The assembly of the vegetation near the treeline during the Late Glacial and Holocene in south-central Tasmania

G. A. Astorga; G. J. Jordan; A. Martel-Cea

doi:10.1071/BT24082

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Previous Contents Vol 73(4)

The assembly of the vegetation near the treeline during the Late Glacial and Holocene in south-central Tasmania

G. A. Astorga

^A ^B ^* , G. J. Jordan ^C and A. Martel-Cea ^B ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Instituto Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Austral de Chile, Edificio Emilio Pugín, Avenida Eduardo Morales Miranda, Campus Isla Teja, Valdivia, Chile.

^B Laboratorio de Palinología y reconstrucciones ambientales, Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.

^C Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tas, Australia. Email: greg.jordan@utas.edu.au

^D Corporación Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas CEAZA, Raul Bitran 1305, La Serena, Chile. Email: jmartel.cea@ceaza.cl

^* Correspondence to: giselle.astorga@uach.cl

Handling Editor: Ilaine Silveira Matos

Australian Journal of Botany 73, BT24082 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT24082

Submitted: 11 December 2024 Accepted: 29 April 2025 Published: 29 May 2025

Abstract

Context

In Tasmania, most glacial pollen records suggest treeless conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), but molecular evidence points to glacial survival of tree species in unexpected refugia. Plant macrofossils can help clarify whether woody species survived in local microrefugia or tracked their climatic preferences across the landscape.

Aims

This study investigates vegetation changes near the treeline in south-central Tasmania to understand species survival, dispersal, and community assembly during the Late Glacial–Holocene transition.

Methods

We used the analysis of plant macrofossils from Lake Dobson (1034 m asl) to reconstruct vegetation changes over the past 15,000 years.

Key results

Our findings show that alpine conifers were present in the subalpine area of Lake Dobson by c. 15 thousand calibrated years before present (cal kyr BP) and probably assembled from local microrefugia. Although present in the Late Glacial, species such as Nothofagus cunninghamii increased with the onset of warmer climates in the early Holocene. In contrast, subalpine eucalypts appeared later, c. 8 cal kyr BP. Overall, the results imply that the modern configuration of the vegetation, i.e. Eucalyptus open woodlands, was not reached before ~6 cal kyr BP.

Conclusions

This study has highlighted the variability in plant responses and community assembly during the Late Glacial–Holocene transition, a period of significant environmental change that is not yet well understood in the southern hemisphere.

Implications

Treeline investigations spanning the transition from late-glacial to interglacial conditions allow us to understand how fast plant species responded to past environmental fluctuations and how species may respond to projected climate change.

Keywords: alpine/subalpine vegetation, fossil bryophytes, Holocene, Late Glacial, past vegetation dynamics, plant macrofossils, southern Australia, treeline studies.

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The assembly of the vegetation near the treeline during the Late Glacial and Holocene in south-central Tasmania

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