An Expanded Recent Pollen Database from South-eastern Australia and its Potential for Refinement of Palaeoclimatic Estimates

Donna D'Costa and A. Peter Kershaw

Abstract

Seventy-one pollen spectra from prior to the period of European impact were extracted from fossil pollen diagrams on mainland south-eastern Australia in 1991 to use as a modern reference for refinement of vegetation and climatic histories constructed from the region. This paper presents results of an extension of this recent database to 135 spectra, derived from additional fossil pollen sites on the mainland and also from sites in Tasmania. The sites include those of almost all late Quaternary pollen studies ever undertaken. Estimates of climate for each site, derived by BIOCLIM, have allowed an examination of patterns of representation of individual recorded taxa in relation to regional variation in major climatic parameters. Pollen taxa show variable representation in relation to their inferred presence and abundance in parent vegetation due to differential pollen production and dispersal characteristics. However, patterns of pollen representation do appear to relate, in broad terms, to climatic variation. It is considered that this modern pollen and climate database should lead to more certain interpretation of future pollen records including some quantification of palaeoclimatic conditions.

Australian Journal of Botany 45(3) 583 - 605 (1997) doi:10.1071/BT96046