Browsing by Author "Heijnis, H"
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- Item12th South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association Conference (SPERA 2012)(Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2012-10-16) Heijnis, H; Payne, TE; Lickiss, J; Bruhn, F; Zettinig, M; Zawadzki, A; Hoffmann, EL; Child, DPWelcome to the 12th South Pacific Radioactivity Association Conference, welcome back in Sydney. The conference will be hosted by the Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. The program for the 12th SPERA conference is very exciting, with key-note speakers setting the scene for a diverse range of sessions. The conference will conclude by offering the participants a tour of ANSTO’s new facilities. We would like to thank Jorden Lickiss for her tireless efforts in conference management. We also like to thank our sponsors AINSE, ANSTO and Nucletron for their financial support. We look forward to your participation and a successful conference.
- ItemAnother piece of the Southern Hemispheric puzzle: developing a high-resolution climate record for multiple glacial cycles in eastern Australia(International Union For Quaternary Research (INQUA), 2015-08-01) Kermode, SJ; Shulmeister, J; Mueller, D; Goralewski, J; Gadd, PS; Chang, J; Heijnis, H; Cohen, TJUnderstanding likely climate change and subsequent environmental responses is critical to our long term ability to manage and mitigate such changes. Investigations of previous responses to notable (either abrupt or large scale) climate change provides boundary conditions and targets that can be used to both validate and parameterize the climate models used to predict future change. High-resolution records from the Southern Hemisphere lag considerably behind available data from the Northern hemisphere, and are particularly sparse in Australia. Given that most (>80%) of Australia’s population, industry and agriculture lie in the mid-latitudes between Southern Queensland and Tasmania, one might expect that past climate changes from this region are well understood, but this is not the case. Long, high resolution records are needed to address this gap. An 11 m core has been collected from a permanent swamp/lagoon (Mountain Lagoon), in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, which appears to span at least one complete glacial cycle. This is potentially the most continuous record recovered from this part of SE Australia. Much of the record is at least moderately organic and preliminary sedimentary and Itrax data indicate that significant environmental changes are recorded. Multi-proxy investigations including pollen, diatoms, charcoal and phytoliths are planned and the chronology will be underpinned using OSL and radiocarbon dating. The focus of the investigation will be to develop climatologies for the Sydney region during the last glacial cycle. The Mountain Lagoon project will consequently contribute to understanding how climate systems in SE Australia respond to large scale global change on Milankovitch time scales. By determining the climate response in Australia to these changes we will help predict future response in rainfall and temperature to human-induced and natural climate change.
- ItemAssessing soil remobilisation in catchments using a 137Cs-sediment hillslope model(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2008-12) Simms, AD; Woodroffe, CD; Jones, BG; Heijnis, H; Harrison, JJ; Mann, RASoil redistribution studies are important, especially in water supply catchments, because the rate at which denudation is occurring has implications for offsite water quality. However, the extent to which soil is redistributed within the landscape can be difficult to determine. This challenge can be overcome using fallout caesium-137 (137Cs). This paper describes the rates of soil loss and remobilisation in two sub-catchments within the Sydney Basin region, namely Kembla and Kentish Creeks, which drain to the Cordeaux reservoir. The total inventories of 137Cs in catchment soils were determined, a 137Cs-regression equation and a theoretical diffusion and migration model were used to established relationships between 137Cs inventories and the rates of soil loss. These relationships revealed relatively low occurrence of soil loss in Kentish Creek, but two slopes in the Kembla Creek sub-catchment had losses that appear to be moderate. However, there was no clear evidence to suggest whether slopes in upper and lower reaches of catchments had specific patterns of soil remobilisation. Qualitative categorisation of the slope elements using a 137Cs-sediment hillslope model can be a useful sentinel for land users and decision makers even if absolute rates of soil loss or gain are not certain. The findings suggest that sediments mobilised in the study sub-catchments are not likely to impact significantly on the water quality in the Cordeaux reservoir. © 2008, Taylor & Francis (Routledge).
- ItemBackground measurements in the Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Centre Low-Level Gamma Laboratory at ANSTO(Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2012-10-18) Fierro, D; Heijnis, HAt SPERA 2010, the results of a study on the low-level building materials including a special concrete mix for the development of a basement gamma spectrometry laboratory at Ansto were presented. Since the completion of the Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Centre using these ideal materials at ANSTO in early 2012, there has been a reduction of approximately 30% in the background counts. In this presentation, the success in achieving the reductions will be compared to the previous gamma laboratory setting. This will reflected particularly through the radionuclides tested using an IAEA Quality Assurance method, as well as the counts per second across a broad energy range for the detectors in the laboratory.
- ItemBog burst in the eastern Netherlands triggered by the 2.8 kyr BP climate event(University of New South Wales and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2015-07-09) Heijnis, H; van Geel, B; Charman, DJ; Thompson, G; Engels, SNot provided to the ANSTO Library.
- ItemBog burst in the eastern Netherlands triggered by the 2.8 kyr BP climate event(Sage Journals, 2014-11) van Geel, B; Heijnis, H; Charman, DJ; Thompson, G; Engels, SThe nature and cause of the so-called 2.8 kyr BP event have been a subject of much debate. Peat sequences have provided much of the evidence for this event, but the process link between climate and peatland response is not well understood. Multiproxy, high-resolution analysis of a core from Bargerveen in the eastern Netherlands based on pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, testate amoebae and geochemistry identified an abrupt shift from relatively dry to extremely wet conditions. Radiocarbon-based wiggle-match dating (WMD) and biostratigraphy based on the pollen record show that this shift in local hydrology occurred around 2800 cal. yr BP. We interpret an erosional hiatus lasting up to 950 years immediately prior to this, as the effect of a bog burst after excessive rainfall. This phenomenon was not limited to our sampling location but occurred over a large part of the former Bargerveen. Peat at the hiatus contains microfossils that reflect temporary eutrophication as a consequence of local fires and secondary decomposition because of increased drainage after the erosion event. Our data show how detailed multiproxy analyses can elucidate the past response of peatlands to changing climate and suggest that the climatic change in northwest Europe at this time caused major non-linear disruption to these ecosystems. © 2014, © SAGE Publications.
- ItemBuilding a future on knowledge from the past: what paleo-science can reveal about climate change and its potential impacts in Australia(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, 2005-06) Harle, KJ; Etheridge, DM; Whetton, P; Jones, R; Hennessy, K; Goodwin, ID; Brooke, BP; van Ommen, TD; Barbetti, M; Barrows, TT; Chappell, J; De Deckker, P; Fink, D; Gagan, MK; Haberle, SG; Heijnis, H; Henderson-Sellers, A; Hesse, PP; Hope, GS; Kershaw, P; Nicholls, NIn Australia, high quality instrumental climate records only extend back to the late 19th century and therefore only provide us with a brief snapshot of our climate, its mean state and its short-term variability. Palaeo-records extend our knowledge of climate back beyond the instrumental record, providing us with the means of testing and improving our understanding of the nature and impacts of climate change and variability in Australia. There is a vast body of palaeo-records available for the Australian region (including Antarctica), ranging from continuous records of sub-decadal up to millennial scale (such as those derived from tree rings, speleothems, corals, ice cores, and lake and marine sediments) through to discontinuous records representing key periods in time (such as coastal deposits, palaeo-channels, glacial deposits and dunes). These records provide a large array of evidence of past atmospheric, terrestrial and marine environments and their varying interactions through time. There are a number of key ways in which this evidence can, in turn, be used to constrain uncertainties about climate change and its potential impacts in Australia.
- ItemCentennial-scale trends in the Southern Annular Mode revealed by hemisphere-wide fire and hydroclimatic trends over the past 2400 years(Geological Society of America, 2018-02-15) Fletcher, MS; Benson, B; Bowman, DMJS; Gadd, PS; Heijnis, H; Mariani, M; Saunders, KM; Wolfe, BB; Zawadzki, AMillennial-scale latitudinal shifts in the southern westerly winds (SWW) drive changes in Southern Ocean upwelling, leading to changes in atmospheric CO2 levels, thereby affecting the global climate and carbon cycle. Our aim here is to understand whether century-scale shifts in the SWW also drive changes in atmospheric CO2 content. We report new multiproxy lake sediment data from southwest Tasmania, Australia, that show centennial-scale changes in vegetation and fire activity over the past 2400 yr. We compare our results with existing data from southern South America and reveal synchronous and in-phase centennial-scale trends in vegetation and fire activity between southwest Tasmania and southern South America over the past 2400 yr. Interannual to centennial-scale rainfall anomalies and fire activity in both these regions are significantly correlated with shifts in the SWW associated with the Southern Annular Mode (SAM; atmospheric variability of the Southern Hemisphere). Thus, we interpret the centennial-scale trends we have identified as reflecting century-scale SAM-like shifts in the SWW over the past 2400 yr. We identify covariance between our inferred century-scale shifts in the SWW and Antarctic ice core CO2 values, demonstrating that the SWW-CO2 relationship operating at a millennial scale also operates at a centennial scale through the past 2400 yr. Our results indicate a possible westerly-driven modulation of recent increases in global atmospheric CO2 content that could potentially exacerbate current greenhouse gas–related warming. © 2021 Geological Society of America
- ItemChanges in biomass burning mark the onset of an ENSO-influenced climate regime at 42°S in southwest Tasmania, Australia(Elsevier, 2015-06-15) Fletcher, MS; Benson, A; Heijnis, H; Gadd, PS; Cwynar, L; Rees, ABHWe use macroscopic charcoal and sediment geochemistry analysis of two proximal upper montane lakes located at 42°S in southwest Tasmania, Australia, to test the role of the southern hemisphere westerly winds (SWW) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in governing the climate of this sector of the southern mid-to high-latitudes. Inter-annual climate anomalies in the study area are driven by changes in both ENSO and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM - an index that describes seasonal to decadal shifts in the SWW), making it an ideal location to test assumptions about the varying influence of the SWW and ENSO, two important components of the global climate system, through time. We find multi-millennial scale trends in fire activity that are remarkably consistent with trends in hydroclimate reconstructed at the same latitude in southern South America, providing empirical support for the notion of zonally symmetric changes in the SWW governing the climate at this latitude in the Southern Hemisphere between 12 and 5 cal ka BP. A transition from multi-millennial scale to sub-millennial scale trends in fire activity occurs after ca 5 cal ka BP in concert with the onset of high frequency and amplitude ENSO variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean region. We conclude that the onset of sub-millennial scale trends in ENSO drove changes in fire activity in our study region over the last ca 5 cal ka. Geochemical data reveals divergent local impacts at the two study sites in response to these major climate transitions that are related to local topography and geography. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
- ItemChanges to sediment sources following wildfire in a forested upland catchment, southeastern Australia(Wiley-Blackwell, 2011-08-30) Smith, HG; Sheridan, GJ; Lane, PNJ; Noske, PJ; Heijnis, HFew investigations link post-fire changes to sediment sources and erosion processes with sediment yield response at the catchment scale. This linkage is essential if downstream impacts on sediment transport after fire are to be understood in the context of fire effects across different forest environments. In this study, we quantify changing source contributions to fine sediment (<63 mu m) exported from a eucalypt forest catchment (136 ha) burnt by wildfire. The study catchment is one of a pair of research catchments located in the East Kiewa River valley in southeastern Australia that have been the subject of a research program investigating wildfire effects on runoff, erosion, and catchment sediment/nutrient exports. This previous research provided the opportunity to couple insights gained from a range of measurement techniques with the application of fallout radionuclides (137)Cs and (210)Pb(ex) to trace sediment sources. It was found that hillslope surface erosion dominated exports throughout the 3.5-year post-fire measurement period. During this time there was a pronounced decline in the proportional surface contribution from close to 100% in the first six months to 58% in the fourth year after fire. Over the study period, hillslope surface sources accounted for 93% of the fine sediment yield from the burnt catchment. The largest decline in the hillslope contribution occurred between the first and second years after fire, which corresponded with the previously reported large decline in sediment yield, breakdown of water repellency in burnt soils, substantial reduction in hillslope erodibility, and rapid surface vegetation recovery. Coupling the information on sediment sources with hillslope process measurements indicated that only a small proportion of slopes contributed sediment to the catchment outlet, with material derived from near-channel areas dominating the post-fire catchment sediment yield response. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- ItemThe climate reconstruction potential of Acacia cambagei (gidgee) for semi-arid regions of Australia using stable isotopes and elemental abundances(Elsevier B.V., 2017-01-01) Witt, GB; English, NB; Balanzategui, D; Hua, Q; Gadd, PS; Heijnis, H; Bird, MITo provide multi-centennial, annually-resolved records of climate for arid and semi-arid areas of Australia it is necessary to investigate the potential climate signals in tree species in this large region. Using a stable isotope and x-ray fluorescence approach to dendrochronology in Acacia cambagei, this study demonstrates short (10 years) proxies of temperature and precipitation are possible. Because rings in A. cambagei are difficult to see, precluding traditional dendrochronology, we used elemental abundances of Ca and Sr as an annual chronometer back to 1962. Radiocarbon analysis confirmed that our dating of wood from two trees. We compared δ13C and δ18O from the α-cellulose of the dated wood over the most recent 10 years (n = 10) to local climate records demonstrating significant relationships between δ18O and precipitation (r = −0.85, p < 0.002); mean monthly maximum temperature (r = 0.69, p < 0.03); and drought indexes (CRU scPDSI 0.5°, r = −0.89, p < 0.001) for February and March. Acacia cambagei may be useful in developing regional networks of climate proxies for drought. Using modern trees, in combination with architectural timbers, it may be possible to construct a multi-century, annually-resolved proxy-record of rainfall and temperature for semi-arid north-eastern Australia. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
- ItemContrasting sedimentation rates in Lake Illawarra and St Georges Basin, two large barrier estuaries on the southeast coast of Australia(Springer, 2011-12-01) Sloss, CR; Jones, BG; Brooke, BP; Heijnis, H; Murray-Wallace, CVSedimentation rates over the last 100 years within two lagoons on the southeast coast of Australia, Lake Illawarra and St Georges Basin, have been quantified to determine the effects of catchment land use change and native vegetation clearance on infill rates, and spatial variations in the rate at which the estuaries have filled. Both catchments have similar lake and catchment area but have experience different degrees of modification due to land clearing for agriculture practices, urbanisation and industrialisation. Results indicate that in the heavily modified catchment of Lake Illawarra sedimentation rates close to fluvial deltas can be in excess of 16 mm/year, and between 2 and 4 mm/year in the adjacent central basin. This is approximately an order of magnitude greater than the pre-European rates. In contrast, at St Georges Basin, where the catchment has experienced much less modification, sedimentation rates in the central basin appear to have remained close to those prior to European settlement. However, sedimentation rates in the urbanized margin of St Georges Basin are relatively high (up to 4.4 mm/year). This rapid modern sedimentation in the margin of the estuarine embayments has been detected in several other estuaries in the region. However the degree of sedimentation within the bay-head deltas, and more significantly in the central basin appears proportional to the degree clearance of native vegetation (forest) in the catchment, urban expansion and development of heavy industry in the respective catchment areas. © 2011, Springer.
- ItemCritical thresholds in aquatic ecosystems: a case study of Tasmanian diatom community response to regional and local environmental change(Australian Society for Limnology, 2016-09-29) Beck, KK; Fletcher, MS; Saunders, KM; Benson, A; Gadd, PS; Heijnis, H; Wolfe, B; Zawadzki, AAquatic ecosystems are often hyper-sensitive and rapid responders to local and regional environmental change, in large part, due to fast reproduction and short lifespans of organisms relative to, for example, terrestrial vegetation. Here, we explore the response of a local diatom community to rapid shifts in rainforest vegetation driven by climate and fire over the last 2,400 years. We use a suite of palaeolimnological data to determine changes in vegetation, nutrient cycling, sediment delivery and diatom community structure to test the response of the local aquatic ecosystems to climate-driven terrestrial environment changes. We find that the diatom community in our study lake, Lake Vera in southwest Tasmania, Australia, remains complacent through phases of substantial changes in the terrestrial environment, hinting at a degree of resilience to both regional climatic and local terrestrial ecosystem change. We also identify a major compositional changes in diatom community – a shift from a planktonic dominance (i.e. Discostella stelligera) to a benthic dominance (i.e. Fragilaria spp. and Achnanthes didyma) – at ca. 930 cal yr BP, prior to a climate-driven terrestrial ecosystem change at ca. 800 cal yr BP. This aquatic ecosystem state-shift reflects the crossing of a critical threshold/tipping point in response to regional drivers and/or local dynamics that, thus, provides critical insights in to the long-term drivers and responses of aquatic ecosystem dynamics.
- ItemCyst and radionuclide evidence demonstrate historic Gymnodinium catenatum dinoflagellate populations in Manukau and Hokianga Harbours, New Zealand(Elsevier, 2003-03) Irwin, A; Hallegraeff, GM; McMinn, A; Harrison, JJ; Heijnis, HBetween May 2000 and February 2001, a major bloom of the toxic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum (a causative organism of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, PSP) affected over 1500 km of coastline of New Zealand’s North Island. As this was the first record of this species in New Zealand, we aimed to resolve whether this represented a recent introduction/spreading event or perhaps an indigenous cryptic species stimulated by environmental/climatic change. To answer this question, we analysed for G. catenatum resting cysts in 210Pb dated sediment cores (18–34 cm long; sedimentation rates 0.34–0.69 cm per year) collected by SCUBA divers from Manukau Harbour, where the species was first detected, and from Hokianga Harbour, where the highest shellfish toxicity was recorded, while using Wellington Harbour as a well-monitored control site. The results of this study conclusively demonstrate that abundant G. catenatum has been in northern New Zealand at least since the early 1980s, increasing up to 1200 cysts/g around the year 2000, but with low cyst concentrations possibly present since at least 1937. In contrast, Wellington Harbour cores contained only very sparse G. catenatum cysts (8 cysts/g), present only to a depth of 7 cm (surface mixed layer depth), reflecting an apparent recent range expansion of this dinoflagellate in New Zealand, possibly stimulated by unusual climatic conditions associated with the 2000 La Nina event. The significant increases since the early 1980s also of Protoperidinium cysts at Hokianga Harbour and of Gonyaulax, Protoperidinium and Protoceratium cysts at Manukau Harbour suggest a broad scale environmental change has occurred in Northland, New Zealand. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V
- ItemThe determination of the efficiency of a Compton suppressed high purity germanium detector using Monte Carlo simulations(South Pacific Radioactivity Association, 2010-09-01) McNamara, AL; Heijnis, H; Fierro, D; Reinhard, MIThe low level radiochemistry laboratory at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) performs radioactivity measurements of various environmental samples for a broad range of low level radionuclides. The laboratory's low-level gamma-spectrometry facility contains two Compton suppressed high purity Germanium (HPGe) detector systems. A Compton suppressed HPGe detector is well suited to the analysis of small environmental samples, however the nature of these samples (range of different geometries, densities and compositions) can make it difficult to construct an efficiency curve for the instrument. Currently, efficiency calibrations are f, carried out using reference materials packed into a particular geometry, e.g. a petri-dish. This makes the analysis of samples with different geometries difficult and time-consuming. Monte Carlo simulations can be a powerful tool in estimating the efficiency of the detector, especially for complicated detector systems and unusual sample compositions and geometries, provided enough geometric information on the system is available. Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations can also be used to determine self absorption, random and coincidence summing corrections, cascade and background effects. We model the gamma-Compton suppressed system using the simulation toolkit Geant4 for the efficiency calibration and compare the calculated efficiencies with the measurement of standard radionuclides in the low energy region of ~ 40 to 1500 keV. The calculated I7 efficiencies have the same dependence on energy as the measured values and the discrepancies between the two values can be attributed to incomplete knowledge of the detector geometry.
- ItemThe determination of the efficiency of a Compton suppressed HPGe detector using Monte Carlo simulations(Elseiver, 2012-04-01) McNamara, AL; Heijnis, H; Fierro, D; Reinhard, MICompton suppressed high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector is well suited to the analysis of low levels of radioactivity in environmental samples. The difference in geometry, density and composition of environmental calibration standards (e.g. soil) can contribute to excessive experimental uncertainty to the measured efficiency curve. Furthermore multiple detectors, like those used in a Compton suppressed system, can add complexities to the calibration process. Monte Carlo simulations can be a powerful complement in calibrating these types of detector systems, provided enough physical information on the system is known. A full detector model using the Geant4 simulation toolkit is presented and the system is modelled in both the suppressed and unsuppressed mode of operation. The full energy peak efficiencies of radionuclides from a standard source sample is calculated and compared to experimental measurements. The experimental results agree relatively well with the simulated values (within similar to 5 - 20%). The simulations show that coincidence losses in the Compton suppression system can cause radionuclide specific effects on the detector efficiency, especially in the Compton suppressed mode of the detector. Additionally since low energy photons are more sensitive to small inaccuracies in the computational detector model than high energy photons, large discrepancies may occur at energies lower than similar to 100 keV. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- ItemDetermining the history and sources of contaminants in sediments in the Tamar Estuary, Tasmania, using 210Pb dating and stable Pb isotope analyses(CSIRO Publishing, 2004-06-30) Seen, A; Townsend, AT; Atkinson, B; Ellison, J; Harrison, JJ; Heijnis, H210Pb dating and heavy metal analyses (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) have been combined to establish an historical profile of pollutant levels in sediments in the Tamar Estuary (Tasmania, Australia) over the past century. Heavy metal profiles through the core show a strong correlation with mining activities and industrialization during the past century, reflecting catchment disturbance in one of Australia’s earliest settled areas. A source apportionment of Pb in the sediment core using stable Pb isotope ratios (204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb) shows that mine pollution has been contributing 10–25 mg kg–1 to Tamar Estuary sediments since the start of mining in the early 1890s, whilst non-mining inputs were not significant until post-1930 and became increasingly significant post-World War II. Since the 1950s–1960s, non-mining anthropogenic Pb inputs have become as significant as Pb from mining activities, although there does appear to be a decline in non-mining inputs during the past 20 years, which is consistent with findings elsewhere where reductions in atmospheric Pb levels have been observed and are attributed to the phasing-out of leaded gasoline. The source apportionment does, however, suggest that Pb from mine pollution at Storys and Aberfoyle Creeks continues to impact upon upper Tamar Estuary sediment quality. © CSIRO 2004
- ItemDiatom community response to climate variability over the past 37,000 years in the sub-tropics of the Southern Hemisphere(Elsevier Science BV, 2014-01-15) Hembrow, SC; Taffs, K H; Atahan, P; Parr, J; Zawadzki, A; Heijnis, HClimate change is impacting global surface water resources, increasing the need for a deeper understanding of the interaction between climate and biological diversity. This is particularly the case in the Southern Hemisphere sub-tropics, where little information exists on the aquatic biota response to climate variations. Palaeolimnological techniques, in particular the use of diatoms, are well established and can significantly contribute to the understanding of climatic variability and the impacts that change in climate have on aquatic ecosystems. A sediment core from Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island (Australia), was used to investigate interactions between climate influences and aquatic ecosystems. This study utilises a combination of proxies including biological (diatom), geochemical and chronological techniques to investigate long-term aquatic changes within the perched-dune lake. A combination of Pb-210 and AMS C-14 dates showed that the retrieved sediment represented a history of ca. 37,000 cal. yBP. The sedimentation rate in Lake McKenzie is very low, ranging on average from 0.11 mm to 0.26 mm per year. A sediment hiatus was observed between ca. 18,300 and 14,000 cal. yBP suggesting a period of dry conditions at the site. The diatom record shows little variability over the period of record, with benthic, freshwater acidic tolerant species dominating. Relative abundance of planktonic species and geochemical results indicates a period of increased water depth and lake productivity in the early Holocene and a gradual decrease in effective precipitation throughout the Holocene. Results from this study not only support earlier work conducted on Fraser Island using pollen reconstructions but also demonstrate that diatom community diversity has been relatively consistent throughout the Holocene and late Pleistocene with only minor cyclical fluctuation evident. This record is consistent with the few other aquatic palaeoecological records from the Southern Hemisphere sub-tropics. © 2014, Elsevier Ltd.
- ItemDiatom-based Holocene record of human impact from a coastal environment: Tuckean Swamp, eastern Australia(Springer, 2008-01) Taffs, KH; Farago, LJ; Heijnis, H; Jacobsen, GEDiatom-based paleolimnological studies are being increasingly used to track anthropogenic change in estuaries. Little is known, however, about the direction and nature of long-term environmental changes in Australian estuaries. In this study, shifts in diatom assemblages preserved in a Pb-210 and C-14 AMS dated sediment core from Tuckean Swamp were analysed to determine environmental changes that had taken place as a result of changing land-use practices. Prior to European impact, the diatom assemblage remained relatively stable and was dominated by Actinocyclus normanii and Diploneis smithii. An increasing dominance of Cyclotella meneghiniana correlates well with changed land use activities in the catchment area and indicates an increase of freshwater influence in the swamp's environment. A major shift in species composition began similar to 1970, Eunotia flexuosa becoming dominant. The assemblage shifts recorded at this site appear to be consistent with environmental changes triggered by human activities such as vegetation clearance, drainage and the construction of a barrage. This study demonstrates the use of paleolimnoology in an estuarine environment to provide pre-impact data necessary for management of the aquatic environment. © 2008, Springer.
- ItemDust deposition tracks late-Holocene shifts in monsoon activity and the increasing role of human disturbance in the Puna-Altiplano, northwest Argentina(SAGE, 2020-04-01) Hooper, J; Marx, SK; May, JH; Lupo, LC; Kulemeyer, JJ; Pereira, EdlÁ; Seki, O; Heijnis, H; Child, DP; Gadd, PS; Zawadzki, AThe Puna-Altiplano plateau represents a regionally significant dust source, which is critically located at the nexus between the tropical and sub-polar synoptic systems that dominate the South American climate. Dust emissions in this region would therefore be expected to be sensitive to changes in these systems, in particular the strength and position of the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM). Here, we present a late-Holocene multi-proxy study where changes in dust flux, reconstructed from a high-altitude peat mire, are examined in light of climate variability and human impacts. Results show that for most the 4300 cal. yr BP record, dust flux sensitively tracked changes in SASM activity. Prior to 2600 cal. yr BP relatively high dust flux implies dry conditions prevailed across the Puna-Altiplao in association with reduced SASM activity. The chemistry of dust deposited at this time matched the large endorheic basins on the Puna, which host ephemeral lakes and terminal fans, indicating these were actively supplying dust to the airstream. After 2600 cal. yr BP, SASM activity increased while dust flux decreased and the dust chemistry changed, collectively implying the shutting down of the Puna-Altiplano as a significant dust source. Dust flux increased after 1000 cal. yr BP during the ‘Medieval Warm Period’, associated with a return to drier conditions and reactivation of dust sources across the endorheic basins of the Puna. Natural variability in dust flux was dwarfed, however, by the very significant increase in flux after 400 cal. yr BP following Spanish Colonisation and associated changing landuse practices. This finding attests to the globally significant role of humans on dust emissions. © 2020 by SAGE Publications