Sediment Deposition and Late Holocene Environmental Change in a Tropical Lowland Basin: Waigani Lake, Papua New Guinea

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 599 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Osborne ◽  
G. S. Humphreys ◽  
N. V. C. Polunin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Sediment Deposition ◽  
Tropical Lowland ◽  
Holocene Environmental Change

scholarly journals Human impacts and Anthropocene environmental change at Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar wetland in Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (40) ◽  
pp. e2022216118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsie E. Long ◽  
Larissa Schneider ◽  
Simon E. Connor ◽  
Niamh Shulmeister ◽  
Janet Finn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mineral Resource ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Wetland Management ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Ramsar Wetland

The impacts of human-induced environmental change that characterize the Anthropocene are not felt equally across the globe. In the tropics, the potential for the sudden collapse of ecosystems in response to multiple interacting pressures has been of increasing concern in ecological and conservation research. The tropical ecosystems of Papua New Guinea are areas of diverse rainforest flora and fauna, inhabited by human populations that are equally diverse, both culturally and linguistically. These people and the ecosystems they rely on are being put under increasing pressure from mineral resource extraction, population growth, land clearing, invasive species, and novel pollutants. This study details the last ∼90 y of impacts on ecosystem dynamics in one of the most biologically diverse, yet poorly understood, tropical wetland ecosystems of the region. The lake is listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance, yet, since initial European contact in the 1930s and the opening of mineral resource extraction facilities in the 1990s, there has been a dramatic increase in deforestation and an influx of people to the area. Using multiproxy paleoenvironmental records from lake sediments, we show how these anthropogenic impacts have transformed Lake Kutubu. The recent collapse of algal communities represents an ecological tipping point that is likely to have ongoing repercussions for this important wetland’s ecosystems. We argue that the incorporation of an adequate historical perspective into models for wetland management and conservation is critical in understanding how to mitigate the impacts of ecological catastrophes such as biodiversity loss.

Holocene Environmental Change, Artiodactyl Abundances, and Human Hunting Strategies in the Great Basin

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Byers ◽  
Jack M. Broughton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Hunting Behavior ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Hunting Strategies ◽  
Bonneville Basin ◽  
Holocene Environmental Change

Despite a deep Great Basin tradition of incorporating paleoenvironmental change within ecologically oriented analyses of past human lifeways, there has been little attention focused on Holocene variation in artiodactyl abundances and the human hunting strategies dependent upon them. Here, we draw upon recently generated paleontological evidence from Homestead Cave of the Bonneville Basin to document a late Holocene artiodactyl population increase. We then use the prey model of foraging theory to predict late Holocene increases in the hunting of artiodactyls, relative to lagomorphs. That prediction is then tested against several fine-grained archaeological records of hunting behavior in the Bonneville Basin, Hogup Cave and Camels Back Cave, and a variety of more coarse-grained faunal records from throughout the Great Basin. Close fits are found between the deductively derived prediction and the empirical records of hunting behavior: dramatic proportional increases in artiodactyl hunting occurred during the late Holocene. The results have far-reaching implications for our understanding of prehistoric human adaptations in the Great Basin.

Late Holocene environmental change in the Howgill Fells, Northwest England

Geomorphology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.C. Chiverrell ◽  
A.M. Harvey ◽  
S.Y. Hunter (née Miller) ◽  
J. Millington ◽  
N.J. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Holocene Environmental Change

Holocene environmental change resets lichen surface dates on Recess Peak glacial deposits in the Sierra Nevada, California

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis A. Scuderi ◽  
Peter J. Fawcett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Tree Line ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Holocene Environmental Change ◽  
Age Estimates

Development of an accurate chronology for glacial deposits in the Sierra Nevada has long been problematic given the lack of suitable organic material for radiocarbon dating. Lichenometry initially appeared promising as ages showed an increase from cirque headwalls to down-canyon moraines. However, while Recess Peak lichen age estimates range from 2 to 3 ka, recent work shows these deposits to be at least 10 ka older. Here, we present evidence for a late Holocene reset of Recess Peak lichen ages by significant post-depositional climate change. Following late-Pleistocene deposition of Recess Peak moraines, warming through the mid-Holocene allowed forests to advance into shallow basins eliminating local inverted tree lines. This produced a partial canopy where shading killed the original post-Pleistocene crustose lichen colonies. Late-Holocene cooling resulted in forest retreat from these basins as alpine tree line fell. Lichens then recolonized the re-exposed Recess Peak deposits. We conclude that while Recess Peak lichen ages are accurate to within the dating uncertainty of the technique, existing lichen ages actually date the timing of post-mid-Holocene cooling and recolonization, and not the original emplacement of these deposits. Thus, applications of Lichenometry should consider post-depositional environmental change when interpreting the meaning of these dates.

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