A 60 000-year record of environmental change for the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Australia based on the ODP 820 marine core
A 60 000-year record of environmental change for the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Australia based on the ODP 820 marine core
Palynomorphs from the ODP Site 820 marine core have provided a detailed record of terrestrial environmental responses to glacial–interglacial forcing over the last 250 000 years in the Australian Wet Tropics. The development of an accurate geochronological framework for this key sequence has proved challenging. Consequently, different dominant forcing mechanism(s) have been proposed to drive environmental change in the low latitudes. A new chronology for the last 60 000 years, based on accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C) dates of pollen concentrate material and the existing Marine Isotope Stage boundaries (MIS 4 to 1) has been produced. This new chronology provides a robust geochronological framework for interpreting environmental records across the region. In particular, our age model helps to resolve several debates concerning the timing of climatic changes and their impacts on both the marine and the terrestrial systems, as well as possible human arrival and associated impacts on the region's ecosystems. Our findings suggest 14C dating of terrestrial pollen concentrate in marine sediments is a valuable tool for resolving major chronological uncertainties in potentially diagenetically altered marine CaCO3 sediments and should play a role in future multi-dating strategies.
biomass burning, marine isotope stages, marine sediments, pollen concentrate, vegetation change
704-716
Moss, Patrick T.
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Dunbar, Gavin B.
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Thomas, Zoe
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Turney, Chris
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Kershaw, A. Peter
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Jacobsen, Geraldine E.
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2 August 2017
Moss, Patrick T.
c76d9987-97bf-420f-8bfb-967434e6ed3f
Dunbar, Gavin B.
d6d71e38-861d-4442-89a6-4e3b70da1b9c
Thomas, Zoe
4b512d3a-3478-4270-9fdd-61256aa640d3
Turney, Chris
3e47cb6e-c7f5-4cc5-a11c-fc2d8a174b47
Kershaw, A. Peter
5f1c43e4-49ae-40c2-966a-05bb34cf5bc2
Jacobsen, Geraldine E.
4a6f2849-4885-4321-bdee-7d855ae6b1ee
Moss, Patrick T., Dunbar, Gavin B., Thomas, Zoe, Turney, Chris, Kershaw, A. Peter and Jacobsen, Geraldine E.
(2017)
A 60 000-year record of environmental change for the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Australia based on the ODP 820 marine core.
Journal of Quaternary Science, 32 (6), .
(doi:10.1002/jqs.2977).
Abstract
Palynomorphs from the ODP Site 820 marine core have provided a detailed record of terrestrial environmental responses to glacial–interglacial forcing over the last 250 000 years in the Australian Wet Tropics. The development of an accurate geochronological framework for this key sequence has proved challenging. Consequently, different dominant forcing mechanism(s) have been proposed to drive environmental change in the low latitudes. A new chronology for the last 60 000 years, based on accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C) dates of pollen concentrate material and the existing Marine Isotope Stage boundaries (MIS 4 to 1) has been produced. This new chronology provides a robust geochronological framework for interpreting environmental records across the region. In particular, our age model helps to resolve several debates concerning the timing of climatic changes and their impacts on both the marine and the terrestrial systems, as well as possible human arrival and associated impacts on the region's ecosystems. Our findings suggest 14C dating of terrestrial pollen concentrate in marine sediments is a valuable tool for resolving major chronological uncertainties in potentially diagenetically altered marine CaCO3 sediments and should play a role in future multi-dating strategies.
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Published date: 2 August 2017
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We thank the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program/International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) for providing samples from the ODP 820 marine core for palynological analysis and the 14C dating of pollen concentrate samples. This research was supported by grants from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE grants 06129 and 08050). We would also like to thank Helen Bostock, Matthew Ryan and an anonymous reviewer for their comments that greatly improved this paper. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Keywords:
biomass burning, marine isotope stages, marine sediments, pollen concentrate, vegetation change
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 476118
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476118
ISSN: 0267-8179
PURE UUID: caed7411-b217-4ff6-b2d2-a3f8ca39a01e
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Date deposited: 12 Apr 2023 14:24
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:10
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Contributors
Author:
Patrick T. Moss
Author:
Gavin B. Dunbar
Author:
Zoe Thomas
Author:
Chris Turney
Author:
A. Peter Kershaw
Author:
Geraldine E. Jacobsen
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