ORCID Profile
0000-0003-2031-5133
Current Organisation
Deakin University
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Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-03-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0265224
Abstract: Knowledge of bio ersity in the past, and the timing, nature, and drivers of human-induced ecological change, is important for gaining deep time perspectives and for modern conservation efforts. The Marquesas Islands (Polynesia) are one of the world’s most remote archipelagos and illustrate the vulnerability of indigenous bioscapes to anthropogenic activities. Characterised by high levels of endemism across many biotic groups, the full spectrum of the group’s flora and fauna is nonetheless incompletely known. Several centuries of Polynesian settlement reshaped biotic communities in ways that are not yet fully understood, and historically-introduced mammalian herbivores have devastated the indigenous lowland flora. We report here on archaeological recovery of a erse assemblage of plant and arthropod subfossils from a waterlogged deposit on the largest Marquesan island: Nuku Hiva. These materials offer new perspectives on the composition of lowland plant and arthropod communities pene-contemporaneous with human arrival. Bayesian analysis of multiple 14 C results from short-lived materials date the assemblages to the mid-12 th century AD ( 1129–1212 cal . AD , 95.4% HPD). Evidence for human activities in the catchment coincident with deposit formation includes Polynesian associated arthropods, microcharcoal, and an adzed timber. Plant macrofossils (seeds, fruits, vegetative structures) and microfossils (pollen, phytoliths) reveal coastal and lowland wet-moist forest communities unlike those observed today. Several apparently extinct taxa are identified, along with extant taxa currently constrained to high altitude and/or interior areas. A erse inventory of subfossil arthropods—the first pre-18 th century records for the islands—includes more than 100 distinct taxa, with several new archipelago records and one previously unreported for eastern Polynesia. The assemblages provide new insights into lowland Marquesan forest communities coincident with human arrival, and portend the considerable anthropogenic transformations that followed. These records also have implications for human colonisation of the Marquesas Islands and East Polynesia at large.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-05-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-07-2014
DOI: 10.1002/ARCO.5016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2016
DOI: 10.1002/ARCO.5113
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2008
Abstract: The Gunditjmara people developed a socio-economic system based on the modification of wetland ecosystems associated with the Mt Eccles lava flow primarily for sustainable production and management of the highly nutritious shortfin eel ( Anguilla australis). This paper examines the environmental history of these landscapes since their inception about 30 000 years ago, through palaeoecological analysis of sediment cores from associated lakes and sw s, in order to contribute to an understanding of the causes and timing of cultural transformation. Two records cover the whole of the 30 000 year history of the landscape while two others provide evidence of change within the Holocene. A great deal of variation within the landscape is revealed, both temporally and spatially, with opportunities for human exploitation through the whole recorded period. Although most features of the records can be explained by natural landscape development and climate change, some human modification can be suggested from around the Pleistocene—Holocene transition while more obvious indications of management relating to eel aquaculture are evident from about 4000 cal. yr BP that appear to include adaptations to the onset of a drier and more variable climate. The study has implications for the explanation of intensification of settlement in Australia more generally within the mid to late Holocene.
No related grants have been discovered for Tara Lewis.