Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:02:42.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Holocene Pollen and Diatom Record from Vanderlin Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Lowland Tropical Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matiu Prebble ,
Robin Sim ,
Jan Finn  and
David Fink
Matiu Prebble
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Robin Sim
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Jan Finn
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
David Fink
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), PMB 1, Menai NSW 2234, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sedimentary, palynological and diatom data from a dunefield lake deposit in the interior of Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria are presented. Prior to the formation of present perennial lake conditions, the intensified Australian monsoon associated with the early Holocene marine transgression allowed Cyperaceae sedges to colonise the alluvial margins of an expansive salt flat surrounded by an open Eucalyptus woodland. As sea level stabilised between 7500 and 4500 cal yr B.P. coastal dunes ceased to develop allowing dense Melaleuca forest to establish in a Restionaceae swamp. Dune-sand input into the swamp was diminished further as the increasingly dense vegetation prevented fluvial and aeolian transported sand arriving from coastal sources. This same process impounded the drainage basin allowing a perennial lake to form between 5500 and 4000 cal yr B.P. Myriophyllum and other aquatic taxa colonised the lake periphery under the most extensive woodland recorded for the Holocene. The palynological data support an effective precipitation model proposed for northern Australia that suggests more variable conditions in the late Holocene. A more precise measure of effective precipitation change is provided by diatom-based inferences that indicate few changes in lake hydrology. Such interpretations are explained in terms of palynological sensitivity to adjustments in local fire regimes where regional precipitation change may only be recorded indirectly through fire promoting mechanisms, including intensified ENSO periodicity and human impact.

Keywords

PalynologyDiatomsVegetation historyHoloceneNorthern AustraliaENSO
Type
Special issue articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 357 - 371
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Battarbee, R.W. (1986). Diatom analysis. Berglund, B.E. Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology. John Wiley, Chichester, UK.527–570.Google Scholar
Bowman, D.M.J.S. (1999). Abandoned orange-footed scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) nests and coastal rainforest boundary dynamics during the late Holocene in monsoonal Australia. Quaternary International 59, 27–38.Google Scholar
Brock, J. (1993). Native Plants of Northern Australia. Reed New Holland, Sydney.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., and Grindrod, J. (1983). CLIMANZ Conference. Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology. Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., and Shackleton, N.J. (1986). Oxygen isotopes and sea level. Nature 324, 137–140.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., and Thom, B.G. (1986). Coastal morphodynamics in North Australia: review and prospect. Australian Geographic Studies 24, 110–127.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., Rhodes, E.G., Thom, B.G., and Wallensky, E. (1982). Hydro-isostasy and the sea-level isobase of 5500 B.P. in North Queensland, Australia. Marine Geology 49, 81–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chivas, A.R., Garcia, A., van der Kaars, S., Couapel, M., Holt, S., Reeves, J., Wheeler, D.J., Switzer, A.D., Murray-Wallace, C.V., Banerjee, D., Price, D.M., Wang, S.X., Pearson, G., Edgar, N.T., Beaufort, L., DeDeckker, P., Lawson, E., and Cecil, C.B. (2001). Sea-level and environmental changes since the last interglacial in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia: an overview. Quaternary International 83–85, 19–46.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S. (1982). Point count estimation of charcoal in pollen preparations and thin sections of sediments. Pollen et Spores 24, 523–535.Google Scholar
Clark, R.L., and Guppy, J.C. (1988). A transition from mangrove forest to freshwater wetland in monsoon tropics of Australia. Journal of Biogeography 15, 665–684.Google Scholar
DeDeckker, P. (2001). Late Quaternary cyclic aridity in tropical Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 170, 1–9.Google Scholar
Defence Topographic Agency Australia(2001). 1:50,000 map series sheet 6366-4.Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation,Australia.Google Scholar
Feeken, E.H.J., Feeken, G.E.E., and Spate, O.H.K. (1970). The discovery and exploration of Australia. Thomas Nelson, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Fink, D., Hotchkis, M., Hua, Q., Jacobsen, G., Smith, A., Zoppi, Z., Child, D., Mifsud, C., van der Gaast, H., Williams, A., and Williams, M. (2004). The ANTARES AMS facility at ANSTO. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B223–B224, 109–115.Google Scholar
Flinders, M. (1814). A voyage to Terra Australis, Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803. G. and W. Nicol, London.Google Scholar
Foged, N. (1978). Diatoms in Eastern Australia. J. Cramer, Vaduz.Google Scholar
Gasse, F., Barker, P., Gell, P., Fritz, S., and Chalie, F. (1997). Diatom inferred salinity in paleolakes: an indirect tracer of climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews 16, 547–563.Google Scholar
Gell, P. (1997). The development of a diatom database for inferring lake salinity, Western Australia, Australia: towards a quantitative approach for reconstructing past climates. Australian Journal of Botany 45, 389–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gell, P.A., Sonneman, J.A., Reid, M.A., Illman, M.A., and Sincock, A.J. (1999). An Illustrated Key to Common Diatom Genera from Southern Australia. Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Research, Google Scholar
Gell, P., Sluiter, I.R., and Fluin, J. (2002). Seasonal and interannual variations in diatom assemblages in Murray River connected wetlands in north-west Victoria, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 53, 981–992.Google Scholar
Genever, M., Grindrod, J., and Baker, B. (2003). Holocene palynology of Whitehaven Swamp, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, and implications for the archaeological record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 201, 141–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grindrod, J. (1988). The palynology of Holocene mangrove and saltmarsh sediments, particularly in northern Australia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 55, 229–245.Google Scholar
Haberle, S. (1994). Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams: problems and prospects for Late Quaternary palynology in New Guinea. Hather, J.G. Tropical Archaeobotany: Applications and New Developments. Routledge, London.172–201.Google Scholar
Hayne, M., and Chappell, J. (2001). Cyclone frequency during the last 5000 years at Curacoa Island, north Queensland, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 168, 207–219.Google Scholar
Juggins, S. (2003). C2 Data Analysis. University of Newcastle, Newcastle.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. (1970). A pollen diagram from Lake Euramoo, north-east Queensland, Australia. New Phytologist 69, 785–805.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. (1976). A late Pleistocene and Holocene pollen diagram from Lynch's Crater, north-east Queensland, Australia. New Phytologist 77, 469–498.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. (1995). Environmental change in Greater Australia. Antiquity 69, 656–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kershaw, A.P., and Nix, H.A. (1989). The use of bioclimatic envelopes for estimation of quantitative paleoclimatic values. Donnelly, T.H., and Wasson, R.J. CLIMANZ 3, Proceedings of the Symposium. Division of Water Resources, CSIRO, Canberra.78–85.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P., Clark, J.S., Gill, M.A., and D'Costa, D.M. (2002). A history of fire in Australia. Bradstock, R.A., Williams, J.E., and Gill, M.A. Flammable Australia: The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.3–25.Google Scholar
Krammer, K., and Lange-Bertalot, H. (1986–1991). )Subwasserflora von Mitteleuropa. Bacillariophyceae. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Latz, P.K., and Thomson, B.G. (1991). Flora of the Sir Edward Pellew Islands. Johnson, K.A., and Kerle, J.A. Flora and Vertebrate Fauna of the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands, Northern Territory. Wildlife Division, Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory, Alice Springs.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G. (1992). Geomorphological evidence for late Holocene climatic change in northern Australia. Australian Geographer 23, 1–10.Google Scholar
Longmore, M.E., and Heijnis, H. (1999). Aridity in Australia: pleistocene records of palaeohydrological and palaeoecological change from the perched lake sediments of Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia. Quaternary International 57/58, 35–47.Google Scholar
Macknight, C.C. (1976). The Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia. Melbourne Univ. Press, Carlton.Google Scholar
McGlone, M.S., Kershaw, A.P., and Markgraf, V. (1992). El Niño/Southern Oscillation climatic variability in Australasian and South American paleoenvironmental records. Diaz, H.F., and Markgraf, V. El Niño. Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.435–462.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D., Webb, J.A., and Collinson, M.E. (1991). Pollen Analysis. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London.Google Scholar
Nicholls, N. (1992). Historical El Niño/Southern Oscillation variability in the Australian region. Diaz, H.F., and Markgraf, V. El Niño: Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.151–173.Google Scholar
E.G., Rhodes (1980). Modes of Holocene coastal progradation, Gulf of Carpentaria.Unpublished PhD thesis,Australian National University, .Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J. (1991). Late Quaternary and Holocene history of Groote Eylandt, northern Australia.Unpublished PhD thesis,Australian National University, .Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J. (1992). A Holocene pollen record from lowland tropical Australia. The Holocene 2, 107–116.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J. (1999). Australasian evidence for mid-Holocene climatic change implies precessional control of Walker Circulation in the Pacific. Quaternary International 57/58, 81–91.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J., and Lees, B.G. (1992). Morphology and chronostratigraphy of a coastal dunefield; Groote Eylandt, northern Australia. Geomorphology 5, 521–534.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J., and Lees, B.G. (1993). Morphology and chronostratigraphy of a coastal dunefield, Groote Eylandt, northern Australia. Geomorphology 5, 521–534.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J., and Lees, B.G. (1995). Pollen evidence from tropical Australia of an ENSO-dominated climate at c. 4000 BP. The Holocene 5, 10–18.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J., Short, S.A., Price, D.M., and Murray, A.S. (1993). Pedogenic uranium/thorium and thermoluminescence chronologies and evolutionary history of a coastal dunefield, Groote Eylandt, northern Australia. Geomorphology 8, 47–64.Google Scholar
Sim, R. (2005). The Sir Edward Pellew Islands Archaeological Project, Gulf of Carpentaria.Community Project report for Mabunji Outstation Resource Centre,Borroloola, Northern Territory, .Google Scholar
J.W., Smith Pellew, N.T. (1963). 1:250,000 Geological Series.Bureau of Mineral Resources Australia.Google Scholar
Sonneman, J.A., Sincock, A.J., Fluin, J., Reid, M., Newall, P., Tibby, J., and Gell, P. (2000). An Illustrated Guide to Common Stream Diatom Species from Temperate Australia. Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Research, Google Scholar
Stern, H., de Hoedt, G., and Ernst, J. (2004). Objective Classification of Australian Climates. Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia, Google Scholar
Stocker, G.C. (1971). The age of charcoal from old jungle fowl nests and vegetation change on Melville Island. Search 2, 28–30.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., van der Plicht, J., and Spurk, M. (1998). INTCAL89 radiocarbon age calibration 24,000-0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1083.Google Scholar
Suppiah, R. (1992). The Australian summer monsoon: a review. Progress in Physical Geography 16, 283–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ter Braak, C.J.F., and Juggins, S. (1993). Weighted averaging partial least squares regression (WA-PLS): an improved method for reconstructing environmental variables from species assemblages. Hydrobiologia 269/270, 485–502.Google Scholar
Torgersen, T. (1983). General bathymetry of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Quaternary physiography of Lake Carpentaria. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 41, 207–225.Google Scholar
Torgersen, T., Luly, J., DeDeckker, P., Jones, M.R., Searle, D.E., Chivas, A.R., and Ullman, W.J. (1988). Late Quaternary environments of the Carpentaria Basin, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 67, 245–261.Google Scholar
Wanntorp, L., and Wanntorp, H. (2003). The biogeography of Gunnera L.: vicariance and dispersal. Journal of Biogeography 30, 979–987.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D., and Chappell, J. (1993). Holocene emergence and evolution of the McArthur River Delta, southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Sedimentary Geology 83, 303–317.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D., Thom, B.G., and Chappell, J. (1985). Development of widespread mangrove swamps in mid-Holocene times in northern Australia. Nature 317, 711–713.Google Scholar