Browsing by Author "Kemp, J"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemAnomalous tree-ring identification facilitated by AMS 14C analysis in subtropical and tropical Australian Araucariaceae samples enables development of a long-term, high-resolution climate reconstruction(Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2021-11-17) Haines, HA; Palmer, JG; Hua, Q; English, NB; Hiscock, W; Turney, CSM; Marjo, CE; Gadd, PS; Kemp, J; Olley, JMIn Australia the majority of tropical and subtropical regions lack long-term instrumental climate records. Paleoclimate reconstructions from tree rings provide one alternative but very few dendrochronological investigations have so far been undertaken. Early assessments of mainland Australian tree species were discouraging due to the high prevalence of anomalous ring boundaries. Some species, however, were seen as more favourable than others including those in the Araucariaceae family which is common along the subtropical-tropical Australian east coast. These trees are longer lived than many other species in the region and contain growth rings known to be annual in nature and responsive to climatic conditions. There is however, a heavy prevalence of anomalous ring boundaries in species from this family which must be accounted for when dating these species. Here we describe the tree-ring characteristics and growth response from two stands of Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) trees located in subtropical and tropical Queensland, Australia (regions known for experiencing extreme hydroclimatic events). Confirmation of annual growth driven by moisture sensitivity was determined using radius dendrometers on four trees in Lamington National Park (c. 28º S). Tree cores were collected from both the Lamington stand as well as a stand at Hidden Valley near Paluma, Queensland (c. 19º S). Ring-width assessment showed the presence of false, faint, locally absent, and wedging rings in both sites. Results of bomb-pulse radiocarbon dating of selected single tree rings demonstrated that trees from this species can fall into one of three categories: A – those with locally-absent rings around the circumference of the trees, B – those where false rings were observed, and C – those with many wedging and locally-absent rings. Only trees in the first two categories were able to be included in the master chronologies. Traditional dendrochronological analysis with age validation by bomb-pulse radiocarbon dating allowed for a robust ring-width chronology from 1805-2014 CE to be developed for the Lamington National Park site. Growth-climate analysis of the master tree-ring chronology determined that the strongest environmental correlation was to wet season drought conditions. The strength of this response was compared to local and regional drought indices as well as to a long-term drought reconstruction. The combined analysis led to the development of a 200-year drought reconstruction for the region which shows influences from both the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. © The Authors
- ItemClimate variability over the last 35,000 years recorded in marine and terrestrial archives in the Australian region: an OZ-INTIMATE compilation(Elsevier Science Ltd., 2013-08-15) Reeves, JM; Barrows, TT; Cohen, TJ; Kiem, AS; Bostock, HC; Fitzsimmons, KE; Jansen, JD; Kemp, J; Krause, C; Phipps, SJ; Petherick, LMThe Australian region spans some 600 of latitude and 500 of longitude and displays considerable regional climate variability both today and during the Late Quaternary. A synthesis of marine and terrestrial climate records, combining findings from the Southern Ocean, temperate, tropical and arid zones, identifies a complex response of climate proxies to a background of changing boundary conditions over the last 35,000 years. Climate drivers include the seasonal timing of insolation, greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere, sea level rise and ocean and atmospheric circulation changes. Our compilation finds few climatic events that could be used to construct a climate event stratigraphy for the entire region, limiting the usefulness of this approach. Instead we have taken a spatial approach, looking to discern the patterns of change across the continent. The data identify the clearest and most synchronous climatic response at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (21 +/- 3 ka), with unambiguous cooling recorded in the ocean, and evidence of glaciation in the highlands of tropical New Guinea, southeast Australia and Tasmania. Many terrestrial records suggest drier conditions, but with the timing of inferred snowmelt, and changes to the rainfall/runoff relationships, driving higher river discharge at the LGM. In contrast, the deglaciation is a time of considerable south-east to north-west variation across the region. Warming was underway in all regions by 17 ka. Post-glacial sea level rise and its associated regional impacts have played an important role in determining the magnitude and timing of climate response in the north-west of the continent in contrast to the southern latitudes. No evidence for cooling during the Younger Dryas chronozone is evident in the region, but the Antarctic cold reversal clearly occurs south of Australia. The Holocene period is a time of considerable climate variability associated with an intense monsoon in the tropics early in the Holocene, giving way to a weakened monsoon and an increasingly El Nino-dominated ENSO to the present. The influence of ENSO is evident throughout the southeast of Australia, but not the southwest. This climate history provides a template from which to assess the regionality of climate events across Australia and make comparisons beyond our region.© 2013, Elsevier Ltd.
- ItemDeveloping annual tree-ring chronologies and climate reconstructions from moisture sensitive Araucariaceae trees in tropical and subtropical Australia(International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), 2019-07-30) Haines, HA; English, NB; Hua, Q; Olley, JM; Gadd, PS; Palmer, JG; Kemp, JMany parts of tropical and subtropical Australia lack both annually-resolved long-term instrumental climate data and proxy climate records. This limits our understanding of past climate patterns and impacts. There are however, remnant forest stands where dendroclimatology could be applied to extend the climate record. Early studies into tropical Australian tree species suggested difficulty in dating these records due to the fact they are compromised by numerous ring anomalies. This has led to such species being understudied with little known about their tree growth to climate relationships and paleoclimate potential. Recent research of trees in the Araucariaceae family has attempted to address these issues in order to develop annual, chronologically precise, long-term climate reconstructions across tropical and subtropical Australia. Araucariaceae trees are commonly found across northern and eastern Australia and are longer lived than many other local non-temperate species. They are known to produce growth rings that are mostly annual and their growth appears sensitive to climate, specifically to moisture conditions. Three Araucariaceae species, hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and purple kauri pine (Agathis atropurpurea) have been studied at five locations within the rainforests of eastern Queensland. Ring anomalies including false, faint, locally absent, and pinching or wedging rings, were identified. This was done by applying bomb-pulse radiocarbon dating, radiographic analysis, and density pattern assessment to hoop pine trees from subtropical Lamington and D’Aguilar National Parks. Additionally, dendrometers were installed on trees of all three species so that the annual nature of growth could be proven and the climate variables influencing seasonal growth identified. This analysis verified annual growth for all three species and proved that dating can be confirmed using a multi-technique approach. This demonstrates the suitability for dendrochronology in tropical and subtropical Australia to be applied for high-resolution climate reconstruction. Examination of growth-climate relationships indicated that moisture conditions are driving tree growth in these species so long-term reconstructions of rainfall and drought can be established. Following this, a 164-year drought reconstruction for Southeast Queensland was developed using hoop pine trees from the subtropical rainforest of Lamington National Park and a record extending back to 1400 has been developed for tropical Queensland. Additional work is continuing using this approach to further develop a network of long-term Queensland, Australia tree-ring climate records.
- ItemDeveloping tree-ring chronologies and climate reconstructions from moisture sensitive Araucariaceae trees in tropical and subtropical Australia(Australasian Quaternary Association Inc., 2018-12-10) Haines, HA; English, NB; Hua, Q; Olley, JM; Gadd, PS; Palmer, JG; Kemp, JMany parts of tropical and subtropical Australia lack both annually-resolved long-term instrumental climate data and proxy climate records. This limits our understanding of past climate patterns and impacts. There are however, remnant forest stands where dendroclimatology could be applied to extend the climate record. Tree species in these regions are known to be compromised by numerous ring anomalies and as such are understudied resulting in indistinct tree growth-climate relationships. Recent research of trees in the Araucariaceae family has attempted to address these issues with the goal being to develop long-term climate reconstructions across tropical and subtropical Australia. Araucariaceae trees are commonly found across northern and eastern Australia and are longer lived than many other local non-temperate species. They are known to produce growth rings that are mostly annual and their growth appears sensitive to climate, specifically to moisture conditions. Three Araucariaceae species, hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and purple kauri pine (Agathis atropurpurea) have been studied at five locations within the rainforests of eastern Queensland. Ring anomalies including false, faint, locally absent, and pinching or wedging rings, were identified. This was done by applying bomb-pulse radiocarbon dating and Itrax radiographic analysis to hoop pine trees from subtropical Lamington and D’Aguilar National Parks respectively. Additionally, dendrometers were installed on trees of all three species so that the climate variables influencing seasonal growth could be identified. It was found that moisture conditions drive annual growth in Araucariaceae trees but that the onset and cessation of the growth season is dependent on temperature. Forest elevation also needs to be considered as the growth season length is longer at lower elevation and there is an influence of cloud cover seen in the north Queensland rainforest, which is close to a cloud forest classification. Annual growth was confirmed for all species through this analysis and the suitability for their use in climate reconstruction proven. Following this, a 164-year drought reconstruction for Southeast Queensland was developed using hoop pine trees from the subtropical rainforest of Lamington National Park. Additional work is continuing to further develop a network of long-term Queensland tree-ring climate records. © The Authors
- ItemEnvironmental change through the last glacial cycle at Fraser Island, subtropical Australia(International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), 2019-07-29) Kemp, J; Heijnis, H; Longmore, M; Gadd, PS; Spooner, NA; Questiaux, DRecent programs to extract detailed and longer records of Australia’s Pleistocene environments have produced a number of efforts to analyse long sedimentary sequences in the subtropical sand islands of Australia’s east coast. Echo Lake is a perched fen within ancient dune sands on Fraser Island at 25° S that provides a record of precipitation change over ~100 ka. A 12 metre core into the (now) ephemeral swamp revealed lacustrine sedimentation in a period of higher precipitation, followed by a transition to swamp sedimentation as water levels fell. The chronology, based on 14C and OSL ages, suggests parts of the record may be interrupted or lost owing to drying or burning of the surface. Here we present an updated OSL chronology together with pollen analysis and ITRAX-XRF proxies for palaeoenvironmental change over the last glacial cycle in subtropical Australia.
- ItemSedimentation and vegetation change through the last glacial cycle at Echo Lake, Fraser Island(Australiasian Quaternary Association Inc., 2018-12-10) Kemp, J; Heijnis, H; Longmore, M; Gadd, PS; Spooner, NA; Questiaux, DEcho Lake is an ephemeral swamp perched above the groundwater table within the subtropical dunes of Fraser Island at 100 m above sea level. A 12 metre core was extracted in 1997-1998, with preliminary pollen analysis and dating suggesting the site preserved a palaeoenvironmental record beginning at 2 ka and spanning most of the last glacial cycle. However, the chronology has been problematic and sedimentation may have been interrupted or lost through drying and burning of the surface. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating suggested an age for the base of the sedimentary sequence of at least 100 ka. Here we present a new chronology based on OSL on lake sediments together with ITRAX-XRF proxies for palaeoenvironmental change. © Author(s)
- ItemThe use of multiple dendrochronological techniques to develop a 200-year drought record for subtropical Southeast Queensland, Australia(European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2020-05-04) Haines, HA; Palmer, JG; English, NB; Hua, Q; Gadd, PS; Kemp, J; Olley, JMIn Australia the majority of tropical and subtropical regions lack any long-term (multi-decadal to centennial scale) instrumental climate records highlighting a need for alternatives such as proxy climate reconstructions. Despite this need, only a limited number of terrestrial proxy sources are available. Tree-rings provide one of the few options for climate reconstructions yet very little dendrochronological investigation has been undertaken as early assessments of tropical Australian species in the 1970s and 1980s indicated most species had short life-spans, poorly preserved timbers, or were compromised by having many ring anomalies. There has also been limited effort into understanding the growth-climate relationships of these trees with only a few studies undertaken targeting specific species that have unfortunately been heavily cleared from the region (eg. Toona ciliata). One exception noted in the early species assessment suggested that trees in the Araucariaceae family, a common tree family along the tropical Australian east coast, is longer lived than many other species in the region, contains growth rings which are annual in nature, and grows in response to climatic conditions. Here we describe the results from a stand of Araucaria cunninghamii trees located in Lamington National Park, a World Heritage listed rainforest in subtropical Southeast Queensland, Australia (a region known for experiencing extreme hydroclimatic events). Our assessment discovered the presence of false, faint, locally absent, and pinching rings. By combining traditional dendrochronological analysis (eg. crossdating) with more recent techniques such as age validation by bomb-pulse radiocarbon dating and tree-ring density analysis, a robust ring-width chronology from 1805-2014 was developed. Dendrometers installed on four trees at the Lamington site confirmed that tree growth was annual and that moisture sensitivity was driving growth. Further growth-climate analysis indicated that the strongest correlation to the tree-ring chronology was specifically related to drought conditions in the region. The strength of this response was compared to both local and regional spatial areas and to drought indices such as the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI), and the long-term drought conditions shown by the Australian and New Zealand Drought Atlas (ANZDA). The combined analysis led to the development of a 200-year drought reconstruction for the region and demonstrates influences from both the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO). © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.