Southern Westerly Winds submit to the ENSO regime: A multiproxy paleohydrology record from Lake Dobson, Tasmania

Rees, Andrew; Cwynar, Les C.; Fletcher, Michael‐Shawn

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.022

Cited by 34 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The isolation of Flinders Island by rising seas in the early Holocene was followed by continued warming and eventually wetter conditions, with the highest levels of moisture occurring c . 7.0 kcal bp during the mid‐Holocene thermal maximum (Rees et al ., ). Palaeoclimate reconstructions in Australia also suggest that enhanced ENSO activity in the mid‐Holocene resulted in oscillations between wet–dry and warm–cool intervals (Fletcher et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Small levels of microscopic charcoal were recorded in pollen slides during the mid‐Holocene at Middle Patriarch Lagoon and a peak c . 5.0 kcal bp corresponds to a period of high levels of biomass burning evident in palaeoenvironmental records from Tasmania (Rees et al ., ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contrastingly, ENSO became the dominant control on subregional hydroclimatic controls in the late Holocene. The strengthening variability/intensity of ENSO and regional hydroclimatic consequences, typically manifested as wide oscillations between wet and dry intervals and have been well documented during the late Holocene (McGlone et al, 1992;Rodbell et al, 1999;Moy et al, 2002;Conroy et al, 2008;Fletcher & Moreno, 2012;Rees et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aboriginal impacts on fire and vegetation on a Tasmanian island

McWethy

Haberle

Hopf

et al. 2016

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim To evaluate the influence of climate and Aboriginal landscape management on Holocene vegetation and fire activity. Location Flinders Island, Bass Strait, Tasmania where archaeological data document extended periods of human presence and absence over the past 12,000 years. Methods We evaluated climate–human–fire interactions through high‐resolution pollen, charcoal and geochemical analyses of sediment cores from two wetland sites. Proxies for environmental change are qualitatively compared with archaeological data documenting Aboriginal occupation and later abandonment during the mid‐Holocene. Results Warm and dry conditions of the early Holocene combined with anthropogenic ignitions promoted frequent fires that sustained highly fire‐tolerant Eucalyptus savanna. During the mid‐Holocene, when both temperatures and precipitation reached Holocene maxima, archaeological data suggest Aboriginal populations abandoned Flinders Island. At this time, Eucalyptus savanna was replaced by Casuarinaceae and broadleaf forests and fire activity decreased. The late Holocene was marked by a transition to increased incidence of intense fires that was associated with a shift from Casuarinaceae forests to xerophytic scrub dominated by Callitris rhomboidea, a conifer that is sensitive to frequent fires but regenerates well following infrequent fires. Main conclusions Palaeoenvironmental analyses from Flinders Island document significant shifts in fire regimes and vegetation types through the Holocene. In the early Holocene, Aboriginal landscape management played a key role in maintaining open Eucalyptus savanna, a prime habitat for marsupial prey species. Increasing aridity and strengthening of the El Niño Southern Oscillation climate mode during the mid to late Holocene contributed to the cessation of permanent human occupation and concomitant reduction of ignitions. Infrequent fire activity led to the dominance of xerophytes, especially Callitris, a genus adapted to drought and infrequent high‐severity fires. This study highlights how climate change affects the persistence of human populations on islands and the capacity of human‐set fires to create savanna habitats.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aboriginal impacts on fire and vegetation on a Tasmanian island

McWethy

Haberle

Hopf

et al. 2016

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Rees et al . () developed a chironomid‐based model to infer precipitation change in Tasmania, south‐east Australia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of chironomid assemblages to East Asian summer monsoon precipitation variability in northern China since the last deglaciation

Wang

Brooks²,

Chen

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

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We investigate chironomid assemblages in a sediment core from Gonghai Lake, which is located on the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) boundary in northern China, to quantify EASM variability during the past 13.5 ka BP. Six significantly different chironomid assemblage zones indicate that maximum precipitation and water depth occurred in the mid‐Holocene (8270–2700 cal a BP) and the minimum period was the past 1250 years. A modern dataset of 44 lakes near Gonghai Lake was sampled to calibrate the response of chironomid assemblages to precipitation. Our results demonstrate that mean annual precipitation is the most significant environmental variable influencing modern chironomid assemblages in this monsoonal region. Maximum EASM precipitation in the mid‐Holocene, indicated by chironomid assemblages in the monsoon fringe, contrasts with the early Holocene EASM maximum suggested by stalagmite δ18O data from southern China, but is consistent with other evidence. Our findings are compatible with the proposal that the stalagmite δ18O variations in southern China may not reliably reflect the evolution of EASM since the last deglaciation.

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“…In a general sense these impacts are well understood for the Australian environment, with significant land clearance for agriculture, forestry and mining; rapid introduction of exotic species; extinction of native taxa; and the imposition of new fire regimes (Adamson and Fox, 1982;Hobbs and Hopkins, 1990;Benson, 1991;Kirkpatrick, 1999;Bickford and Gell, 2005;Moss et al, 2007;Bickford et al, 2008;Romanin et al, 2016). However, at the regional scale, there are relatively few attempts to examine European impacts using palaeoecological proxies, due to the relatively low-resolution of existing Holocene reconstructions (Kershaw et al, 1994) that often attempt to provide insight into Holocene environments and/or focus on Aboriginal human-environment relationships (e.g., Colhoun and Shimeld, 2012;Ulm, 2013;Fletcher et al, 2014Fletcher et al, , 2015Rees et al, 2015;Mackenzie and Moss, in press for recent publications from Tasmania). Those records that do exist suggest that there is a great deal of regional variation in the timing and nature of ecosystem response to European settlement, with some alterations linked to obvious European impacts, such as land clearance (e.g., Moss et al, 2007), while other ecological alterations are linked to much more subtle changes in land management, particularly the imposition of new fire regimes (e.g., Fletcher et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%