Two short pollen records from the late Holocene and pre last Glacial of Flinders Island, south eastern Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Ladd ◽  
I. C. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Pollen Records ◽  
South Eastern Australia

An assessment of historic human impact on south-eastern Australian environmental systems, using late Holocene rates of environmental change

2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 455 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Dodson ◽  
Stuart D. Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Relative Equilibrium ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Environmental Systems ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
South Eastern Australia

The late Holocene of south-eastern Australia was typified by stable climate, vegetation and sedimentary regimes, in relative equilibrium with Aboriginal land use and fire management. The arrival of Europeans, with the associated vegetation clearance, introduction of exotic plants and animals, notably for grazing and agriculture and a change in fire regimes, resulted in changes in vegetation and sedimentary patterns. Impacts varied in type and magnitude through the region and evidence of impacts that is preserved varies with sedimentary setting. Here we take a number of proxy measures of vegetation change, fire history, erosion and weathering from six sediment sections across south-eastern Australia and use an index to measure overall rate of change. This shows that the vegetation and environmental systems of south-eastern Australia have been very sensitive to human impact following European settlement.

Late Pleistocene Megafauna and Archaeology from Cuddie Springs, South-eastern Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 275-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Field ◽  
John Dodson
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
The Last Glacial ◽  
South Eastern Australia

The Cuddie Springs site in south-eastern Australia provides the first evidence of an unequivocal association of megafauna with humans for this continent. Cuddie Springs has been known as a fossil megafauna locality for over a century, but its archaeological record has only recently been identified. Cuddie Springs is an open site, with the fossil deposits preserved in a claypan on the floor of an ancient ephemeral lake. Investigations revealed a stratified deposit of human occupation and fossil megafauna, suggesting a temporal overlap and an active association of megafauna with people in the lead up to the Last Glacial Maximum, when conditions were more arid than the present day. Two distinct occupation phases have been identified and are correlated to the hydrology of the Cuddie Springs lake. When people first arrived at Cuddie Springs, sometime before 30,000 BP, the claypan on the lake floor was similar to a waterhole, with five species of megafauna identified. Flaked stone artefacts were found scattered through this level. After the lake dried, there was human occupation of the claypan. The resource base broadened to include a range of plant foods. Megafauna appear to be just one of a range of food resources exploited during this period. A return to ephemeral conditions resulted in only periodic occupation of the site with megafauna disappearing from the record around 28,000 BP. The timing of overlap and association of megafauna with human occupation is coincident with the earliest occupation sites in this region. The archaeological evidence from Cuddie Springs suggests an opportunistic exploitation of resources and no specialised strategies for hunting megafauna. Disappearance of megafauna is likely to be a consequence of climatic change during the lead up to the Last Glacial Maximum and human activities may have compounded an extinction process well under way.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document