Understanding past climate variation and environmental change for the future of an iconic landscape – K'gari Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Gontz, Allen; Moss, Patrick; Sloss, Craig R.; Petherick, Lynda; McCallum, Adrian; Shapland, Felicity

doi:10.1080/14486563.2014.1002120

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Gontz et al (2015) provide an overview of the physical geography to expose the global record of environmental data archived in the physical framework of the island. The team reconstructs records of storm frequency and relate these changes to climate variability indicating extreme vulnerability to sea-level rise and storm frequency projected by climate predictions.…”

Section: Valuing the Naturalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future of an icon: K'gari-Fraser Island, climate change and social expectations

Wardell‐Johnson

2015

Australasian Journal of Environmental Management

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Section: Valuing the Naturalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future of an icon: K'gari-Fraser Island, climate change and social expectations

Wardell‐Johnson

2015

Australasian Journal of Environmental Management

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“…This warmer period is followed at ~5 ka by the onset of large scale climate variability caused by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena, and a trend toward drier conditions (Haug et al 2001;Gontz et al 2015), followed by an abrupt increase in ENSO magnitude ~3 ka years ago (Donders et al 2007). At this time (~3000 years ago) palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from Fraser Island show the development of a heterogeneous and mosaic vegetation, which seems to be linked to a rise in climate variability and increased ENSO activity (Donders et al 2006;Smith 2016).…”

Section: Background and Gaps In Present State On Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…years (Peace 2001;Yizhaq et al 2013;Gontz et al 2015;Moss et al 2015) (Srivastava et al 2013). Vegetation of Fraser Island is laterally zoned following the contours of successive parabolic dune systems that run parallel to the islands coastline (Donders et al 2006), with younger parabolic dunes to the east.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…E.minus is a non woody species that is associated with peaks in micro charcoal suggesting broad scale burning in the region (Gontz et al 2015). At 1840 AD the record shows a substantial peak in charcoal levels which drops off rapidly coinciding with the arrival of Europeans on the island and the establishment of forestry on the island.…”

Section: Fire and Empodisma Minus Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fraser Island (K'gari the Island's Aboriginal name), lies along the eastern coast of Australia and is the world's largest sand island that developed over the last 800,000 years (Peace 2001;Yizhaq et al 2013;Gontz et al 2015;Moss et al 2015 Island. Nutrient availability increases with the age of the sand and amount of detritus initially then declines due to leaching through a retrogressive succession process.…”

Section: Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Stewart¹

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The focus of the study is to investigate regional and local past, present and future changes in fire regimes of tropical and subtropical Queensland and shifts in vegetation composition and structure. Fire has been shown to be a significant driver of ecosystem evolution, composition and distribution through its impact on biota. Within Australia fire has long played a role in shaping the landscape, with increased fire frequency, associated with heightened aridity, over the last five million years promoting the expansion of fire adapted sclerophyll vegetation across the continent. Evidence of anthropogenic fires date back to approximately 50 ka (thousand years ago) with the advent of Aboriginal occupation and fire-stick practices, however with the arrival of Europeans there was a decline in fire frequencies, related to fire exclusion that observes an increase in fire intensity and severity.A review of the introduction of tropical African perennial grasses to improve grazing in tropical and semi-arid regions of northern Australia was also undertaken. This introduction has resulted in some exotic grass species such as Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), Mission grass (Cenchrus polystachios syn. Pennisetum polystachion) and Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus syn. Panicum maximum Jacq. var. trichoglume) becoming invasive pests. Invasion by these exotic grasses has serious implications for ecosystem function, altering fire regime dynamics through increasing the distribution and abundance of fine fuels. With increased fine fuels there is a serious danger that there will be an increase in fire frequency and intensity resulting in higher severity burns and higher vegetation mortality, with possible local species extinctions and habitat modification or change.Macro charcoal and pollen records were used from Fraser Island, subtropical eastern Australia to identify fire and vegetation histories, which show substantial temporal and spatial changes in past fire frequencies and vegetation composition for the last 24,000 years. Pollen records show pyrophobic rainforest taxa dominated and then declined while pyrogenic sclerophyll arboreal taxa increased correlating with an increase in fire frequencies, and a dryer climate. This was followed by a dramatic increase in Restionaceae values at the beginning of the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) that dropped off as a marked peak in mangroves, primarily the Rhizophoraceae and Melaleuca iii occurred, possibly linked with sea level rise approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago, which was also associated with lower fire frequencies. Restionaceae then recovered from around 2 ka to the European settlement period, when a dramatic change in fire frequency occurred linked to fire suppression and was followed by vegetation thickening (i.e. increase in arboreal taxa) in the mid to late 20 th century. Identifying past and present fire regimes and vegetation composition are important for fire modelling as this provides possible scenario based probabilities for changes in fire frequency and intensity....

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Discovered and disappearing? Conservation genetics of a recently named Australian carnivorous marsupial

Mutton

Fuller

Tucker

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Five new species within the Australian carnivorous marsupial genus Antechinus have recently been named, at least two of which are threatened. Important facets of the habitat use and extinction risk of one of these new species, the buff‐footed antechinus, A. mysticus, are not well understood. Previous research has suggested that the species utilizes a broad range of inter‐connected forest habitats in southeast Queensland (Qld), Australia. Based on this potentially connected habitat, we predicted that A. mysticus should have low population genetic structure, particularly in relation to its congener, the spatially restricted, high altitude, closed‐forest A. subtropicus. We genotyped nine microsatellite loci for six populations of A. mysticus, sampled throughout their known range in eastern Australia, and compared them with four proximate populations of A. subtropicus. Surprisingly, genetic structuring among southeast Qld populations of A. mysticus was moderate to high and similar to that between A. subtropicus populations. We postulate that all A. mysticus populations have declined recently (<100 generations), particularly the northernmost southeast Qld population, which may be at risk of extinction. Our results suggest that A. mysticus is limited to a more scattered and fragmented distribution than previously thought and may be in decline. The identification of population decline in this study and recently in other Antechinus suggests the extinction risk of many Australian mammals should be reassessed.

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Understanding past climate variation and environmental change for the future of an iconic landscape – K'gari Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Cited by 11 publications

References 80 publications

Future of an icon: K'gari-Fraser Island, climate change and social expectations

Future of an icon: K'gari-Fraser Island, climate change and social expectations

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Discovered and disappearing? Conservation genetics of a recently named Australian carnivorous marsupial

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