Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-zsp5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-11T17:00:08.697Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Environmental change in Greater Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

A. Peter Kershaw
A. Peter Kershaw*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton 3168, Australia
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Australia, a dry island continent in mid latitude, spans from tropical to cold temperate regions; long isolation has given it its own flora and fauna. Environmental changes in the late Quaternary have had their own and special courses in the continent and its several regions. The role of fires set by people is an important issue in the changing ‘natural’ landscape.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 265 , 1995, pp. 656 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1995

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aharon, P. & Chappell, J. 1986. Oxygen isotopes, sea level changes and the temperature history of a coral reef environment in New Guinea over the past 105 years, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 56: 337–79.Google Scholar
Bard, E.,Hamelin, B. Fairbanks, R.G. & Zindler, A. 1990. Calibration of the 14C time scale over the past 30,000 years using mass spectrometric U-Th ages from Barbados corals, Nature 345: 405–10.Google Scholar
Barlow, B.A. & Hyland, B.P.M. 1988. The origins of the flora of Australia‘s wet tropics, Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 15: 1–17.Google Scholar
Bowler, J.M. 1975. Deglacial events in southern Australia: their age, nature, and palaeoclimatic significance, in Suggale, & Cresswell, (ed.): 75–82.Google Scholar
Bowler, J.M. 1986. Spatial variability and hydrologic evolution of Australian lake basins: analogue for Pleistocene hydrologic change and evaporite formation, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 54: 21–41.Google Scholar
Bowler, J.M. et al. 1976. Late Quaternary climates of Australia and New Guinea. Quaternary Research 6: 359–94.Google Scholar
Bowler, J.M. & Hamada, T. 1971. Late Quaternary stratigraphy and radiocarbon chronology of water level fluctuations in Lake Keilambete, Victoria. Nature 232: 330–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowler, J.M. & Wasson, R.J. 1984. Glacial age environments of inland Australia, in Vogel, (ed.): 183–208.Google Scholar
Busby, J.R. 1986. A bioclimatic analysis of Nothofagus cunninghamii (Hook.) Oerst. in southeastern Australia, Australian Journal of Ecology 11: 1–7.Google Scholar
Busby, J.R. 1991. BIOCLIM — a bioclimatic: analysis and prediction system, in Margules, C.R. & Austin, M.P. (ed.), Nature conservation: cost effective biological surveys and data analysis: 64–8. Melbourne: CSIRO.Google Scholar
Churchill, D.M. 1968. The distribution and prehistory of Eu calyptus diversicolor F.Muell., E. marginata Donn. ex Sm. and E. calophylla R. Br. in relation to rainfall, Australian Journal of Botany 16: 125–51.Google Scholar
CLLMAP PROJECT MEMBERS. 1981. Seasonal reconstruction of the earth’s surface at the Last Glacial Maximum, Geological Society of America Map and Chart Series MC-36.Google Scholar
COHMAP MEMBERS. 1988. Climatic changes of the last 18,000 years: observations and model simulations. Science 241: 1043–52.Google Scholar
Colhoun, E.A. & Peterson, J.A. 1986. Quaternary landscape evolution and the cryosphere: research progress from Sahul to Australian Antarctica. Australian Geographical Studies 24: 145–67.Google Scholar
Colhoun, E.A. van de Geer, G. & Fitzsimmons, S.J. 1991. Late glacial and Holoce.ne vegetation history at Governor Bog. King Valley, western Tasmania, Australia, Journal of Quaternary Science 6: 55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costin, A.B. 1972. Carbon-14 dates from the Snowy Mountains area, south-eastern Australia, and their interpretation. Quaternary Research 2: 579–90.Google Scholar
Crowley, G.M. & Kershaw, A.P. 1994. Late Quaternary environmental change and human impact around Lake Bolac, western Victoria, Australia, Journal of Quaternary Science 9: 367–77.Google Scholar
D’Costa, D.M., Edney, P. Kershaw, A.P & De Deckker, P. 1989. Late Quaternary paiaeoecology of Tower Hill, Victoria, Australia, Journal of Biogeography 16: 461–82.Google Scholar
De Deckker, P., Correge, T. & Head, J. 1991. Late Pleistocene record of cyclic eolian activity from tropical Australia suggesting the Younger Dryas is not an unusual climatic event, Geology 19: 602–605.Google Scholar
Dodson, J.R. 1987. Mire development and environmental change, Barrington Tops, New South Wales, Quaternary Research 27: 561–85.Google Scholar
Dodson, J.R., Greenwood, P.W. & Jones, R.L. 1986. Holocene forest and wetland dynamics at Barrington Tops, New South Wales, Journal of Biogeography 13: 561–85.Google Scholar
Donnelly, T. & Wasson, R. (ed.). 1989. CLIMANZ 3. Canberra: CSIRO.Google Scholar
Edwards, R.L. et al. 1993. A large drop in atmospheric ,14C/12C and reduced melting in the Younger Dryas, documented with 2230Th ages of corals, Science 360: 962–8.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G. 1989. A 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record: influence of glacial melting rates on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation, Nature 342: 637–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, T.F. 1994. The future eaters. Sydney: Reed.Google Scholar
Flannery, T.F. & Gott, B. 1984. The Spring Creek locality, southwestern Victoria, a late surviving megafaunal assemblage, Australian Zoologist 21: 385–422.Google Scholar
Frankel, D. 1993. Pleistocene chronological structures and explanations: a challenge, in Smith, et al. (ed.): 24–33.Google Scholar
Grichuk, V.P. 1984. Late Pleistocene vegetation history, in Velichko, A.A. (ed.), Late Quaternary environments of the Soviet Union: 155–78. Minneapolis (MN): University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Haberle, S. 1994. Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams: problems and prospects for late Quaternary paly-nology in New Guinea, in Hather, J.G. (ed.), Tropical palynology: applications and new developments: 172–201. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P. 1989. Lake-level records from Australia and New Guinea. UNGI Papport 72. Department of Physical Geography, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P. & Dodson, J. 1993. Climates of Australia and New Guinea since 18,000 yr Bp, in Wright, et al. (ed.): 265–93.Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P. et al. 1984. A climatic model of the last glacial/ interglacial transition based on palaeotemperature and palaeohydrological evidence, in Vogel, (ed.): 21–34.Google Scholar
Head, L. 1989. Prehistoric Aboriginal impacts on Australian vegetation: an assessment of the evidence, Australian Geographer 20: 36–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hope, G.S. 1976. The vegetation history of Mt Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea, Journal of Ecology 64: 627–63.Google Scholar
Hope, G.S. 1989. Climatic implications of timberline changes in Australasia from 30,000 yr BP to present, in Donnelly, & Wasson, (ed.): 91–9.Google Scholar
Hope, G.S. & Peterson, J.A. 1975. Glaciation and vegetation in the high New Guinea mountains, in Suggate, & Cresswcll, (ed.): 155–62.Google Scholar
Hopkins, M.S. et al. 1993. Charcoal evidence of the spatial extent of the Eucalyptus woodland expansions and rainforest contractions in north Queensland during the late Pleistocene, Journal of Biogeography 20: 357–72.Google Scholar
Horton, D.R. 1982. The burning question: Aborigines, fire and Australian ecosystems, Mankind 13: 237–51.Google Scholar
Horton, D.R. 1984. Red kangaroos: last of the Australian megafauna, in Martin, P.S. & Klein, R.G. (ed.), Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution: 639–80. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Kenyon, C.E. 1989. A late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeoecologicai record from Boulder Flat, East Gippsland. Unpublished BSc.(Hons.) thesis, Department of Botany, Monash University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. 1976. A late Pleistocene and Holocene pollen diagram from Lynch’s Crater, nortlteast Queensland, Australia, New Phytologist 77: 469–98.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. 1979. Local pollen deposition in aquatic sediments on the Atherton Tableland, northeastern Queensland, Australia, Australian Journal of Ecology 4: 253–63.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. 1989. Was there a ‘Great Australian Arid Period’?, Search 20: 89–92.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. 1993. Quantitative palaeoclimatic estimates from bioclimatic analyses of taxa recorded in pollen diagrams, Quaternary Australasia 11: 61–4.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. & Bulman, D. In press. A preliminary application of the analogue approach to the interpretation of late Quaternary pollen spectra from southeastern Australia, Quaternary International.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P., Bulman, D. & Busby, J.R 1994. An examination of modern and pre-European settlement pollen samples from southeastern Australia: assessment of their application to quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation and climate, Beview of Paleobotany and Palynology 82: 83–96.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. & Nix, H.A. 1988. Quantitative palaeoclimatic estimates from pollen taxa using bioclimatic profiles of extant taxa, Journal of Biogeography 15: 589–602.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. 1989. The use of bioclimatic envelopes for estimation of quantitative palaeoclimatic values, in Donnelly, & Wasson, (ed.): 78–85.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. & Strickland, K.M. 1989. The development of alpine vegetation on the Australian mainland, in Good, R. (ed.), The scientific significance of the Australian Alps: 113–26. Canberra: Australian Academy of Science.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. et al. 1993. Identification, classification and evaluation of peatlands in Victoria. Melbourne: Dept of Geography&Environmental Science, Monash University.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P. In press. The contribution of humans to past biomass burning in the tropics, in Clark, J.S. (ed.), Sediment records of biomass burning and global change. Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E. & Street-Perrott, F.A. 1985. Milankovich forcing of fluctuations in the level of tropical lakes from 18 to 0 kyr BP, Nature 317: 130–34.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G Lu, Y. & Head, J. 1990. Reconnaissance thermolu-minescence dating of northern Australian coastal dune systems, Quaternary Research 34: 169–85.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P.J. 1991. A quantitative estimate of early Holocene climates in southeastern Victoria derived from a bioclimatic analysis of Brasenia schreberi Gmel. BA(Hons.) thesis, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Lourandos, H. 1983. Intensification: a late Pleistocene-Hoiocene archaeological sequence from southwestern Victoria, Archaeology in Oceania 18: 81–94.Google Scholar
Lljly, J. 1993. Holocene environments near Lake Tyrrell, semi-arid northwestern Victoria, Australia, Journal of Biogeography 20: 587–98.Google Scholar
Mcglone, M.S Kershaw, A.P. & Markgraf, V. 1992. El Nino/ Southern Oscillation climatic variability in Australasian and South American paleoenviroiimental records, in Diaz, H.F. & Markgraf, V. (ed.), El Nino: historical and puleoclimatic aspects of the Southern Oscillation: 435–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mckenzie, G.M. & Busby, J.R. 1992. A quantitative estimate of Holocene climate using a bioclimatic profile of Nothofagus cunninghamii (Hook.) Oerst., fournal of Bio-geography 19: 531–40.Google Scholar
Macphail, M.K. 1979. Vegetation and climates in southern Tasmania since the Last Glaciation, Quaternary Research 11: 306–41.Google Scholar
Macphail, M.K. 1983. The early to middle Holocene Pomaderris maximum in southeastern Australia, in Chappell, J.M.A. & Grind-rod, A. (ed.), CLIMANZ 1: 105–6. Canberra: Dept of Biogeography&Geomorphology, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Macphail, M.K. & Hope, G.S. 1985. Late Holocene mire development in montane southeastern Australia: a sensitive climatic indicator, Search 15: 344–9.Google Scholar
Markgraf, V., Bradbury, J.P. & Busby, J.R. 1986. Palaeoclimates in southwestern Tasmania during the last 13,000 years, Palaios 1: 368–80.Google Scholar
Markgraf, V. et al. 1992. Evolution of late Pleistocene and Holoceme climates in the circum-South Pacific land areas, Climate Dynamics 6: 193–211.Google Scholar
Martin, A.R.H. 1986. Late Glacial and Holocene alpine pollen diagrams from the Kosciusco National Park, New South Wales, Australia, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 47: 367–409.Google Scholar
Martin, H.A. 1973. Palynology and historical ecology of some cave excavations in the Australian Nullarbor, Australian Journal of Botany 21: 283–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nanson, G.C. et al. 1991. Comparative uranium-thorium and thermoluminesence dating of weathered Quaternary alluvium in the tropics of northern Australia, Quaternary Research 35: 347–66.Google Scholar
Nanson, G.C. In press. Climate and moisture-regime changes in Australia. 14th INQUA Congress, Berlin, 1995 Abstracts.Google Scholar
Newsome, J.C. & Pickett, E.J. 1993. Palynology and palaeoclimatic implications of two Holocene sequences from southwestern Australia, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclima-tology, Paiaeoecology 101: 245–61.Google Scholar
Nix, H.A. & Kalma, J.D. 1972. Climate as a dominant control in the biogeography of northern Australia and New Guinea, in Walker, D. (ed.), Bridge and barrier: the natural and cultural history of Torres Strait: 61–92. Canberra: RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Ohkouchi, N., Kawamljra, K. Nakamura, T. & Taira, A. 1994. Small changes in the sea surface temperature during the last 20,000 years: molecular evidence from the western tropical Pacific, Geophysical Research Letters 21: 2207–10.Google Scholar
Pardok, C. 1993. The Pleistocene is still with us: analytical constraints and possibilities for the study of ancient human remains in archaeology, in Smith, et al. (ed.): 81–94.Google Scholar
Plttock, J. 1989. Palaeoenvironments of the Mt. Disappointment Plateau (Kinglake West, Victoria) from the late Pleistocene. Unpublished BSc.(Hons.) thesis, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Prentice, I.C., Guiot, J. & Harrison, S.P. 1992. Mediterranean vegetation, lake levels and palaeoclimate at the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature 360: 658–60.Google Scholar
Rind, D. et al l986. The impact of cold North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures on climatic implications for the Younger Dryas cooling (11-10 k), Chinate Dynamics 1: 3–33.Google Scholar
Rognon, P. & Williams, M.A.J. 1977. Late Quaternary climatic changes in Australia and North Africa: a preliminary interpretation, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Pal-aeoecoiogy 21: 285–327.Google Scholar
Ross, A., Donnelly, T. & Wasson, R. 1992. The peopling of the arid zone: human-environment interactions, in Dodson, J. (ed.), The naive lands: 76–114. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J. 1992. A Holocene pollen record from lowland tropical Australia, Holocene 2: 107–16.Google Scholar
Shulmeister, J. & Lees, B.G. In press. Pollen evidence from tropical Australia for the onset of an ENSO dominated climate at circa 4000 b.p., Holocene.Google Scholar
Singh, G. 1981. Late Quaternary pollen records and seasonal palaeoclimates of Lake Frome, South Australia, Hydrobiologia 82: 419–30.Google Scholar
Singh, G. & Luly, J. 1991. Changes in vegetation and seasonal climate since the last full glacial at Lake Frome, South Australia, Palaeogeography, Paiaeoclimatology, Paiaeo-ecology 84: 75–86.Google Scholar
Smith, M.A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.). 1993. Sahul in review. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 24.Google Scholar
Thomas, I. & Hope, G. 1994. An example of Holocene vegetation stability from Camerons Lagoon, a near treeiine site on the Central Plateau, Australian fournal of Ecology 19: 150–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torgersen, T. et al. 1988. Late Quaternary environments of the Carpentaria Basin, Australia, Palaeogeography, Paiaeoclimatology. Paiaeoecology 67: 245–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van de Geer, G., Heusser, L.E. Lynch-Stieglitz, J. & Charles, C.D. 1994. Palaeoenvironments of Tasmania inferred from a 575 Ka marine pollen record, Palynology 18: 33–4.Google Scholar
Vogel, J.C. (ed.). 1984. Late Cainozoic palaeoclimates of the Southern Hemisphere. Rotterdam: Balkema.Google Scholar
Walker, D. & Chen, Y. 1987. Palynological light on tropical rainforest dynamics, Quaternary Science Reviews 6: 77–92.Google Scholar
Walker, D. & Flenley, J.R. 1979. Late Quaternary vegetationai history of the Enga Province of upland Papua New Guinea, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 286:265–344.Google Scholar
Walker, D. & Hope, G.S. 1982. Late Quaternary vegetation history, in Gressitt, J.L. (ed.), Biogeography and ecology of New Guinea: 263–85. The Hague: W. Junk.Google Scholar
Wasson, R.J. 1986. Geomorphology and Quaternary history of the Australian continental dunefields, Geographical Review of Japan 59: 55–67.Google Scholar
Wasson, R.J. 1989. Desert dune building, dust raising and palaeoclimate in the Southern Hemisphere during the last 280,000 years, in Donnelly, & Wasson, (ed.): 123–37.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III et al. 1993. Climatic changes during the past 18,000 years: regional syntheses, mechanisms and causes, in Wright, et al. (ed.): 514–35.Google Scholar
Williams, M.A.J. et al 1993. Quaternary environments. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D., Thom, B.G. & Chappell, J.M.A. 1985. Development of widespread mangrove swamps in mid-Holocene times in northern Australia. Nature 317: 711–13.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. JR et al. (ed.). 1993. Global climates since the Last Glacial Maximum:. Minneapolis (MN): University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar