metallugical microscope to provide an hourly sampling interval.
Bungalook Creek - In late 1997, Jennie Fluin and John Tibby conducted a diatom study on Bungalook Creek in Melbournes outer suburbs. This catchment is the site of a proposed quarry expansion and the diatoms formed part of a wider report by WSL consultants to characterise the current aquatic environment.Publications
Books and Journal Special Issues
B. David (Ed.) Ngarrabullgan: Geographical Investigations in Djungan Country, Cape York Peninsula. Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science 51. Monash University, Melbourne, 1998.
A.P. Kershaw, B. Pittock and I. Simmonds (Eds.) Climate Change in the Australian Region: Quantifying the Past to Understand the Future. Special Issue, Palaeoclimates: Data and Modelling, vol. 3, 238 pp. 1998
A.P. Kershaw, and C. Whitlock (Eds.) Last Glacial-Interglacial Cycle: Patterns and Causes of Change. Special issue, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol. 154, in press
T. Partridge, A.P. Kershaw and M. Iriondo (Eds.) Palaeoclimates of the Southern Hemisphere During the Last 200,000 Years: Data, Models and Regional Syntheses. Special issue, Quaternary International, vols. 58/58, 235 pp., 1999
M.A.J. Williams, D.L. Dunkerley, P. De Deckker , A.P. Kershaw and J. Chappell, Quaternary Environments, (Second Edition) Edward Arnold, London, 329 pp., 1998
Articles selected for inclusion in Readers
B. David, I. McNiven, V. Attenbrow, J. Flood and J. Collins. Of Lightning Brothers and White Cockatoos: dating the antiquity of signifying systems in the Northern Territory, Australia. In T. Murray (ed.), Archaeology of Aboriginal Australia: a Reader, pp. 290-304. Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, 1998.
Journal articles
R.A. Armitage, B. David, M. Hyman, M.W. Rowe, C. Tuniz, E. Lawson, G. Jacobsen and Q. Hua Radiocarbon determinations on Chillagoe rock paintings: small sample Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Records of the Australian Museum, 50 (3), 285-292, 1998.
M.I. Bird, L.K. Ayliffe, L.K. Fifield, C.S.M. Turney, R.G. Cresswell, T.T. Barrows and B. David Radiocarbon dating of old charcoal using a wet oxidation, stepped-combustion procedure Radiocarbon, 41 (2), 127-140, 1999.A. Bohte and A.P. Kershaw Taphonomic influences on the interpretation of the palaeoecological records from Lynchs Crater, northeastern Australia Quaternary International, 57/58, 49-59, 1999.
R. Cheddadi, H.F. Lamb, J. Guiot and S. van der Kaars Holocene climatic change in Morocco: a quantitative reconstruction from pollen data Climate Dynamics, 14, 883-891, 1998.
D.M. DCosta and A.P. Kershaw An expanded recent pollen database from southeastern Australia and its potential for refinement of palaeoclimatic estimates Australian Journal of Botany, 45, 583-605, 1997.
B. David Review of A. Sagonas (ed.) Bruising the Red Earth Australian Archaeology, in press.
B. David Landscape: the rise and fall of a concept Cambridge Archaeological Journal, in press.
B. David Review of P.V. Kirchs Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: an Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Discovering Archaeology, in press.
B. David Archaeology of a Dreaming mountain in NE Australia Waikato Radiocarbon Laboratory Newsletter, 5, in press.
B. David Review of A. Pattersons A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest Discovering Archaeology, in press.
B. David The first Regional Training Course on Rock-Art Painting Conservation for SE Asia and the Pacific, Indonesia Rock Art Research, 16 (1), 55-56, 1999.
B. David Review of R. Bradleys Rock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe: Signing the Land. Rock Art Research, 15 (1), 51, 1998.
B. David Rock art of southeast Cape York Peninsula: Bonney Glen Station Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 1(1), 127-136, 1998.
B. David Review of P. Uckos (ed.) Theory in Archaeology: a World Perspective Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 63, 421-422, 1997.
B. David Review of C. Carr and J.E. Neitzels (eds) Style, Society, and Person: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives Australian Archaeology, 45, 65-66, 1997.
B. David, M. Lecole, H. Lourandos and A.J. Baglioni Jnr Investigating relationships between motif forms, techniques and rock media in north Australian rock art Australian Archaeology, in press.
B. David and H. Lourandos Landscape as mind: land use, cultural space and change in north Queensland prehistory Quaternary International, 59, 107-123, 1999.
B. David and H. Lourandos Rock art and socio-demography in northeastern Australian prehistory World Archaeology, 30 (2), 193-219, 1998.
B. David and H. Lourandos 37,000 years and more in tropical Australia Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 63, 1-23, 1997.
B. David, R. Roberts, C. Tuniz, R. Jones and J. Head New optical and radiocarbon dates from Ngarrabullgan cave, a Pleistocene archaeological site in Australia: implications for the comparability of time clocks and for the human colonisation of Australia Antiquity, 71, 183-188, 1997.
B. David, M. Rowe, R.A. Armitage and E. Lawson How old is north Queenslands rock-art? A review of the evidence, with new AMS determinations Archaeology in Oceania, in press.
B. David, H. Walt, H. Lourandos, M. Rowe, J. Brayer and C. Tuniz Ordering the rock paintings of the Mitchell-Palmer limestone zone (Australia) for AMS dating The Artefact, 20, 57-72, 1997.
B. David and M. Wilson Re-reading the landscape: place and identity in northeastern Australia during the late Holocene Cambridge Archaeological Journal, in press.
W. Dickinson and N.L. Bleakley Comparative petrology of the Sirius Group Table Mountain and Mount Feather, Dry Valleys Area, Antarctica Journal of Sedimentary Research, in press.
W.J. Eastwood., N. Roberts, H.F. Lamb and J.C. Tibby Holocene environmental change in southwest Turkey: a palaeoecological record of lake and catchment-related changes Quaternary Science Reviews, 18, 671-695, 1999.
R. Fullagar and B. David Investigating changing attitudes towards an Australian Aboriginal Dreaming mountain over >37,000 years of occupation via residue and use wear analyses of stone artefacts Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 7(1), 139-144, 1997.J. Grindrod, P. Moss and S. van der Kaars Late Quaternary cycles of mangrove development and decline on the north Australian continental shelf Journal of Quaternary Science , 14, 465-470, 1999.
S.G. Haberle Dating the evidence for prehistoric agricultural change in the highlands of New Guinea: the last 2000 years. Australian Archaeology, 47, 1-19, 1998.
S.G. Haberle Late Quaternary vegetation change in the Tari Basin, Papua New Guinea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 137, 1-24, 1998.
S.G. Haberle and S.H. Lumley A postglacial eruption history of Hudson volcano, southwestern Chile. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 84, 239-256, 1998.
S.G. Haberle and M. Maslin Late Quaternary vegetation and climate change in the Amazon Basin based on a 50,000 year pollen record from the Amazon Fan, ODP Site 932. Quaternary Research, 51, 27-38, 1999.
S.G. Haberle, S.H. Lumley, J.M. Szeicz, K.D. Bennett, and V.R. Switsur Late Quaternary environmental change in the Chonos Archipelago and Taitao Peninsula Region of southern Chile: an overview of recent investigations Revista Chilena de Natural Historia, in press.
S.G. Haberle, J.M. Szeicz, K.D. Bennett Late Holocene vegetation dynamics and lake geochemistry at Laguna Miranda, Region XI, Chile Revista Chilena de Natural Historia, in press.
S.G. Haberle Can climate change shape cultural development?: a view through time Environment & History, in press.
S.G. Haberle, G.S. Hope, and W.A. Van der Kaars Biomass Burning in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea: decoupling human and natural fire events in the fossil record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, in press.
S.G. Haberle and M.-P. Ledru Inter-tropical comparison of past forest fires and the implications for climate, vegetation and human impact studies Quaternary Research, in press.
L. Hall & B. David A rock in time Australian Geographic 46, 106-121, 1997.
K.J. Harle, A.P. Kershaw and H. Heijnis The contributions of uranium/thorium and marine palynology to the dating of the Lake Wangoom pollen record, Western Plains of Victoria, Australia Quaternary International, 57/58, 25-35, 1999.
M.A. Jenkins and A.P. Kershaw A mid-late Holocene vegetation record from an interdunal swamp, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 109, 133-148, 1997.
L. Kealhofer & D. Penny 14,000 years of vegetation change in northeast Thailand Review of Palaeobotany & Palynology, 103, 83-93, 1998.
A.P. Kershaw A bioclimatic analysis of Early to Middle Miocene brown coal floras, Latrobe Valley, southeastern Australia Australian Journal of Botany, 45, 373-387, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw A modification of the Troels-Smith system of sediment description and portrayal Quaternary Australasia, 15/2, 63-68, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw Estimates of regional climatic variation within southeastern Australia since the Last Glacial Maximum from pollen data Palaeoclimates - Data and Modelling, 3, 107-134, 1998.
A.P. Kershaw, P.T. Moss, S. van der Kaars Environmental change and the human occupation of Australia Anthropologie, XXXV/2-3, 35-43, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw, S. van der Kaars, P.T. Moss and X. Wang, 1999. Quaternary palynological records of vegetation, biomass burning, climate and possible human impact in the Indonesian - northern Australian region. Advances in Geoecology, in press.
P.J. Lloyd and A.P. Kershaw Late Quaternary vegetation and early Holocene quantitative climatic estimates from Morwell Swamp, Latrobe Valley, southeastern Australia Australian Journal of Botany, 45, 549-563, 1997.
H. Lourandos and B. David Comparing long-term archaeological and environmental trends: north Queensland, arid and semiarid Australia The Artefact, 21, 105-114, 1998.
R. Marchant, H. Behling, A. Cleef, S. Harrison, H. Hooghiemstra, V. Markgraf, C. Prentice, M.L. Absy, T. Ager, R. Anderson, C. Baied, S. Bjorck, R. Byrne, M. Bush, J. Duivenvoorden, J. Flenley, P. De Oliveira, B. van Geel, K. Graf, S.G. Haberle, T. van der Hammen, B. Hansen, S. Horn, P. Kuhry, M.-P. Ledru, B. Leyden, S. Garcia-Lozano, A.B.M. Melief, P. Moreno, N.T. Moar, A.R. Prieto, G. van Reenen, M.L. Salgado-Labouriau, F. Schabitz, E.J. Schreve-Brinkman Pollen-based biome reconstructions for Latin America at 0, 6000 and 18,000 radiocarbon years Journal of Biogeography BIOME 6000 special issue, in press.
G. M. McKenzie The late Quaternary vegetation history of the south-central highlands of Victoria, Australia. I. Sites above 900 m Australian Journal of Ecology, 22, 19-36, 1997.
G. M. McKenzie and A. P. Kershaw A vegetation history and quantitative estimate of Holocene climate from Chapple Vale, in the Otway Region of Victoria, Australia Australian Journal of Botany, 45, 565-581, 1997.
G.M. McKenzie and A.P. Kershaw The last glacial cycle from Wyelangta, the Otway Region of Victoria, Australia Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 154, in press.
A. McMinn, N.L. Bleakley, K. Steinburner, D. Roberts and L. Trenery.Effects of permanent sea ice cover and different nutrient regimes on the phytoplankton succession of fjords of the Vestfold Hills Oasis, eastern Antarctica Journal of Plankton Research, in press.
I.J. McNiven, B. David and H. Lourandos Long-term Aboriginal use of western Victoria: reconsidering the significance of recent Pleistocene dates for the Grampians-Gariwerd region Archaeology in Oceania, 34 (2), 83-85, 1999.
P.T. Moss and A.P. Kershaw The last glacial cycle from the humid tropics of northeastern Australia: comparison of a terrestrial and a marine record Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 154, in press.
D. Penny Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Sakon Nakhon basin, north-east Thailand; palynological perspectives on climate change and human occupation Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, in press.
D. Penny Pollen grains in the sands of time; lake sediments contribute to the archaeology of Thailand Expedition, in press.
N. Porch and S. A. Elias Quaternary beetles: A review and issues for Australian studies Australian Journal of Entomology, in press.
S. van der Kaars Marine and terrestrial pollen records of the last glacial cycle from the Indonesian region: Bandung basin and Banda Sea. Palaeoclimates: Data and Modelling, 3, 209-219, 1998.
S. van der Kaars, D. Penny, J. Fluin, J. Tibby, R. Dam and P. Suparan A Late Quaternary palaeoecological record from Rawa Danau, West Java, Indonesia Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, in press.
S. van der Kaars, X. Wang, A.P. Kershaw, F. Guichard and D. Arifin Setiabudi A late Quaternary palaeoecological record from the Banda Sea, Indonesia: patterns of vegetation, climate and biomass burning in Indonesia and northern Australia Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 154, in press.
W.A. van der Kaars and M.A.C. Dam Vegetation and climate change in West-Java, Indonesia during the last 135,000-years Quaternary International, 37, 67-71, 1997.
D. Verschuren, C. Cocquyt, J. Tibby, C.N. Roberts and P.R. Leavitt Two centuries of change in the biology of a fluctuating tropical soda lake Limnology and Oceanography, 44, 1216-1231, 1999.
Available at: www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_44/issue_5/D. Verschuren, J. Tibby, P.R. Leavitt, and C.N. Roberts The environmental history of a climate-sensitive lake in the former White Highlands of central Kenya Ambio, 28 (6), 494-501, 1999.
D. Verschuren, J. Tibby, K. Sabbe and C.N. Roberts Effects of lake level, salinity and substrate on the benthic invertebrate community of a shallow tropical lake system Ecology, in press.
B.E. Wagstaff, A.E. Constantine and J.R.C. McEwen Mason Palynological dating of Strzelecki Group sediments associated with Lower Cretaceous labyrinthodont fossils, Victoria, Australia Palaeontographica Abt.B, 247, 19-23, 1997.
H. Walt, B. David, J. Brayer and C. Musello The International Rock Art Database Project Rock Art Research, 14 (1), 44-50, 1997.
A. Watchman, B. David and I.J. McNiven Micro-archaeology of cortex from engraved and painted rock surfaces at Yiwarlarlay, Northern Territory, Australia Journal of Archaeological Science, in press.
X. Wang, W.A. van der Kaars, A. P. Kershaw, M. Bird and F. Jansen A record of fire, vegetation and climate through the last three glacial cycles from Lombok Ridge core G6-4, eastern Indian Ocean, Indonesia Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 147, 241-247, 1999.
Book Chapters
J.S. Clark, A.M. Gill, and A.P. Kershaw Spatial variability in fire regimes: its effects on recent and past vegetation. In Bradstock, R., Williams, J. and Gill, A.M. (eds.) Flammable Australia: the Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge University Press, in press.
B. David The emergence of late Holocene symbolism in NE Australia. In C. Chippindale and G. Nash (eds.) The Landscapes of Rock-art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, in press.
B. David Introduction: a mountain once seen never to be forgotten. In B. David (ed.) Ngarrabullgan: Geographical Investigations in Djungan Country, Cape York Peninsula. Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science 51, pp. 1-26. Monash University, Melbourne, 1998.
B. David The rock art. In B. David (ed.) Ngarrabullgan: Geographical Investigations in Djungan Country, Cape York Peninsula. Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science 51, pp. 143-156. Monash University, Melbourne, 1998.
B. David, I. McNiven, L. Bekessy, R. Bultitude, C. Clarkson, E. Lawson, C. Murray & C. Tuniz More than 37,000 years of human occupation. In B. David (ed.) Ngarrabullgan: Geographical Investigations in Djungan Country, Cape York Peninsula. Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science 51, pp. 157-178. Monash University, Melbourne, 1998.
S.G. Haberle Late Quaternary vegetation and climate history of the Amazon Basin: Correlating marine and terrestrial pollen records. In R.D. Flood, D.J.W. Piper, A. Klaus, and L.C. Peterson (eds.) Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, Amazon Fan. Vol 155, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas. pp. 381-396, 1997.
S.G. Haberle Vegetation Response To Climate Variability: A Palaeoecological Perspective on the ENSO Phenomenon. In R. Grove (ed.) El Niño: History and Crisis. White Horse Press, Cambridge, in press.
R.S. Hill and A.P. Kershaw Preface. In Australian Palaeoclimates: Refinement of Estimates from Palaeobotanical Data. Special Issue, Australian Journal of Botany 45,3.
H. Lourandos and B. David Long-term archaeological and environmental trends: a comparison from late Pleistocene-Holocene Australia. In P. Kershaw, N. Tapper, P. Bishop & B. David (eds.) The Environmental and Cultural History and Dynamics of the Australian-Southeast Asian Region. Catena Verlag GMBH, Reiskirchen, in press.
A.P. Kershaw and A. Bohte The impact of prehistoric fires on tropical peatland forests. In J.O. Rieley and S.E. Page (eds.) Biodiversity and Sustainability of Tropical Peatlands. Samara Press, Tresaith, Cardigan, pp 73-80, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw, M.B. Bush, G.S. Hope, K-F. Weiss, J.G. Goldammer, and R. Sanford The contribution of humans to past biomass burning in the . In J. Clark et al.(eds.) Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change. Springer, Berlin, pp.413-442, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw, J.S. Clark, A.M. Gill and D.M. DCosta A history of fire in Australia. In Bradstock, R., Williams, J. and Gill, A.M. (eds.) Flammable Australia: the Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge University Press, in press.
A.P. Kershaw, P.T. Moss and R. Wild Patterns and causes of vegetation change in the Australian wet tropics region over the last 10 million years. In C. Moritz and E. Bermingham (eds.) Tropical Rainforests: Past and Future. Chicago University Press, in press.
A.P. Kershaw, M. Reid and D. Bulman The nature and development of peatlands in Victoria, Australia. In J.O. Rieley and S.E. Page (eds.) Biodiversity and Sustainability of Tropical Peatlands. Samara Press, Tresaith, Cardigan, pp. 81-92, 1997.
P.T. Moss and A.P. Kershaw Evidence from marine ODP Site 820 of fire/vegetation/climate patterns in the humid tropics of Australia over the last 250,000 years Proceedings, Australian Bushfire Conference Albury, July 1999, pp. 269-279.
Conference abstracts
N.L. Bleakley, P.J. Barrett and M.A. Harper Evidence against major instability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Pliocene Antarctica and Global Change: Interactions and Impacts, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 1997.
N.L. Bleakley Fine resolution sediment and diatom analysis of Holocene cores from Taynaya Bay, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica 5th Polar Diatom Colloquim, Ottawa, Canada, 1-6 June, 1998.
J. Brayer, H. Walt and B. David A quantitative assessment of freehand drawing and some suggestions for its improvement as a rock art recording method in M.S. de Abreu (ed.) Congresso International de Arte Rupestre: Atravessando Fronteiras. Programa Official, University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, 1998, p. 30.
E.J. Cook Fine resolution AMS 14C chronology for lunette-lake sediment sequences, Lake Bolac, Victoria AINSEs 40th Anniversary Conference, Handbook, 1998, p.71.
E.J. Cook Palaeoecological and sedimentological reconstruction of late Quaternary environmental history and prehistoric human occupation in the Greater Lake Bolac region, Western Victoria Australasian Quaternary Association Biennial Conference, Fraser Island, Queensland, 1998, p. 10.
E.J. Cook Reconstructing late Quaternary environments around Lake Bolac, Western Victoria from sedimentological, palaeoecological and fine resolution 14C analyses of lunette-lake systems Geological Society of Australia, Abstracts, 1998, No. 52, p. 8.
B. David, R.A. Armitage, M.Rowe, M. Hyman and E. Lawson AMS Radiocarbon determinations for north-eastern Australian rock art: testing the regionalisation model of mid to late Holocene change in M.S. de Abreu (ed.), Congresso International de Arte Rupestre: Atravessando Fronteiras. Programa Official, University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, 1998, p. 33.
M.A.C. Dam and W.A. van der Kaars Lacustrine records from the Indonesian region; the nature and causes of Late Quaternary environmental perturbations Nederlands Aardwetenschappelijk Congres, Het Systeem Aarde, Veldhoven, the Netherlands, 1998.
S.G. Haberle, K.D. Bennett and V.R. Switsur Modern pollen and geochemical analysis of lake sediments from the Chonos Archipelago, southern Chile: vegetation-environment relationships and palaeoecological implications Prog. Abstr. II Southern Connections Congress: Southern Temperate Biota and Ecosystems, Past, Present and Future. Valdivia, Chile. Jan. 6-11, 1997.
S.G. Haberle, S.H. Lumley, and K.D. Bennett Late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the Taitao Peninsula - Chonos Archipelago, Region XI, Chile Prog. Abstr. PEP I: Pole-Equator-Pole Paleoclimate of the Americas, Mérida, Venezuela. Mar. 16-20, 1998.
S.G. Haberle Vegetation response to climate variability: a palaeoecological perspective on the ENSO phenomenon. Proceedings of the El Niño Conference. Australian National University, Canberra, March 1998.
S.G. Haberle Palaeoclimate implications of fire records from the tropics Prog. Abstr. Australian Quaternary Association Biennial Conference, Fraser Island, Australia. 27th Sept- 2nd Oct, 1998.
S.G. Haberle Fire records from the tropics Prog. Abstr. Institute of Australian Geographers Conference,. University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia. Jun. 29-Jul. 3, 1998.
A.P. Kershaw Regional patterns of climate and vegetation in the late Quaternary of mainland southeastern Australia. Prog. Abstr. II Southern Connections Congress: Southern Temperate Biota and Ecosystems, Past, Present and Future, Valdivia, Chile. Jan. 6-11, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw The potential for production of high resolution palynological records from the Early Pleistocene of Austalia INTER-INQUA Commission on Palaeoclimate colloquium Milankovitch and Plio-Pleistocene Vegetation Succession from 2.6-0.9 Ma, Ankara, Turkey, April 1997, pp. 23-24.
A.P. Kershaw The palaeobiology of the Quaternary - a partial overview Geological Society of Australia Conference Palaeobiogeography of Australasian Faunas and Floras, Wollongong, December 1997.
A.P. Kershaw Quaternary climates and biota in the Australasian region Program and Abstracts, Australian Quaternary Palaeoecology and Palaeoclimatology Workshop. Academy of Science, Canberra, 9-11 December, 1998, p. 18.
A.P. Kershaw Vegetation responses to climate change since the Last Glacial Maximum, mainland southeastern Australia Program and Abstracts, Australian Quaternary Palaeoecology and Palaeoclimatology Workshop. Academy of Science, Canberra, 9-11 December, 1998, p. 19.
A.P. Kershaw, P. Moss and R. Wild Quaternary climate history of the Australian Wet Tropics CRC for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Symposium: Rainforests Past and Future. Cairns, April, 1998, p. 13.
A.P. Kershaw, S. van der Kaars, Hugues Faure, X. Sun, X. Li, X. Wang, D. Penny, J. Grindrod and A. Thamotherampillai First evaluation of South East Asian continental contribution to the glacial/interglacial global carbon storage changes. UNESCO-International Union of Geological Sciences, Earth Processes in Global Change. Climates of the Past, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, 1997.
A.P. Kershaw, S. van der Kaars, P.T. Moss and X. Wang Palaeoecological records of climate change through the last 140,000 to 300,000 years in the Indonesian - northern Australian region 1st IGBP PAGES Open Science Meeting: Past Global Changes and their significance for the future, University College, London , 1998.
A.P. Kershaw, S. van der Kaars, P.T. Moss and X. Wang Palynological evidence for climate change over the last 140,000 to 300,000 years in the Indonesian-Northern Australian region XV International Quaternary Association Congress, Durban, South Africa, August, 1999 .
G. M. McKenzie Late Quaternary extinctions in the Otway Ranges, Victoria, Australia II Southern Connections Congress, Southern Temperate Biota and Ecosystems Past, Present and Future, Valdivia, Chile, 1997 .
N. Pearson, S. van der Kaars and F. Guichard Lombok Basin core SHI-9026, A climate, vegetation and fire record for NW Australia and the Lesser Sunda Islands covering the last 500,000 years Perspectives on the Birds Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1997.
N. Pearson, S. van der Kaars and F. Guichard Preliminary pollen analysis of a 500,000 year old marine core from the Lombok Basin, Indonesia UNESCO-International Union of Geological Sciences, Earth Processes in Global Change. Climates of the Past, Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, Townsville, 1997 .
D. Penny Regional palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Sakhon Nakon Basin, NE Thailand: palynological perspectives on climatic change and human occupation 16th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, Melaka, Malaysia, 1-7 July 1998.
D.Penny, A.P. Kershaw, S. Haberle Mid Holocene changes in tropical rainforests of the Southeast Asian-Australasian region. VI Austalasian Archaeometry Conference; Australian Archaeometry: Retrospectives for the New Millennium Australian Museum, Sydney, February 1997.
Porch, N. A. Reconstructing last-glacial palaeoenvironments in southeastern Australia using subfosil insects Prog. Abstr. Australian Quaternary Association Biennial Conference, Fraser Island, Australia. 27th Sept- 2nd Oct, 1998.
S. van der Kaars, D. Penny, J. Fluin, J. Tibby and R. Dam. A Late Quaternary palaeoecological record from Rawa Danau, West Java, Indonesia. Perspectives on the Birds Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia: First International Interdisciplinary Conference, Leiden, The Netherlands, October 1997. Also presented at 3rd Australian Diatom Workshop, 7-9th February 1998, Monash University.
S. van der Kaars Lake Tondano, North Sulawesi: A record of vegetation change for the last 30,000 years Biennial Conference, Australian Quaternary Asssociation, Fraser Island, Queensland, 1998.
S. van der Kaars, D. Penny and R. Dam A Late Quaternary Palaeoecological record from Rawa Danau, West Java, Indonesia Perspectives on the Birds Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1997.
S. van der Kaars, X. Wang, P. Kershaw and R. Dam A record of climate and vegetation change from Banda Sea core SHI-9014 and a terrestrial core from Kao Plain, Hamahera, Indonesia Perspectives on the Birds Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1997.
Theses
D.M. DCosta The reconstruction of Quaternary vegetation and climate on King Island, Bass Strait, Australia, PhD thesis, 1997.
K.J. Harle Patterns of vegetation and climate change in southwest Victoria over
approximately the last 200,000 years, PhD thesis, 1998.D. Penny Late Quaternary Palaeoenvironments in the Sakon Nakhon basin, Khorat Plateau, northeast Thailand, PhD thesis, 1998.
M.A. Reid A diatom-based palaeoecological study of the dynamics of the Goulburn River billabongs, southeastern Australia, PhD thesis, 1997.
C. Rowe The value of land snails for reconstruction of palaeoenvironments in northern Queensland, B.Sc. (Hons.) thesis, 1998.
Awards and Grants
Gusti Anshari - AusAID Postgraduate Award 1996-
Nerida Bleakley - Monash Graduate Scholarship 1996-
Ellyn Cook - Monash Garaduate Scholarship 1996-
Ellyn Cook - The Jennings Travel Award 1997
Ellyn Cook and Jim Peterson - AINSE grant AMS dating of sediment sequences in the Lake Bolac area, Western Victoria 1997 - $10,050
Ellyn Cook and Jim Peterson - AINSE grant 36Cl exposure dating of basalt flows in Western Victoria 1997 - $6800
Ellyn Cook - AINSE Postgraduate award and Special grant 1997 - $7880
Bruno David - AINSE grant 98/151R radiocarbon dates 1998 - $9420
Bruno David - AINSE grant 98/035, radiocarbon dates 1998 - $6700
Bruno David - AINSE grant 97/198R, radiocarbon dates 1997 - $6700
Bruno David - Earthwatch funding for Aboriginal Origins Project 1997 -$30,000
Bruno David - AINSE grant 97/005R, radiocarbon dates 1997 - $10,050
Bruno David - AINSE grant 97/006R, radiocarbon dates 1997 - $3350
Jennie Fluin - Australian Post-graduate Research Award - 1996-8
Cathy Greenwood - Australian Post-graduate Research Award 1996-
Peter Kershaw - ARC large grant Quaternary History of Eastern Australia 1997 - $59,500, 1996 - $60,000
Peter Kershaw, Nigel Tapper and Paul Bishop - ARC large grant Environmental Change and Human Impact in Southeast Asia 1997 - $84,000, 1998 - $80,000
Peter Kershaw - ARC small grant Vegetation and environments of the last glacial cycle, Snowy Ranges, Victoria 1997 - $14,330
Peter Kershaw - ARC small grant Environmental reconstruction and radiometric dating of last 2 glacial cycles from Caledonia Fen, SE highlands of Victoria 1998 - $10,000.
Peter Kershaw, Merna McKenzie and Barbara Wagstaff - AINSE grant U/Th dating of palynological records from E and W Victoria 1998 - $10,025.
Peter Kershaw, Merna McKenzie, Cathy Greenwood and Rochelle Johnston - AINSE grant AMS dating of late Quaternary records from past and present semi-arid environments 1997 - $10,050.
Joe Monaghan (Mathematics) and Peter Kershaw - Monash University Special Grant Sedimentary evidence of bronze age tsunamis and high accuracy radiocarbon dating of the eruption of Thera 1998 - $30,000.
Dan Penny - Monash University Research Fund (MURF) Post-doctoral Research Fellowship 1998-9.
Nick Porch - 1996/1997 Fulbright Postgraduate Student Award.
Nick Porch - Australian Post-graduate Research Award 1996-
Nick Porch - Geochron Inc. Radiocarbon Dating Award 1997 -$3200.
Nick Porch and Peter Kershaw - AINSE grant Comparative dating of glacial age pollen, plant macrofossils and insects 1997 - $6700.
Sporopollenin Meetings
Convenor: Merna McKenzie
Semester 1 1997
February 17: The Southern Connections Conference, Chile Field Trip - Peter
Kershaw
March 11: The ANSTO connection - Kate Harle
March 14: AMS dating - Dan Penny
March 21: Aboriginal plant foods and their representation in the pollen record -
Beth Gott, Department of Biological Sciences
April 4: Information session, update on projects by old and new palynologists,
diatomists, and fossil beetle and wood charcoal investigators
April 11: Techniques of preparation of material for AMS dating - Geraldine
Jacobsen, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
May 2: Research proposal on Tower Hill - Rochelle Johnston
May 9: Report on meeting and field trips of the Australian Quaternary Association,
Lake Eyre - Patrick Moss
May 27: Combined Sporopollenin and Griffith Taylor Colloquium 100
years of water quality change, Burrinjuck Reservoir, southern N.S.W.
Explaining or explaining away evidence- John Tibby
June 27: Evidence against major instability of the Antarctic ice sheet in the
Pliocene - Nerida BleakleySemester 2 1997
July 14: Automated pollen identification - Walt Telour and Sarah Hall , University
of Halifax, UK.
July 25 : A simplified (user friendly) Troels-Smith system of sediment description
- Peter Kershaw
August 15: Black Stuff - Nic Dolby
August 20 : Combined Griffith Taylor Colloquium and Sporopollenin The impact
of agriculture on billabongs of the Goulburn River floodplain - acid water
diatoms have a bad trip - Mike Reid
August 22: Dating Victorian dinosaur activities - Barbara Wagstaff
August 27: Airborne diatoms and the results from long cores at Lake Poukawa,
Rotorua Basin, New Zealand - Margaret Harper, Victoria University,
Wellington, New Zealand
September 5: The North Queensland experience(s) - Peter Kershaw, Patrick Moss,
Russell Wild, John Grindrod
September 12: Dinosaur dreaming at Inverloch - Lesley Kool, Department of
Earth Sciences
September 22: Trial run for paper to be presented at CLIP meeting in Queensland
in early October - Naomi Pearson
September 24: The Kalimantan field area - Gusti Anshari
September 26: Trial run for Diatom conference presentations - Jennie Fluin and
John Tibby
October 10: Overview of Victorian rainforests and their vulnerability to fire and
disease - David Cameron, Victorian Government Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources
October 17: Discussion on Out of Asia - BBC Horizon film
October 24: Controversial dating of Lancefield Swamp - Sanja van Huet,
Department of Earth SciencesOctober 31: Combined Sporopollenin and Griffith Taylor Colloquium Archaeology
and natural history in southeastern Cape York - a continuing project - Bruno
David
November 14: A brief overview of thesis topic Palaeolimnology of the lower
Murray - Jennie Fluin
November 21 : Ordination of modern and fossil data - John Tibby
November 28: Work in progress, including Lake Muggenugger? - Chris Kenyon,
School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne
December 5: Discussion on Jinmium - ABC Quantum filmSemester 1 1998
February 27: Report on projects in progress and new projects
March 23: A regional reconstruction of vegetation and environments in the Sahul
region over the last 500,000 years- Naomi Pearson,
March 30: Prehistoric people and environment at Lake Bolac, Western Victoria-
Ellyn Cook
April 3: Summer in the Vestfold Hills of the Great Southern Land - Antarctica-
Nerida Bleakley
April 17: Poster presentation practice for Queensland Conference Rainforests past,
present and future - Gusti Anshari, Patrick Moss, Russell Wild
May 8: Palaeomonsoons, and other things - Peter Kershaw
May 15: Broken Hill, a proposed Prehistory excursion - John Grindrod
May 25: Joint Sporopollenin and Quaternary Ecology lecture The management
perspective - Peter Newall, aquatic ecologist, Environmental Protection
Authority
May 29: A preliminary pollen diagram for the upper 8 m of Caledonia Fen - Merna
McKenzie
June 5: Integrated Pest Management in Viticulture : Research to Practice - OR - Life after Pollen - Donna Aitken, Institute for Horticultural Development
June 12: Interpretation of the oldest (700,000 years +) and largest Quaternary
pollen diagram in the Centre, Pejark Marsh - Barbara Wagstaff
June 26 : Cool temperate rainforest and the threats to its survival - David
Cameron, Department of Natural Resources and Environment
July 4 : Fire, climate, vegetation relationships in the Holocene of North America -
Jim Clark, Department of Botany, Duke University, North Carolina
July 10: The Pacific Warm Pool and its environmental implications - Patrick De
Deckker, Department of Geology, Australian National UniversitySemester 2 1998
July 23: Joint Sporopollenin and Centre for Southeast Asian Studies seminar
Environmental and cultural history and dynamics of the Southeast Asian -
Australian Region: an interdisciplinary research program - Peter Kershaw,
July 24: ENSO and Indonesian rainfall variability - Dewi Kirono and Nigel
Tapper, School of Geography and Environmental Science
August 14: A diatom-based quantitative phosphorus reconstruction from
Burrinjuck Reservoir, N.S.W. - John Tibby
August 21: Stable isotope stratigraphy and tephrochronology of the Late Glacial
in the British Isles Chris Turney, Research School of Earth Sciences,
Australian National University
Missing data - Merna was overseas
December 18: Field work and archaeology in New Mexico- Bruno DavidAcknowledgments
The Centre has received support from a number of people who have not been targetted in the body of the report. We have benefited a great deal from interaction with Geoff Hope and others including Michael Bird and Patrick De Deckker from the Australian National University, Henk Heijnis, Ewan Lawson and Geraldine Jacobsen of ANSTO, and, for UK visitors, Neil Roberts at the University of Plymouth and Rick Battarbee at the Environmental Change Research Centre, University College, London, as well as the visits of Vera Markgraf and Jim Clark. David Tooth has organised and successfully executed numerous sediment coring trips while Jon Luly, Shane Revell, Gary Swinton, Alan Wain and Bill McKenzie have provided essential field trip support. Dave Stewart from Zeiss Microscopes kindly lent equipment for the Third Australian Diatom Workshop. We thank Gary Swinton for again providing assistance in the production of this report.
Consultancy Service Prices
The Centre undertakes a range of services in the areas of palynology, diatom analysis and more general stratigraphic, environmental and archaeological investigation. Individual quotes are given for particular requests but the following list provides some guide to fees.
Quaternary and modern Pollen Analysis:
Preparation, pollen counting $200.00 per sample
Pollen counting of already prepared slides $140.00 per sample
Pre-Quaternary Pollen Analysis:
Preparation, age determination, kerogen analysis $200.00 per sample
Age determination, kerogen analysis of already prepared slides $140.00 per sampleDiatom Analysis
Preparation, diatom counting $130.00 per sample
Diatom counting of already prepared slides $100.00 per sampleArchaeological Services
Principal Investigator $900 per day
Assistant Investigator $350 per day