Late Quaternary Biomes of Australia, South East Asia and the Pacific (SEAPAC) region

Pickett, E.1, 2*, Harrison, S.P.2, Hope, G.3, Harle, K.4, Dodson, J.R.1, Kershaw, A.P.5, Prentice, I.C.2, Backhouse, J.6, Colhoun, E.A.7, D’Costa, D.5, Flenley, J.8, Grindrod, J.5, Haberle, S. 5, Hassell, C.9, Kenyon, C.10, Macphail, M.5, Martin, H.11, Martin, A.H.12, McKenzie, M. 5, Newsome, J.C.13, Penny, D. 5, Powell, J.14, Raine, I.15, Southern, W.16, Sutra, J.P.2, 17, Thomas, I.11, van der Kaars, S. 5 and Ward, J.18

  1. *Department of Geography, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6907

  2. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Postfach 10 01 64, 07701 Jena, Germany

  3. Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, PO Box 4, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia

  4. Environmental Radiochemistry Laboratory, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia

  5. Centre for Palynology and Palaeoecology, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia

  6. Minerals and Energy Department of Geological Surveys, Perth, Western Australia

  7. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

  8. Geography Department, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

  9. Department of Botany, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6907

  10. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia

  11. School of Botany, University of New South Wales, PO Box 1, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia, 2033

  12. 2A Birdwood St, Ryde, NSW 2112, Australia

  13. Murdoch School of Environmental Science, Murdoch Univeristy, Western Australia

  14. Hawkesbury, Nepean Catchment Management Trust, PO Box 556, Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, 2756

  15. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

  16. 8 Noala St, Aranda, ACT, Australia, 2614

  17. French Institute of Pondicherry, 78 Daumesnil, F- Paris, France

  18. Box 2592, Auburn AL 36831, USA

The region encompassing Australia, South East Asia, and the Pacific (SEAPAC) is climatically and physiographically diverse. Understanding the role of long term climatic changes on the evolution of this diverse flora has motivated the reconstruction of its vegetation history using pollen records on a variety of timescales. However, the very diversity of the flora makes it difficult to make objective comparisons between vegetation records from different subregions. Neither do previous palaeo-vegetation syntheses encompass the whole of the SEAPAC region.

This paper represents a first attempt to map the vegetation of the SEAPAC region from pollen data using an objective method based on the recognition of biomes characterised by a unique assemblage of plant functional types (PFTs). The method is broadly successful. Tests using 414 modern pollen surface samples showed that the biomization scheme is capable of reproducing the broad scale patterns of vegetation distribution. The changes in biome distribution at 6ka compared to present are small, implying that the climate of the mid-Holocene was not significantly different from present. The changes in biome distribution at 18ka are more striking, and suggest that the SEAPAC region was drier than today and, at least in the tropics, colder. These reconstructions are consistent with earlier, subjective reconstructions of vegetation and climate changes in the SEAPAC region. This work also extends the current BIOME 6000 (Global Palaeovegetation Mapping Project) synthesis and provides a unique data set for the evaluation of climate and earth system models.