ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5802-6535
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Archaeology | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience | Quaternary Environments | Archaeological Science | Palaeoecology | Palaeoclimatology | Archaeology Of Complex Societies: Asia, Africa, Oceania And The | Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Atmospheric Sciences | Information Systems | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology | Geochronology And Isotope Geochemistry | Geochronology | Climate Change Processes | Palaeoecology | Palynology | Database Management | Environmental Science and Management | Archaeology Of Hunter-Gatherer Societies (Incl. Pleistocene | Archaeological Science | Climatology (Incl. Palaeoclimatology) | Geochronology | Geology | Geochemistry | Natural Resource Management | Archaeology of New Guinea and Pacific Islands (excl. New Zealand) | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archaeology | Information Systems Management | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture language and history | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge | Environmental Impact Assessment | Environmental Chemistry (incl. Atmospheric Chemistry) | Environmental Management | Conservation and Biodiversity | Environmental Monitoring | Conservation And Biodiversity | Surface Processes | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Archaeological science | Archaeology Of Complex Societies: Europe, The Mediterranean And | Maritime Archaeology | Inorganic Geochemistry | Geomorphology and Regolith and Landscape Evolution | Isotope Geochemistry | Quaternary environments | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Carbon Sequestration Science | Physical Geography | Environmental Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified | Oceanography Not Elsewhere Classified | Stratigraphy (incl. Biostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy) | Sedimentology | Atmospheric Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Earth sciences | Climate change | Understanding Australia's Past | Biological sciences | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Climate Variability (excl. Social Impacts) | Studies in human society | Climate variability | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage | Environmental Management Systems | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Land and water management | Estuarine and lagoon areas | Land and water management | Physical and chemical conditions | Environmental education and awareness | Global climate change adaptation measures | Remnant vegetation and protected conservation areas | Climate Change Mitigation Strategies | Conserving Pacific Peoples Heritage | Understanding Asia's Past | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | Land and water management | Social Impacts of Climate Change and Variability | Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences | Understanding Past Societies not elsewhere classified | Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Land Management |
Related Links
Publications
Paleoclimate studies and natural-resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin II: unravelling human impacts and climate variability
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-2013
Stratigraphy, age and correlation of two widespread Late Holocene tephras preserved within Lake Kutubu, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-06-2017
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2959
Feeding the flames: how colonialism led to unprecedented wildfires across SE Australia
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-3238
Abstract: The Black Summer bushfires (2019-2020) cost the Australian economy over 100 billion dollars and burnt a total of 18 million hectares. In just one season, around 20% of Australia's Eucalyptus forests burnt down and billions of animals perished. Recent catastrophic fires in Australia and North America have made scientists and policymakers question how the disruption of First Nations' burning practices has impacted fuel loads. For instance, we have learnt from modern Australian Indigenous communities, historical literature, and art works that Indigenous peoples have used cultural burning to rejuvenate patches of land and preserve open vegetation for hunting and cultural purposes. The advent of British invasion brought a change in the type of fire regimes and landscape management across much of the continent, which may have led to an increase in flammable fuels in forest settings. However, the actual degree of land-cover modification by early settlers has only been often debated in the academic literature and within management stakeholders.The quantification of past land cover is needed to address such debates. Pollen is the key proxy to track past vegetation changes, but pollen spectra suffer from some important biases e.g. taphonomy, pollen productivity, dispersal capability. Estimating past vegetation cover from sedimentary pollen composition requires to correct for productivity and dispersal biases using empirical-based models of the pollen-vegetation relationship. Such models for quantitative vegetation reconstruction (e.g. REVEALS) have yet been mostly applied in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 15 years - here we present recent applications of this methodology from Australia. We show the quantification of land cover changes through pre- and post- British invasion on multiple records (n=51) across the southeastern Australian region. This represents the first regional application of REVEALS within the Australian continent.We provide the first empirical evidence that the regional landscape before British invasion was a cultural landscape with limited tree cover as it was maintained by Indigenous Australians through cultural burning. Our findings suggest that the removal of Indigenous vegetation management has altered woodland fuel structure and that much of the region was predominantly open before colonial invasion. The post-colonial land modification has resonance in wildfire occurrence and management under the pressing challenges posed by climate change.
The impact of European occupation on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem dynamics in an Australian tropical rain forest
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2006
Analysis of shared common genetic risk between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Genome-wide identification of the genetic basis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
Pollen‐based reconstructions of biome distributions for Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAPAC region) at 0, 6000 and 18,000 14C yr BP
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-08-2004
Wetland Archaeology in the Highlands of New Guinea
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 12-2012
Environmental changes in the north-east Sunda region over the last 40 000 years
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-03-2019
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3093
Pollen analysis of Australian honey
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-05-2018
The Last Glacial-Holocene Transition in Southern Chile
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 13-10-2000
DOI: 10.1126/SCIENCE.290.5490.325
Abstract: Warming at the last glacial termination in the North Atlantic region was interrupted by a period of renewed glacial activity during the Younger Dryas chronozone (YDC). The underlying mechanism of this cooling remains elusive, but hypotheses turn on whether it was a global or a North Atlantic phenomenon. Chronological, sedimentological, and palaeoecological records from sediments of small lakes in oceanic southern Chile demonstrate that there was no YDC cooling in southern Chile. It is therefore likely that there was little or no cooling in southern Pacific surface waters and hence that YDC cooling in the North Atlantic was a regional, rather than global, phenomenon.
Integration of ice-core, marine and terrestrial records for the Australian last glacial maximum and termination: A contribution from the OZ INTIMATE group
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.1073
The macroecology of airborne pollen in Australian and New Zealand urban areas
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-05-2014
Mutations in the SPTLC1 gene are a cause of juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that may be amenable to serine supplementation
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 19-09-2019
DOI: 10.1101/770339
Abstract: Juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare form of childhood motor disorder with a heterogeneous clinical presentation. The underlying causes of this condition are poorly understood, hindering the development of effective therapies. In a whole-exome sequencing trio-family study of three unrelated juvenile patients diagnosed with ALS and failure to thrive, we identified de-novo mutations in SPTLC1 (p.Ala20Ser in two patients and p.Ser331Tyr) not present in their healthy parents or siblings. SPTLC1 encodes a subunit of the serine palmitoyltransferase complex, a key enzyme in sphingolipid biosynthesis. Mutations in this gene are known to cause hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy, type 1A, with a characteristic increase in plasma levels of neurotoxic deoxymethyl-sphinganine. We found an increase of this metabolite in one of our patients carrying the p.Ala20Ser mutation. Treatment of one of the patients with high dose, oral L-serine led to an increase in body weight, suggesting that serine supplementation may be beneficial among patients carrying mutations in this gene.
Late quaternary vegetation dynamics and human impact on Alexander Selkirk Island, Chile
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2003
A 23,000-yr Pollen Record from Lake Euramoo, Wet Tropics of NE Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 11-2005
DOI: 10.1016/J.YQRES.2005.08.013
Abstract: A new extended pollen and charcoal record is presented from Lake Euramoo, Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforest of northeast Queensland, Australia. The 8.4-m sediment core taken from the center of Lake Euramoo incorporates a complete record of vegetation change and fire history spanning the period from 23,000 cal yr B.P. to present. The pollen record is ided into five significant zones 23,000–16,800 cal yr B.P., dry sclerophyll woodland 16,800–8600 cal yr B.P., wet sclerophyll woodland with marginal rainforest in protected pockets 8600–5000 cal yr B.P., warm temperate rainforest 5000–70 cal yr B.P., dry subtropical rainforest 70 cal yr B.P.–AD 1999, degraded dry subtropical rainforest with increasing influence of invasive species and fire. The process of rainforest development appears to be at least partly controlled by orbital forcing (precession), though more local environmental variables and human activity are also significant factors. This new record provides the opportunity to explore the relationship between fire, drought and rainforest dynamics in a significant World Heritage rainforest region.
Association of a Locus in theCAMTA1Gene With Survival in Patients With Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Publisher: American Medical Association (AMA)
Date: 07-2016
Vegetation, climate and human impact since 20 ka in central Yunnan Province based on high-resolution pollen and charcoal records from Dianchi, southwestern China
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2020
The aftermath of megafaunal extinction: Ecosystem transformation in Pleistocene Australia
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 23-03-2012
Abstract: Following the arrival of humans in Australia 40- to 50,000 years ago, many species of large vertebrates rapidly became extinct. By analyzing sediment cores from a site in northeastern Australia, Rule et al. (p. 1483 see the Perspective by McGlone ) show that the extinction of the Australian megafauna caused important ecosystem shifts. Prominent among these were a shift from rainforest vegetation to sclerophyllous vegetation and a sustained increase in the incidence of fire. The cores also provide evidence of the cause of megafaunal extinction in Australia, ruling out climate and anthropogenic fire as possible causes while confirming that the extinctions closely followed human arrival. These findings show how landscapes sometimes have been fundamentally changed by the indirect effects of early humans—which underscores the impact that even prehistoric human societies had on natural systems.
Erratum: EVALUATING the RADIOCARBON RESERVOIR EFFECT in LAKE KUTUBU, Papua New Guinea (Radiocarbon (2018) 61:1 (287-308) DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2018.49)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 10-2020
DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2020.103
The pollen record from marine core MD03-2607 from offshore Kangaroo Island spanning the last 125 ka; implications for vegetation changes across the Murray-Darling Basin
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-03-2021
A Holocene record of coastal landscape dynamics in the eastern Kimberley region, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2014
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2691
Modern pollen rain and lake mud–water interface geochemistry along environmental gradients in southern Chile
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2001
Changing plant functional diversity over the last 12,000 years provides perspectives for tracking future changes in vegetation communities
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-01-2023
Late Quaternary climate variability in Madagascar and its connection to South-East Africa hydroclimate changes and atmospheric circulation patterns
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 15-05-2023
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-12410
Abstract: Madagascar is characterized by high climatic heterogeneity and its topography plays a key role in modulating the regional hydroclimate variability in South and East Africa. However, knowledge on past climate of Madagascar very limited, in line with the general scarcity of paleoclimate records from the southern tropics and subtropics. We generated a 26 kyr paleoclimate record from Madagascar, located in the southwestern Indian Ocean spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the late Holocene. In particular, we present a deuterium/hydrogen isotopic ratio of terrestrial leaf waxes (& #948 Hwax) from a sediment core taken from the central eastern part of the island near the capital Antananarivo. The & #948 H records of both the aquatic and terrestrial plant derived n-alkanes exhibit similar long-term trends implying that they all record changes in the isotopic composition of source water, namely meteoric water that recharges soil and lake waters. In this tropical region, the & #948 H variability of precipitation recorded by n-alkanes & #948 H is mainly influenced by the amount effect resulting in lower values for periods with high rainfall. We observe five long-term trends: (i) stable and relatively dry conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (ii) gradually wetter conditions from 17.5 ka to 11.5 ka, especially during the Heinrich stadial 1 (HS1) and the Younger Dryas (YD) (iii) an arid interval from 11.5 ka to 8.5 ka, and (iv) a general trend to more humid climate until 3.0 ka, followed by (v) a drier interval until 1.0 ka. The Madagascar climatic signal is opposite to other records from South Africa and East Africa records especially during the YD and early to middle Holocene period. This regional dipole mode is consistent with the modern rainfall anomaly pattern associated with the variability of Mozambique Channel Trough and the migration of austral summer Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) position as a response to changes in local summer insolation orbital and/or Northern Hemisphere cold events, such as the YD and HS1.
Effect of altitude on the carbon-isotope composition of forest and grassland soils from Papua New Guinea
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 03-1994
DOI: 10.1029/93GB03487
Evidence of Holocene climatic change and human impact in northwestern Yunnan Province: High-resolution pollen and charcoal records from Chenghai Lake, southwestern China
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 29-06-2017
Biogeography of the Australian monsoon tropics
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2010
Climates of change: human dimensions of Holocene environmental change in low latitudes of the PEPII transect
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2004
Common and rare variant association analyses in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis identify 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 15-03-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.03.12.21253159
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a life-time risk of 1 in 350 people and an unmet need for disease-modifying therapies. We conducted a cross-ancestry GWAS in ALS including 29,612 ALS patients and 122,656 controls which identified 15 risk loci in ALS. When combined with 8,953 whole-genome sequenced in iduals (6,538 ALS patients, 2,415 controls) and the largest cortex-derived eQTL dataset (MetaBrain), analyses revealed locus-specific genetic architectures in which we prioritized genes either through rare variants, repeat expansions or regulatory effects. ALS associated risk loci were shared with multiple traits within the neurodegenerative spectrum, but with distinct enrichment patterns across brain regions and cell-types. Across environmental and life-style risk factors obtained from literature, Mendelian randomization analyses indicated a causal role for high cholesterol levels. All ALS associated signals combined reveal a role for perturbations in vesicle mediated transport and autophagy, and provide evidence for cell-autonomous disease initiation in glutamatergic neurons.
A Late Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of Ulong Island, Palau, from starch grain, charcoal, and geochemistry analyses
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
Biomass burning in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea: natural and human induced fire events in the fossil record
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2001
New evidence on deglacial climatic variability from an alpine lacustrine record in northwestern Yunnan Province, southwestern China
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2014
Hominin Ecology of the Early Oldowan 2 Ma
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 06-08-2020
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-49789/V1
Abstract: Environmental change is key for human evolution, especially at times of anatomical and behavioral change in life histories, such as the origin of meat consumption, economic ersification, and dispersal. However, for the earliest phase of human evolution featuring the technology-dependent hominins that shaped our lineage since 2.6 Ma, the Oldowan, there is a dearth of archaeological evidence directly associated with rich chronostratigraphic and environmental datasets amenable to tracking ecological change and adaptation to new physiographic conditions. One place where this type of information has been recently retrieved is the Western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai), Tanzania. We explore habitat range by Oldowan-bearing hominins amidst extremely erse ecosystems throughout a stratified sequence 235 ka-long, thus predating by ka the earliest landmark fossil hominins and classic Oldowan from the Eastern side of the basin. Our study provides multi-proxy evidence of environmental adaptability, demonstrating colonisation of fresh volcanic landscapes and occupation of fast-changing biomes by 2 Ma.
Colonialism and the environment: The pollution legacy of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest copper mine in the 20th century
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-11-2022
Abstract: Mining has been a major contributor to economic development in Australia since British arrival in the late 1700s, with little to no thought regarding the long-term environmental consequences. This study assesses the metal pollution legacy caused by different smelting methods and mining activities during the British colonialism in western Tasmania. This region was the largest copper producer in the Southern Hemisphere during the 20th century. Lake sediments from Basin Lake and Owen Tarn, 12 and 5 km from Queenstown’s mines, respectively, were used to reconstruct historical metal contamination. Temporal changes in metal concentrations (iron, copper, arsenic, selenium and lead) were assessed in relation to the scale of mining activities and the technologies used. Sedimentation rates and metal influxes increased from 1900, reflecting the beginning of copper mining in Mount Lyell. Observed metal concentrations peaked after 1930, coinciding with the introduction of large-scale open-cut operations and an expansion of the mining machinery used. All elements underwent at least minor enrichment (EF 1-3) during the lifespan of the mine, with lead and copper undergoing extremely severe enrichment (EF 50). Although smelters contributed to metal increases in the lakes, large open-cut large operations in the 1930s contributed most to metal contamination. Local metal deposition from mining-related activities decreased significantly once operations decreased, with selenium and arsenic decreasing nearly to background levels within 50 years. Lead and copper, the elements which underwent major enrichment, have not yet reached background values. The ecological consequences include the current degraded local landscape, poor water quality and disrupted local biota. Knowledge about the environmental impacts of mining in western Tasmania is less known compared to other sites around the world with a similar history. Our results demonstrate the urgent need to develop better policies and remediation programs that can mitigate the consequences of metal pollution from abandoned mines in Australia.
TUBA4A gene analysis in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: identification of novel mutations
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-04-2015
Correlations among charcoal records of fires from the past 16, 000 years in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Central and South America
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2001
Abstract: Microscopic charcoal preserved in lake and sw sediments from 10 sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and from 5 sites in Central and South America have been used to reconstruct long-term fire histories for these two regions. Comparison of these records demonstrates that fire is promoted during periods of rapid climate change and high climate variability, regardless of the presence or absence of humans. Broad synchrony of changes in corrected charcoal values in each region supports an atmospheric transmission of the climate signal via the dominant large-scale atmospheric circulation systems (Walker Circulation) that appears to have persisted since 16,000 cal yr B.P. Altered climate boundary conditions under the influence of changing El Niño-related variability, insolation, sea level, and sea surface temperature all influenced the strength of this connection. Correlation of biomass burning records between the regions tends to increase in the Holocene. The main period of inverse correlation occurs during the Younger Dryas Stade, when extratropical climate most affected the tropics. The strongest correlation between the two regions postdates 5000 cal yr B.P., when El Niño-related variability intensified. Fluctuations in tropical biomass burning are at least partly controlled by orbital forcing (precession), although extratropical climate influences and human activity are also important.
A conceptual framework for predicting temperate ecosystem sensitivity to human impacts on fire regimes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-01-2013
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12038
A late glacial to present diatom record from Lake Euramoo, wet tropics of Queensland, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2007
Common and rare variant association analyses in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis identify 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 18-03-2021
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-322430/V1
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a life-time risk of 1 in 350 people and an unmet need for disease-modifying therapies. We conducted a cross-ancestry GWAS in ALS including 29,612 ALS patients and 122,656 controls which identified 15 risk loci in ALS. When combined with 8,953 whole-genome sequenced in iduals (6,538 ALS patients, 2,415 controls) and the largest cortex-derived eQTL dataset (MetaBrain), analyses revealed locus-specific genetic architectures in which we prioritized genes either through rare variants, repeat expansions or regulatory effects. ALS associated risk loci were shared with multiple traits within the neurodegenerative spectrum, but with distinct enrichment patterns across brain regions and cell-types. Of the environmental and life-style risk factors obtained from literature, Mendelian randomization analyses indicated a causal role for high cholesterol levels. All ALS associated signals combined reveal a role for perturbations in vesicle mediated transport and autophagy, and provide evidence for cell-autonomous disease initiation in glutamatergic neurons.
Global acceleration in rates of vegetation change over the past 18,000 years
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 21-05-2021
Abstract: Although much is known about the rapid environmental changes that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution, the patterns of change over the preceding millennia have been only patchily understood. Using a global set of fossil pollen records, Mottl et al. explored the rates of vegetation change over the past 18,000 years (see the Perspective by Overpeck and Breshears). The authors show that the rates of change accelerated markedly during the Late Holocene (∼4.6 to 2.9 thousand years ago), even more rapidly than the climate-driven vegetation changes associated with the end of the last glacial period. In addition, the Late Holocene acceleration began for terrestrial communities as a whole, suggesting that the acceleration in turnover over the past two centuries is the tip of a deeper trend. Science , abg1685, this issue p. 860 see also abi9902, p. 786
Vegetation and climate changes during the last 22,000yr from a marine core near Taitao Peninsula, southern Chile
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2013
Rapid global ocean-atmosphere response to Southern Ocean freshening during the last glacial
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-09-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-017-00577-6
Abstract: Contrasting Greenland and Antarctic temperatures during the last glacial period (115,000 to 11,650 years ago) are thought to have been driven by imbalances in the rates of formation of North Atlantic and Antarctic Deep Water (the ‘bipolar seesaw’). Here we exploit a bidecadally resolved 14 C data set obtained from New Zealand kauri ( Agathis australis ) to undertake high-precision alignment of key climate data sets spanning iceberg-rafted debris event Heinrich 3 and Greenland Interstadial (GI) 5.1 in the North Atlantic (~30,400 to 28,400 years ago). We observe no ergence between the kauri and Atlantic marine sediment 14 C data sets, implying limited changes in deep water formation. However, a Southern Ocean (Atlantic-sector) iceberg rafted debris event appears to have occurred synchronously with GI-5.1 warming and decreased precipitation over the western equatorial Pacific and Atlantic. An ensemble of transient meltwater simulations shows that Antarctic-sourced salinity anomalies can generate climate changes that are propagated globally via an atmospheric Rossby wave train.
Island ecosystem and biodiversity dynamics in northeastern Australia during the Holocene: Unravelling short-term impacts and long-term drivers
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 25-04-2012
Abstract: Vegetation changes of tropical Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia) over the last 8000 years are derived from palaeoenvironmental analysis of a 475 cm long sediment core. During early-Holocene sea-level rise, flooding of the continental shelf and thus isolation of Lizard Island, the pollen record shows the gradual establishment of a mangrove forest paralleled by contraction of the near-coastal palm and grass-dominated vegetation. Subsequently, mid-Holocene relative environmental stability supported a erse, Rhizophora-dominated mangrove and open, mixed sclerophyll vegetation inland. Around 6000 years ago, a profound disturbance of the mangrove is recorded by a siliciclastic layer and we hypothesise that this deposit documents the impact of a storm or cyclone. Postevent environmental conditions were strongly altered with enhanced estuarine conditions supporting a Sonneratia and Bruguiera-dominated mangrove forest. During late-Holocene sea-level fall and stabilisation, progradation and contraction of the mangrove forest was paralleled by the expansion of a palm-dominated sw . Freshwater taxa continued to dominate the record, however, a distinct disturbance signal from anthropogenic activity is recorded in the last century. Although Sonneratia dominated the post-event mangrove, late-Holocene environmental instability led to the extinction of this genus on the island. Local environmental changes in the freshwater sw and rainforest also led to the loss of Arenga and Ilex from the island’s ecosystems. Our record implies that long-term ecosystem and bio ersity change on Lizard Island is: (a) primarily reflected in the spatial extent of the island’s vegetation communities and the species dominance within them and (b) driven by an interplay between climate, sea-level and potentially human activity. In addition, a short-term impact provoked the reconfiguration of the mangrove, potentially causing long-term ecosystem instability and thus impacting on mangrove bio ersity development on the Great Barrier Reef islands.
Geographic variation in the ecological effects of extinction of Australia's Pleistocene megafauna
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-07-2016
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.01612
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that extinction of Pleistocene megafauna had large impacts on the structure and functioning of ecosystems, including increased fire and shifts in vegetation state. We argue that the ecological effects of mega‐herbivore extinction are likely to have varied geographically, and might have been reduced in environments of low productivity. We tested this at Caledonia Fen, a cool, high‐elevation site in southeast Australia with a palynological record reaching back approximately 140 ka. The dung fungus Sporormiella indicated that large herbivores were present through most of the early part of the last glacial cycle, but declined abruptly between 50–40 ka and did not recover. This event corresponds with evidence for continent‐wide extinction of Australia's Pleistocene megafauna at that time. An earlier episode of low Sporormiella occurrence coincided with evidence of raised water levels in the fen. Changes in wetland conditions can alter the accumulation of Sporormiella , but there was no such change when Sporormiella counts fell in the period 50–40 ka. We found no evidence that the decline in Sporormiella triggered increased fire or a change in vegetation, which remained a low grass/shrub steppe. This contrasts with a warmer and more humid site, Lynch's Crater in northeast Australia, where decline of dung fungi was followed by increased fire and transition from mixed sclerophyll forest and rainforest to uniform sclerophyll forest. Our results suggest that the magnitude of ecological responses to Pleistocene megafaunal extinction varied geographically, under the control of regional climates.
A new late Quaternary palaeohydrological record from the humid tropics of northeastern Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2016
A. Keast & S. E. Miller (eds) 1996. The origin and evolution of Pacific island biotas, New Guinea to eastern Polynesia: patterns and processes. SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 11-1997
How significant is atmospheric metal contamination from mining activity adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area? A spatial analysis of metal concentrations using air trajectories models
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2018.11.241
Abstract: This study investigated metal contamination from historical mining in lakes in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) and surrounding region. The largest increase in sedimentation and metal contamination occurred ca. 1930 when open-cut mining commenced and new mining technology was introduced into the region. The geochemical signal of lake sediments changed from reflecting the underlying geology and lithology to that reflecting mining activities. The HYSPLIT air particle trajectory model explains metal distribution in the lakes, with those in the northwest region closest to the mines having the highest metal contamination. Lake metal concentrations since mining activities commenced are in the order: Owen Tarn > Basin Lake > Perched Lake > Lake Dove > Lake Dobson > Lake Cygnus, with Perched Lake and Lakes Dove, Dobson and Cygnus in the TWWHA. Metal contamination affected centres up to 130 km down-wind of mining sites. Enrichment factors (EF) for Pb, Cu, As and Cd are >1 for all lakes, with Owen Tarn and Basin Lake having very high EFs for Cu and Pb (98 and 91, respectively). Pb, Cu, As and Cd concentrations are above the Australia/New Zealand lower sediment guidelines, with Pb, Cu and As above the high guidelines in Owen Tarn and Basin Lake. This study demonstrated the legacy of metal contamination in the TWWHA by mining activities and the consequences of a lack of execution of environmental regulations by past governments in Tasmania.
Pathogenic Huntingtin Repeat Expansions in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Long-term drivers of vegetation turnover in Southern Hemisphere temperate ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13232
Agricultural emergence and transformation in the Upper Wahgi valley, Papua New Guinea, during the Holocene: Theory, method and practice
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2008
Abstract: A practice-based method is advanced to understand the emergence and transformation of agricultural practices in the Upper Wahgi valley during the Holocene. Conceptually, practices represent the nexus of human—environment interactions, as well as of structure—agency relationships, while methodologically, they are the visible remains — whether encountered directly through archaeology, or inferred through palaeoenvironmental proxy — of people living in the past. Multidisciplinary information from the Upper Wahgi valley is used to reconstruct multilayered practices of plant exploitation across the landscape through time the intention is to spatialize, temporalize and humanize information often represented chronologically and technically. Practice-oriented interpretations clarify, interrogate and lify existing multidisciplinary records of the past and shed new light on how the earliest agriculture was originated and transformed in the New Guinea highlands during the Holocene.
Vegetation, fire, and climate history during the last 18 500 cal a BP in south‐western Yunnan Province, China
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-2015
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2824
Ecological Consequences of a Millennium of Introduced Dogs on Madagascar
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 03-03-2021
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU21-927
Abstract: & & Introduced predators currently threaten endemic animals on Madagascar through predation, facilitation of human-led hunts, competition, and disease transmission, but the antiquity and past consequences of these introductions are poorly known. We use radiocarbon and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the bone collagen of introduced dogs (Canis familiaris) and endemic fosa (Cryptoprocta spp.) in central and southern Madagascar to test for competition between introduced and endemic predators. Isotopic evidence indicates little overlap in diet between ancient dogs and fosa in these regions but leaves open the possibility that dogs competitively exclude fosa. Radiocarbon dates confirm that dogs have been present on Madagascar for at least a millennium and suggest that they briefly co-occurred with the island& #8217 s extinct megafauna, which included giant lemurs, elephant birds, and pygmy hippopotamuses. Dogs share a mutualism with pastoralists who also at least occasionally hunt, and this is reflected in deposits at several Malagasy paleontological sites that contain dog and livestock bones along with butchered bones of extinct megafauna and extant lemurs. Dogs on Madagascar have had a wide range of diets during the past millennium, but relatively high stable carbon isotope values suggest few in iduals relied primarily on forest bushmeat. The absence of distinct dietary differences between dogs from archaeological and paleontological sites may reflect the absence of discrete feral populations. Our data suggest that dogs were part of a suite of animal introductions beginning over a millennium ago that coincided with widespread landscape transformation and megafaunal extinction.& &
The legacy of mid-holocene fire on a Tasmanian montane landscape
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-11-2014
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12229
Age and origin of tephras recorded in postglacial lake sediments to the west of the southern Andes, 44°S to 47°S
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-1998
Evaluating the radiocarbon reservoir effect in Lake Kutubu, Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 13-07-2019
DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2018.49
Abstract: We examined the radiocarbon ( 14 C) reservoir effect in Lake Kutubu using tephrochronology and terrestrial plant material to deliver a precise age-depth profile and sedimentation rates for this lake. Based on the presence of two tephra horizons (Tibito and Olgaboli), we found a reservoir age offset in sediments of between 1490 and 2280 14 C yr using the sediment ages derived from the lead-210 ( 210 Pb) dating method. The live submerged biological s les collected exhibited a higher reservoir age offset than the sediment. This is most likely a result of delayed transport of “bomb” 14 C from the atmosphere to aquatic and sedimentary system. The 14 C reservoir effect increased with distance from the lake inlet and also decreased with depth. Dissolution of 14 C-depleted carbon from surrounding limestone and direct in-wash of old soil or vegetation remnants from the catchment are the most likely causes of the 14 C reservoir effect. Based on limestone areas mapped in Papua New Guinea, we indicate lakes which may be subject to a significant 14 C reservoir effect. The results of this study demonstrate the magnitude of the 14 C reservoir effect in lakes and provide insights to the correct interpretation of past environmental and archaeological events in PNG.
Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2004
Earliest Olduvai hominins exploited unstable environments ~ 2 million years ago
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-01-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-20176-2
Abstract: Rapid environmental change is a catalyst for human evolution, driving dietary innovations, habitat ersification, and dispersal. However, there is a dearth of information to assess hominin adaptions to changing physiography during key evolutionary stages such as the early Pleistocene. Here we report a multiproxy dataset from Ewass Oldupa, in the Western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai), Tanzania, to address this lacuna and offer an ecological perspective on human adaptability two million years ago. Oldupai’s earliest hominins sequentially inhabited the floodplains of sinuous channels, then river-influenced contexts, which now comprises the oldest palaeolake setting documented regionally. Early Oldowan tools reveal a homogenous technology to utilise erse, rapidly changing environments that ranged from fern meadows to woodland mosaics, naturally burned landscapes, to lakeside woodland alm groves as well as hyper-xeric steppes. Hominins periodically used emerging landscapes and disturbance biomes multiple times over 235,000 years, thus predating by more than 180,000 years the earliest known hominins and Oldowan industries from the Eastern side of the basin.
Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2018
Fire regime and vegetation change in the transition from Aboriginal to European land management in a Tasmanian eucalypt savanna
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/BT16032
Abstract: Using pollen and charcoal analysis we examined how vegetation and fire regimes have changed over the last 600 years in the Midlands of Tasmania. Sediment cores from seven lagoons were s led, with a chronology developed at one site (Diprose Lagoon) using 210Pb and 14C dating. Statistical contrasts of six cores where Pinus served as a marker of European settlement in the early 19th Century and showed significant changes in pollen composition following settlement with (a) influx of ruderal exotic taxa including Plantago lanceolata L., Brassicaceae, Asteraceae (Liguliflorae) and Rumex, (b) increase in pollen of the aquatics Myriophyllum spp. and Cyperaceae, (c) a decline in native herbaceous pollen taxa, including Chenopodiaceae and Asteraceae (Tubuliflorae) and (d) a decline in Allocasuarina and an initial decline and then increase of Poaceae. The presence of Asteraceae (Liguliflorae) in the pre-European period suggests that an important root vegetable Microseris lanceolata (Walp.) Sch.Bip. may have been abundant. Charcoal deposition was low in the pre-European period and significantly increased immediately after European arrival. Collectively, these changes suggest substantial ecological impacts following European settlement including cessation of Aboriginal traditions of fire management, a shift in hydrological conditions from open water lagoons to more ephemeral herb covered lagoons, and increased ersity of alien herbaceous species following pasture establishment.
New evidence of megafaunal bone damage indicates late colonization of Madagascar
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 10-10-2018
Latest Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation and climate history inferred from an alpine lacustrine record, northwestern Yunnan Province, southwestern China
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2014
A pollen-climate calibration from western Patagonia for palaeoclimatic reconstructions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3082
Regional and seasonal variation of airborne pollen and spores among the cities of South China
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Effects of climate variability on mercury deposition during the Older Dryas and Younger Dryas in the Venezuelan Andes
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-01-2020
Trans-disciplinary research in synthesis of grass pollen aerobiology and its importance for respiratory health in Australasia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
Can we infer vegetation change from peat carbon and nitrogen content? A palaeoecological test from Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 26-08-2015
Abstract: We set out to test the ability to detect vegetation change from organic soil nutrient (carbon and nitrogen) composition in the fire-determined forest/non-forest mosaic of western Tasmania, Australia. We find no relationship between organic soil nitrogen and carbon content, despite widely varying local vegetation and fire regimes. Pollen evidence supports the role of fire in driving an initial vegetation state change from forest to non-forest, while carbon and nitrogen analysis of the peat section suggest that factors other than peat nutrient (carbon and nitrogen) content are responsible for the observed meta-stability of non-forest at the site for 7000 years. We find that we cannot validate the use of organic soil nitrogen and carbon content for inferring vegetation type and question the degree of post-European vegetation change inferred from this method.
Long‐term drivers and timing of accelerated vegetation changes in African biomes and their management implications
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13518
Abstract: Owing to its erse bioclimatic zones, long human history and intense anthropogenic impacts, Africa provides a model system for studying how global terrestrial ecosystems might respond to accelerated socio‐environmental stress. Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change and human impact, and insufficient baseline data h er current environmental management efforts. Using palaeoecological data, we seek to identify the timing, pace and drivers of change in African biomes on a long‐term scale to inform current ecosystem management frameworks on the continent. Africa. 0–12 ka. African biomes. Sixty‐four pollen records across Africa and nearby sites were retrieved from multiple databases/sources and grouped into biomes. Turnover (quantified using the squared chord distance dissimilarity metric) and rarefaction analyses were conducted on pollen records in each biome group to reconstruct regional temporal vegetation turnover and richness. Reconstructed vegetation turnover and richness were compared with independent records of climate, fire and human activity to identify possible drivers of change. We found that the most stable biomes were those with the greatest floristic richness. Southern Africa's mediterranean‐type (SAM) ecosystems were the most stable and northern Africa's mediterranean‐type (NAM) ecosystems were the most unstable (mainly owing to fire). Tropical savannas (TS) and SAM ecosystems expressed the most sensitivity to climatic shifts from ≥6 ka, whereas tropical forests (TF) were relatively stable before human activities intensified from c . 2 ka. Floristic richness also declined across the tropics from c . 2 ka. Our analysis pinpoints NAM ecosystems as undergoing the fastest acceleration in turnover on the continent in response to fire, whereas TF and TS have been undergoing unprecedented changes in bio ersity in the last 2,000 years. We expect further changes in bio ersity where climate becomes warmer and drier and where human impacts are novel and rapid in comparison to long‐term baselines.
Structural variation analysis of 6,500 whole genome sequences in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-01-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41525-021-00267-9
Abstract: There is a strong genetic contribution to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk, with heritability estimates of up to 60%. Both Mendelian and small effect variants have been identified, but in common with other conditions, such variants only explain a little of the heritability. Genomic structural variation might account for some of this otherwise unexplained heritability. We therefore investigated association between structural variation in a set of 25 ALS genes, and ALS risk and phenotype. As expected, the repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene was identified as associated with ALS. Two other ALS-associated structural variants were identified: inversion in the VCP gene and insertion in the ERBB4 gene. All three variants were associated both with increased risk of ALS and specific phenotypic patterns of disease expression. More than 70% of people with respiratory onset ALS harboured ERBB4 insertion compared with 25% of the general population, suggesting respiratory onset ALS may be a distinct genetic subtype.
Late Quaternary vegetation and climate change in the Amazon Basin based on a 50,000 year pollen record from the Amazon fan, ODP site 932
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 1999
Abstract: Hemipelagic sediments from the Amazon deep-sea fan, ODP Site 932 (5° 12.7′N, 47° 1.8′W), and continental shelf provide a 50,000-yr-long pollen record of Amazon Basin vegetation. The age model for Hole 932A is constrained by eight magnetic remanence intensity features, one paleomagnetic excursion, and three AMS 14 C dates. Alchornea, Melastomataceae, Myrtaceae, and Moraceae/Urticaceae are dominant taxa in the pollen record between 40,200 and 19,800 cal yr B.P. Andean taxa, such as Podocarpus and Hedyosmum, increase in abundance between 19,800 and 11,000 cal yr B.P. and prior to 40,200 cal yr B.P. The Holocene pollen assemblage, derived from Amazon River and continental shelf sediments, is dominated by secondary growth taxa, such as Cecropia. Climatic factors influencing the development of glacial and interglacial tropical vegetation are considered by comparing marine with terrestrial records of vegetation change. This comparison shows that the Amazon Basin forests were not extensively replaced by savanna vegetation during the glacial period, contradicting the refugia hypothesis.
Prehistoric human impact on rainforest biodiversity in highland New Guinea
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-01-2007
Abstract: In the highlands of New Guinea, the development of agriculture as an indigenous innovation during the Early Holocene is considered to have resulted in rapid loss of forest cover, a decrease in forest bio ersity and increased land degradation over thousands of years. But how important is human activity in shaping the ersity of vegetation communities over millennial time-scales? An evaluation of the change in bio ersity of forest habitats through the Late Glacial transition to the present in five palaeoecological sites from highland valleys, where intensive agriculture is practised today, is presented. A detailed analysis of the longest and most continuous record from Papua New Guinea is also presented using available bio ersity indices (palynological richness and bio ersity indicator taxa) as a means of identifying changes in ersity. The analysis shows that the collapse of key forest habitats in the highland valleys is evident during the Mid–Late Holocene. These changes are best explained by the adoption of new land management practices and altered disturbance regimes associated with agricultural activity, though climate change may also play a role. The implications of these findings for ecosystem conservation and sustainability of agriculture in New Guinea are discussed.
Palaeochannels of Australia's Riverine Plain - Reconstructing past vegetation environments across the Late Pleistocene and Holocene
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2020
Reconsidering the causality of TIA1 mutations in ALS
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 13-12-2017
Assessing environmental contamination from metal emission and relevant regulations in major areas of coal mining and electricity generation in Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Fire history in western Patagonia from paired tree-ring fire-scar and charcoal records
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 09-03-2012
Abstract: Abstract. Fire history reconstructions are typically based on tree ages and tree-ring fire scars or on charcoal in sedimentary records from lakes or bogs, but rarely on both. In this study of fire history in western Patagonia (47–48° S) in southern South America (SSA) we compared three sedimentary charcoal records collected in bogs with tree-ring fire-scar data collected at 13 nearby s le sites. We examined the temporal and spatial correspondence between the two fire proxies and also compared them to published charcoal records from distant sites in SSA, and with published proxy reconstructions of regional climate variability and large-scale climate modes. Two of our three charcoal records record fire activity for the last 4 ka yr and one for the last 11 ka yr. For the last ca. 400 yr, charcoal accumulation peaks tend to coincide with high fire activity in the tree-ring fire scar records, but the charcoal records failed to detect some of the fire activity recorded by tree rings. Potentially, this discrepancy reflects low-severity fires that burn in herbaceous and other fine fuels without depositing charcoal in the sedimentary record. Periods of high fire activity tended to be synchronous across s le areas, across proxy types, and with proxy records of regional climatic variability as well as major climate drivers. Fire activity throughout the Holocene in western Patagonia has responded to regional climate variation affecting a broad region of southern South America that is teleconnected to both tropical- and high-latitude climate drivers-El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode. An early Holocene peak in fire activity pre-dates any known human presence in our study area, and consequently implicates lightning as the ignition source. In contrast, the increased fire activity during the 20th century, which was concomitantly recorded by charcoal from all the s led bogs and at all fire-scar s le sites, is attributed to human-set fires and is outside the range of variability characteristic of these ecosystems over many centuries and probably millennia.
Improved assessment of pyrogenic carbon quantity and quality in environmental samples by high-performance liquid chromatography
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.CHROMA.2013.06.012
Abstract: The analysis of pyrogenic carbon (PyC) in environmental s les is of great interest, e.g. for carbon cycle assessment, (bio-)char characterization and palaeo-environmental or archeological reconstruction. Here, an HPLC method (HPLC) is presented that reproducibly quantifies benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCA) as molecular markers for PyC in various kinds of environmental s les. It operates at low pH without requiring an organic modifier and was thoroughly tested with PyC reference materials and a peatland core that served as a feasibility and plausibility check. Compared to the established gas chromatography (GC) method, the HPLC method results in higher BPCA quantification reproducibility by showing a significantly smaller coefficient of variation (HPLC: 5%, GC: 16-23%). It works well with small s le amounts, as for instance from sediment cores and aerosol collectors, and requires less s le preparation work than the GC method. Moreover, the here presented HPLC method facilitates (13)C and (14)C analyses on PyC from environmental s les.
Using Tree Rings to Track Atmospheric Mercury Pollution in Australia: The Legacy of Mining in Tasmania
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 14-03-2019
Abstract: Historical records of mercury (Hg) deposition in lake sediments have commonly been used to monitor historic atmospheric concentrations. In the Australian environment, however, freshwater lakes are limited, restricting the region for which depositional archives of Hg can be derived. In this study we show that dendrochemistry can provide a record of atmospheric concentrations at very high resolution. We measured Hg concentrations in growth rings of two tree species from a site in western in Tasmania-Huon Pine ( Lagarostrobus franklinii) and Celery Top Pine ( Phyllocladus aspleniifolius). This region has been heavily mined over the past 150 years. Although much previous work has linked atmospheric Hg to gold mining, the evidence in this study suggests that copper smelters in Queenstown and Zeehan, not gold mining activities, were the main sources of Hg emissions to the atmosphere in this location. Huon Pine had significantly higher background Hg concentrations ( x̅ = 5.62 ng/g) than Celery Top Pine ( x̅ = 2.95 ng/g). No significant increase in Hg concentration during the peak copper smelting phase (1896 to 1935) was observed in Celery Top Pine, while a significant 1.4 fold-increase was observed in Huon Pine. Our results show that of species examined across the globe, Huon Pine is one of the most efficient bioaccumulators of Hg, making it a good proxy for tracking historical Hg emissions in western Tasmania. This ability to measure Hg in the environment is essential if Australia ratifies the Minamata Convention.
Genome-wide study of DNA methylation shows alterations in metabolic, inflammatory, and cholesterol pathways in ALS.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 23-02-2022
DOI: 10.1126/SCITRANSLMED.ABJ0264
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with an estimated heritability between 40 and 50%. DNA methylation patterns can serve as proxies of (past) exposures and disease progression, as well as providing a potential mechanism that mediates genetic or environmental risk. Here, we present a blood-based epigenome-wide association study meta-analysis in 9706 s les passing stringent quality control (6763 patients, 2943 controls). We identified a total of 45 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) annotated to 42 genes, which are enriched for pathways and traits related to metabolism, cholesterol biosynthesis, and immunity. We then tested 39 DNA methylation-based proxies of putative ALS risk factors and found that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, white blood cell proportions, and alcohol intake were independently associated with ALS. Integration of these results with our latest genome-wide association study showed that cholesterol biosynthesis was potentially causally related to ALS. Last, DNA methylation at several DMPs and blood cell proportion estimates derived from DNA methylation data were associated with survival rate in patients, suggesting that they might represent indicators of underlying disease processes potentially amenable to therapeutic interventions.
Humification in northeast Australia: Dating millennial and centennial scale climate variability in the late Holocene
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 26-09-2014
Abstract: The identification of wetter and drier phases from the last deglaciation to the Late Holocene has been a valuable outcome of palaeoenvironmental (chiefly palynological) studies of northeastern Australia conducted over the past 40 years. Few studies have, however, focussed on the identification of wetter and drier phases in the wet tropics, and none have set their focus on the last 4000 years, a period when northeastern Australia is generally accepted to have experienced increased El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity. The present study provides this palaeoclimatic information using the degree of peat humification as the main palaeoclimatic proxy. To identify regional climatic signals in the peat record and differentiate these from local signals induced by particular basin hydrology or ecology, sedimentary sequences from two geographically separated sw s on the Atherton Tableland in north Queensland are examined. Wet and dry shifts are detected in the humification records for Bromfield Sw (core BSAT03) and Mount Quincan crater sw (Q2). Seventeen wet shifts are detected in both records with 12 shifts showing good cross-correlation at the following dates (with 2σ range): 3990/3960 (4090–3850), 3480/3550 (3640–3420), 2950/2990 (3080–2790), 2860/2880 (2980–2700), 2560/2610 (2730–2450), 1880/1820 (2100–1740), 1430/1410 (1660–1320), 1170/1080 (1390–1020), 990/1010 (1100–790), 610/640 (710–490), 290/300 (330–180) and 120/150 (190–40) cal. yr BP. A particular dry phase, initiated by dry shifts at 4090 cal. yr BP (Bromfield Sw ) and 4330 cal. yr BP (Mount Quincan), reaches its greatest strength at 4050 cal. yr BP.
Using dung fungi to interpret decline and extinction ofmegaherbivores: Problems and solutions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2015
Long‐term trajectories of non‐native vegetation on islands globally
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2023
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.14196
Abstract: Human‐mediated changes in island vegetation are, among others, largely caused by the introduction and establishment of non‐native species. However, data on past changes in non‐native plant species abundance that predate historical documentation and censuses are scarce. Islands are among the few places where we can track human arrival in natural systems allowing us to reveal changes in vegetation dynamics with the arrival of non‐native species. We matched fossil pollen data with botanical status information (native, non‐native), and quantified the timing, trajectories and magnitude of non‐native plant vegetational change on 29 islands over the past 5000 years. We recorded a proportional increase in pollen of non‐native plant taxa within the last 1000 years. In idual island trajectories are context‐dependent and linked to island settlement histories. Our data show that non‐native plant introductions have a longer and more dynamic history than is generally recognized, with critical implications for bio ersity baselines and invasion biology.
The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islands
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 30-04-2021
Abstract: Oceanic islands are among the most recent areas on Earth to have been colonized by humans, in many cases in just the past few thousand years. Therefore, they are important laboratories for the study of human impacts on natural vegetation and bio ersity. Nogué et al. provide a quantitative palaeoecological study of 27 islands around the world, focusing on pollen records of vegetation composition before and after human arrival. The authors found a consistent pattern of acceleration of vegetation turnover after human invasion, with median rates of change increasing by a factor of six. These changes occurred regardless of geographical and ecological features of the island and show how rapidly ecosystems can change and how island ecosystems are set on new trajectories. Science , this issue p. 488
Regional and seasonal variation in airborne grass pollen levels between cities of Australia and New Zealand
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-07-2016
Frontier Lapita interaction with resident Papuan populations set the stage for initial peopling of the Pacific
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-04-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01735-W
Abstract: The initial peopling of the remote Pacific islands was one of the greatest migrations in human history, beginning three millennia ago by Lapita cultural groups. The spread of Lapita out of an ancestral Asian homeland is a dominant narrative in the origins of Pacific peoples, and although Island New Guinea has long been recognized as a springboard for the peopling of Oceania, the role of Indigenous populations in this remarkable phase of exploration remains largely untested. Here, we report the earliest evidence for Lapita-introduced animals, turtle bone technology and repeated obsidian import in southern New Guinea 3,480-3,060 years ago, synchronous with the establishment of the earliest known Lapita settlements 700 km away. Our findings precede sustained Lapita migrations and pottery introductions by several centuries, occur alongside Indigenous technologies and suggest continued multicultural influences on population ersity despite language replacement. Our work shows that initial Lapita expansion throughout Island New Guinea was more expansive than previously considered, with Indigenous contact influencing migration pathways and island-hopping strategies that culminated in rapid and purposeful Pacific-wide settlement. Later Lapita dispersals through New Guinea were facilitated by earlier contact with Indigenous populations and profoundly influenced the region as a global centre of cultural and linguistic ersity.
ATXN1 repeat expansions confer risk for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and contribute to TDP-43 mislocalization.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1093/BRAINCOMMS/FCAA064
Abstract: Increasingly, repeat expansions are being identified as part of the complex genetic architecture of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. To date, several repeat expansions have been genetically associated with the disease: intronic repeat expansions in C9orf72, polyglutamine expansions in ATXN2 and polyalanine expansions in NIPA1. Together with previously published data, the identification of an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient with a family history of spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, caused by polyglutamine expansions in ATXN1, suggested a similar disease association for the repeat expansion in ATXN1. We, therefore, performed a large-scale international study in 11 700 in iduals, in which we showed a significant association between intermediate ATXN1 repeat expansions and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (P = 3.33 × 10−7). Subsequent functional experiments have shown that ATXN1 reduces the nucleocytoplasmic ratio of TDP-43 and enhances amyotrophic lateral sclerosis phenotypes in Drosophila, further emphasizing the role of polyglutamine repeat expansions in the pathophysiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Holocene Dynamics of Temperate Rainforests in West-Central Patagonia
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 26-01-2018
A 17,000-year-long record of vegetation and fire from Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 07-07-2016
Targeted Genetic Screen in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Reveals Novel Genetic Variants with Synergistic Effect on Clinical Phenotype.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 09-11-2017
Myrtaceae pollen morphology study from Bass Strait islands, Australia, is effective in separating region-specific fossil Myrtaceae pollen types
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Does sorting by color using visible and high‐energy violet light improve classification of taxa in honey bee pollen pellets?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2023
DOI: 10.1002/APS3.11514
Abstract: Pollen collected by honey bees from different plant species often differs in color, and this has been used as a basis for plant identification. The objective of this study was to develop a new, low‐cost protocol to sort pollen pellets by color using high‐energy violet light and visible light to determine whether pollen pellet color is associated with variations in plant species identity. We identified 35 distinct colors and found that 52% of pollen subs les ( n = 200) were dominated by a single taxon. Among these near‐pure pellets, only one color consistently represented a single pollen taxon (Asteraceae: Cichorioideae). Across the spectrum of colors spanning yellows, oranges, and browns, similarly colored pollen pellets contained pollen from multiple plant families ranging from two to 13 families per color. Sorting pollen pellets illuminated under high‐energy violet light lit from four directions within a custom‐made light box aided in distinguishing pellet composition, especially in pellets within the same color.
Differences in grass pollen allergen exposure across Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2015
Novel mutations support a role for Profilin 1 in the pathogenesis of ALS
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2015
Molecular dynamics analysis of Superoxide Dismutase 1 mutations suggests decoupling between mechanisms underlying ALS onset and progression
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 05-12-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.12.05.519128
Abstract: Mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 ( SOD1 ) gene are the second most common known cause of ALS. SOD1 variants express high phenotypic variability and over 200 have been reported in people with ALS. Investigating how different SOD1 variants affect the protein dynamics might help in understanding their pathogenic mechanism and explaining their heterogeneous clinical presentation. It was previously proposed that variants can be broadly classified in two groups, ‘wild-type like’ (WTL) and ‘metal binding region’ (MBR) variants, based on their structural location and biophysical properties. MBR variants are associated with a loss of SOD1 enzymatic activity. In this study we used molecular dynamics and large clinical datasets to characterise the differences in the structural and dynamic behaviour of WTL and MBR variants with respect to the wild-type SOD1, and how such differences influence the ALS clinical phenotype. Our study identified marked structural differences, some of which are observed in both variant groups, while others are group specific. Moreover, applying graph theory to a network representation of the proteins, we identified differences in the intramolecular contacts of the two classes of variants. Finally, collecting clinical data of approximately 500 SOD1 ALS patients carrying variants from both classes, we showed that the survival time of patients carrying an MBR variant is generally longer (~6 years median difference, p 0.001) with respect to patients with a WTL variant. In conclusion, our study highlights key differences in the dynamic behaviour of the WTL and MBR SOD1 variants, and wild-type SOD1 at an atomic and molecular level. We identified interesting structural features that could be further investigated to explain the associated phenotypic variability. Our results support the hypothesis of a decoupling between mechanisms of onset and progression of SOD1 ALS, and an involvement of loss-of-function of SOD1 with the disease progression.
Late Quaternary vegetation change in the Tari Basin, Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-1998
Crowd-sourced allergic rhinitis symptom data: the influence of environmental and demographic factors
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2019.135147
Abstract: Allergic Rhinitis (AR) affects over half a billion people worldwide with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 5 in iduals in developed countries. Although ambient pollen exposure is a causal factor in AR, the symptom-exposure relationship is typically not studied in the broader community but in small, well-characterised cohorts drawn from clinical populations. To identify relationships between AR symptoms in the community and a range of environmental factors, we used a database containing over 96,000 symptom score reports collected over a 3-year period (2014-2016) through freely available smartphone apps released in two Australian cities, Melbourne and Canberra. Ambient pollen levels and symptom scores were strongly related, with grass pollen explaining most of the symptom variation. Other factors correlated with higher symptom scores included temperature (R > 0.73) and wind speed (R > 0.75). In general, worse symptom scores were reported by younger participants, women, and those who had taken medication for AR in the preceding 24 h. The strength of this relationship varied between the two cities. Smartphone-based symptom surveys offer a cost-effective means of studying real-world risk factors for AR in a broader 'extra-clinical' population.
Past and future global transformation of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 31-08-2018
Abstract: Terrestrial ecosystems will be transformed by current anthropogenic change, but the extent of this change remains a challenge to predict. Nolan et al. looked at documented vegetational and climatic changes at almost 600 sites worldwide since the last glacial maximum 21,000 years ago. From this, they determined vegetation responses to temperature changes of 4° to 7°C. They went on to estimate the extent of ecosystem changes under current similar (albeit more rapid) scenarios of warming. Without substantial mitigation efforts, terrestrial ecosystems are at risk of major transformation in composition and structure. Science , this issue p. 920
Dynamics of North Patagonian rainforests from fine-resolution pollen, charcoal and tree-ring analysis, Chonos Archipelago, Southern Chile
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-07-2003
Mid-Holocene development of mangrove communities featuring Rhizophoraceae and geomorphic change in the Richmond River Estuary, New South Wales, Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2006
Forgotten impacts of European land-use on riparian and savanna vegetation in northwest Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-12-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JVS.12591
Author Correction: Common and rare variant association analyses in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identify 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-01-2022
A fire-driven shift from forest to non-forest: evidence for alternative stable states?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2014
DOI: 10.1890/12-1766.1
Modern pollen from small hollows reflects Athrotaxis cupressoides density across a wildfire gradient in subalpine forests of the Central Plateau, Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 25-04-2017
Abstract: Pollen assemblages from 50 small hollows were used to resolve fire-caused vegetation patterns in a ~2-km 2 subalpine landscape on the Central Plateau of Tasmania, Australia. Sites were characterized by varying abundance of the dominant tree species, Athrotaxis cupressoides, reflecting mortality from a wildfire that occurred 53 years prior to s ling. Sites were classified a priori based on fire-related Athrotaxis mortality as burned (100% standing dead), unburned ( % standing dead), and mixed (intermediate proportions). Non-parametric analysis of variance and discriminant analysis were used to quantify the variability in key pollen taxa and pollen ratios among burn classifications. The ratio of Athrotaxis to Poaceae pollen was the clearest metric distinguishing among burn classifications. When discriminant analysis was informed with data from the eight most dominant pollen data, s les were classified with high accuracy (0.96–0.98). Macroscopic charcoal concentrations varied widely among sites, but median values were consistent with inferred fire patterns, increasing in abundance from unburned to burned sites. The results support the use of small hollows to resolve fine-scale vegetation patterns (e.g. within 100 m of a site). The discriminant analysis function was also applied to five late-Holocene pollen s les from the study area, to test the potential of these methods to classify s les with unknown group assignments. The posterior probability of assigned group membership ranged from 0.85 to 0.99, demonstrating the similarity of the fossil pollen to the calibration dataset. Our calibration dataset provides a means to classify fossil s les from the region in terms of Athrotaxis cover and fire-caused mortality. This approach could be applied to other regions to quantify disturbance-related vegetation patterns or spatial heterogeneity over Holocene timescales.
Identification of cultivated Pandanus and Colocasia in pollen records and the implications for the study of early agriculture in New Guinea
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-1995
DOI: 10.1007/BF00235751
A blinded international study on the reliability of genetic testing for GGGGCC-repeat expansions inC9orf72reveals marked differences in results among 14 laboratories
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 04-04-2014
The Effect of SMN Gene Dosage on ALS Risk and Disease Severity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-01-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ANA.26009
Stochastic models support rapid peopling of Late Pleistocene Sahul
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-04-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-021-21551-3
Abstract: The peopling of Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea) represents the earliest continental migration and settlement event of solely anatomically modern humans, but its patterns and ecological drivers remain largely conceptual in the current literature. We present an advanced stochastic-ecological model to test the relative support for scenarios describing where and when the first humans entered Sahul, and their most probable routes of early settlement. The model supports a dominant entry via the northwest Sahul Shelf first, potentially followed by a second entry through New Guinea, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago based on comparison with bias-corrected archaeological map layers. The model’s emergent properties predict that peopling of the entire continent occurred rapidly across all ecological environments within 156–208 human generations (4368–5599 years) and at a plausible rate of 0.71–0.92 km year −1 . More broadly, our methods and approaches can readily inform other global migration debates, with results supporting an exit of anatomically modern humans from Africa 63,000–90,000 years ago, and the peopling of Eurasia in as little as 12,000–15,000 years via inland routes.
The dynamics of chironomid assemblages and vegetation during the Late Quaternary at Laguna Facil, Chonos Archipelago, southern Chile
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2005
Genetic correlation between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and schizophrenia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-03-2017
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS14774
Abstract: We have previously shown higher-than-expected rates of schizophrenia in relatives of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggesting an aetiological relationship between the diseases. Here, we investigate the genetic relationship between ALS and schizophrenia using genome-wide association study data from over 100,000 unique in iduals. Using linkage disequilibrium score regression, we estimate the genetic correlation between ALS and schizophrenia to be 14.3% (7.05–21.6 P =1 × 10 −4 ) with schizophrenia polygenic risk scores explaining up to 0.12% of the variance in ALS ( P =8.4 × 10 −7 ). A modest increase in comorbidity of ALS and schizophrenia is expected given these findings (odds ratio 1.08–1.26) but this would require very large studies to observe epidemiologically. We identify five potential novel ALS-associated loci using conditional false discovery rate analysis. It is likely that shared neurobiological mechanisms between these two disorders will engender novel hypotheses in future preclinical and clinical studies.
Paradise burnt: How colonizing humans transform landscapes with fire
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 30-11-2010
Reconsidering precolumbian human colonization in the Galápagos Islands, Republic of Ecuador
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 06-2016
DOI: 10.7183/1045-6635.27.2.169
Abstract: Fifty years ago, Heyerdahl and Skjølsvold (1956, 1990) collected material from five archaeological sites in the Galápagos Islands. They retained earthenwares of possible precolumbian origin and discarded ceramic, metal, and glass artifacts postdating the arrival of the Spanish in A.D. 1535. Consequently, they argued that each site was formed as the results of a series of discard events from unrelated short-term occupations extending from the precolumbian to the historical era, and that the earthenwares represented occasional visits by fishermen from precolumbian Peru and Ecuador. In 2005, we re-excavated the sites and collected all the excavated materials. Our results show that each class of material, irrespective of age or origin, was distributed spatially and stratigraphically in the same pattern, contradicting the former assumption of multiple, unrelated occupations. We reject the palimpsest model in favor of the null hypothesis of single-phase site occupation. Analysis of putatively precolumbian pottery using optically-stimulated luminescence dating indicates that it is mostly of historical age. Radiocarbon dating confirms that the archaeological sites are younger than the sixteenth century. Research on sedimentary cores shows probable anthropogenic impacts as restricted to the last 500 years. We conclude that there was no human occupation in the Galápagos Islands until the historical era.
Postglacial fire history and interactions with vegetation and climate in southwestern Yunnan Province of China
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 07-06-2017
Abstract: Abstract. A high-resolution, continuous 18.5 kyr (1 kyr = 1000 cal yr BP) macroscopic charcoal record from Qinghai Lake in southwestern Yunnan Province, China, reveals postglacial fire frequency and variability history. The results show that three periods with high-frequency and high-severity fires occurred during the periods 18.5–15.0, 13.0–11.5, and 4.3–0.8 ka, respectively. This record was compared with major pollen taxa and pollen ersity indices from the same core, and tentatively related to the regional climate proxy records with the aim to separate climate- from human-induced fire activity, and discuss vegetation–fire–climate interactions. The results suggest that fire was mainly controlled by climate before 4.3 ka and by the combined actions of climate and humans after 4.3 ka. Before 4.3 ka, high fire activity corresponded to cold and dry climatic conditions, while warm and humid climatic conditions brought infrequent and weak fires. Fire was an important disturbance factor and played an important role in forest dynamics around the study area. Vegetation responses to fire after 4.3 ka are not consistent with those before 4.3 ka, suggesting that human influence on vegetation and fire regimes may have become more prevalent after 4.3 ka. The comparisons between fire activity and vegetation reveal that evergreen oaks are flammable plants and fire-tolerant taxa. Alnus is a fire-adapted taxon and a nonflammable plant, but density of Alnus forest is a key factor to decide its fire resistance. The forests dominated by Lithocarpus/Castanopsis and/or tropical trees and shrubs are not easy to ignite, but Lithocarpus/Castanopsis and tropical trees and shrubs are fire-sensitive taxa. Fire appears to be unfavourable to plant ersity in the study area.
A first look at oxygen isotope records from modern and Holocene-aged gastropod (Stenomelania) shells from Lake Kutubu, Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2020
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3188
Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-12-2007
Association of Variants in the SPTLC1 Gene With Juvenile Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Publisher: American Medical Association (AMA)
Date: 10-2021
Pollen evidence for the transition of the Eastern Australian climate system from the post-glacial to the present-day ENSO mode
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2007
Introduction: Tropical palaeoecology and global change
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-07-2009
Human impacts and Anthropocene environmental change at Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar wetland in Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 27-09-2021
Abstract: Wetland environments are increasingly threatened by climate change, population expansion, resource extraction, forest clearance, and pollution. The Ramsar Convention aims to monitor internationally important wetlands to ensure their ongoing maintenance and survival through wise use and management. However, many wetlands have undergone substantial human-induced changes prior to being listed with Ramsar. In the case of Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar wetland situated in the tropical rainforests of Papua New Guinea, paleoecological indicators preserved in lake sediments have been used to identify baseline conditions and to track anthropogenic impacts over time. This methodology can be applied to wetlands around the world to determine baseline environmental conditions and to track historic ecological changes in areas where constant monitoring has not been possible.
NEK1 variants confer susceptibility to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-07-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NG.3626
Toward the saving of global rainforests.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16112
Abstract: Rainforests are the Earth's largest terrestrial carbon sinks and are rapidly shrinking due to unprecedented human impact, especially tropical rainforests, which host ~50% of global bio ersity. Understanding what makes rainforests resilient on a long-term basis is key to preserving global rainforests and their ecological services. Here, using estimates of rates of change (RoC) in fossil pollen records, an indicator for temporal compositional change (turnover) in vegetation, we show that accelerating trends in global rainforest changes (increasing RoC/turnover) during the last 12,000 years were mainly driven by intensive agricultural practices, and the highly erse and productive tropical rainforests were the most impacted. Management/conservation strategies aimed at the effective management of human impact will help promote rainforest health and ersity and increase resilience under projected climate change.
The fire, human and climate nexus in the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2007
Abstract: It is widely believed that Australian Aborigines utilized fire to manage many landscapes however, to what extent this use of fire impacted on Australia's ecosystems remains uncertain. The late Pleistocene/ Holocene fire history from three sites within the Sydney Basin (Gooches Sw , Lake Baraba and Kings Waterhole) were compared with archaeological and palaeoclimatic data. The Gooches Sw record appeared to be most influenced by climate and there was an abrupt increase in fire activity from the mid Holocene perhaps associated with the onset of modern El Niño-dominated conditions. The Kings Waterhole site also displayed an abrupt increase at this time, however there was a marked decrease in charcoal from ~3 ka. Similarly Lake Baraba displayed low levels of charcoal in the late Holocene. At both Kings Waterhole and Lake Baraba archaeological evidence suggests intensified human activity in the late Holocene during this period of lower and less variable charcoal. It is hence possible that Aboriginal people strongly influenced fire activity in some areas of the Sydney Basin during the late Holocene perhaps in response to the increased risk of large intense fires as an ENSO-dominated climate became more prevalent. The fire history within the Sydney Basin varies both temporally and spatially and therefore it is inappropriate to apply a single fire regime to the entire region for landscape management. This work also has implications for future fire incidence associated with climatic variability under an enhanced Greenhouse effect.
Genome-wide study of DNA methylation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis identifies differentially methylated loci and implicates metabolic, inflammatory and cholesterol pathways
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 24-03-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.03.12.21253115
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with an estimated heritability of around 50%. DNA methylation patterns can serve as biomarkers of (past) exposures and disease progression, as well as providing a potential mechanism that mediates genetic or environmental risk. Here, we present a blood-based epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) meta-analysis in 10,462 s les (7,344 ALS patients and 3,118 controls), representing the largest case-control study of DNA methylation for any disease to date. We identified a total of 45 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) annotated to 42 genes, which are enriched for pathways and traits related to metabolism, cholesterol biosynthesis, and immunity. We show that DNA-methylation-based proxies for HDL-cholesterol, BMI, white blood cell (WBC) proportions and alcohol intake were independently associated with ALS. Integration of these results with our latest GWAS showed that cholesterol biosynthesis was causally related to ALS. Finally, we found that DNA methylation levels at several DMPs and blood cell proportion estimates derived from DNA methylation data, are associated with survival rate in patients, and could represent indicators of underlying disease processes.
Smallest Late Pleistocene inhabited island in Australasia reveals the impact of post-glacial sea-level rise on human behaviour from 17,000 years ago
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Aboriginal impacts on fire and vegetation on a Tasmanian island
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-12-2017
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12935
A landscape vulnerability framework for identifying integrated conservation and adaptation pathways to climate change: the case of Madagascar’s spiny forest
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-09-2015
Predictability of biomass burning in response to climate changes
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 23-10-2012
DOI: 10.1029/2011GB004249
Abstract: Climate is an important control on biomass burning, but the sensitivity of fire to changes in temperature and moisture balance has not been quantified. We analyze sedimentary charcoal records to show that the changes in fire regime over the past 21,000 yrs are predictable from changes in regional climates. Analyses of paleo‐ fire data show that fire increases monotonically with changes in temperature and peaks at intermediate moisture levels, and that temperature is quantitatively the most important driver of changes in biomass burning over the past 21,000 yrs. Given that a similar relationship between climate drivers and fire emerges from analyses of the interannual variability in biomass burning shown by remote‐sensing observations of month‐by‐month burnt area between 1996 and 2008, our results signal a serious cause for concern in the face of continuing global warming.
No evidence for shared genetic basis of common variants in multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 13-11-2013
DOI: 10.1093/HMG/DDT574
Abstract: Genome-wide association studies have been successful in identifying common variants that influence the susceptibility to complex diseases. From these studies, it has emerged that there is substantial overlap in susceptibility loci between diseases. In line with those findings, we hypothesized that shared genetic pathways may exist between multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While both diseases may have inflammatory and neurodegenerative features, epidemiological studies have indicated an increased co-occurrence within in iduals and families. To this purpose, we combined genome-wide data from 4088 MS patients, 3762 ALS patients and 12 030 healthy control in iduals in whom 5 440 446 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were successfully genotyped or imputed. We tested these SNPs for the excess association shared between MS and ALS and also explored whether polygenic models of SNPs below genome-wide significance could explain some of the observed trait variance between diseases. Genome-wide association meta-analysis of SNPs as well as polygenic analyses fails to provide evidence in favor of an overlap in genetic susceptibility between MS and ALS. Hence, our findings do not support a shared genetic background of common risk variants in MS and ALS.
Postglacial formation and dynamics of North Patagonian Rainforest in the Chonos Archipelago, Southern Chile
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2004
CCNF mutations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-04-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS11253
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are overlapping, fatal neurodegenerative disorders in which the molecular and pathogenic basis remains poorly understood. Ubiquitinated protein aggregates, of which TDP-43 is a major component, are a characteristic pathological feature of most ALS and FTD patients. Here we use genome-wide linkage analysis in a large ALS/FTD kindred to identify a novel disease locus on chromosome 16p13.3. Whole-exome sequencing identified a CCNF missense mutation at this locus. Interrogation of international cohorts identified additional novel CCNF variants in familial and sporadic ALS and FTD. Enrichment of rare protein-altering CCNF variants was evident in a large sporadic ALS replication cohort. CCNF encodes cyclin F, a component of an E3 ubiquitin–protein ligase complex (SCF Cyclin F ). Expression of mutant CCNF in neuronal cells caused abnormal ubiquitination and accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins, including TDP-43 and a SCF Cyclin F substrate. This implicates common mechanisms, linked to protein homeostasis, underlying neuronal degeneration.
Palaeoenvironmental change in tropical Australasia over the last 30,000 years - a synthesis by the OZ-INTIMATE group
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
Post-glacial evolution of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool and El Niño-Southern oscillation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2004
Late-glacial and Holocene records of fire and vegetation from Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2017
The emergence of an agricultural landscape in the highlands of New Guinea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2003
Vegetation and fire history during the last 18,000 cal yr B.P. in Southern Patagonia: Mallín Pollux, Coyhaique, Province Aisén (45°41′30″ S, 71°50′30″ W, 640 m elevation)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2007
Aborigine-managed forest, savanna and grassland: Biome switching in montane eastern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.12306
Seasonal pollen distribution in the atmosphere of Hobart, Tasmania: preliminary observations and congruence with flowering phenology
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1071/BT10095
Abstract: The atmospheric pollen loads of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, were monitored between September 2007 and July 2009. To examine the match of the airborne pollen composition with the flowering duration of their contributing plants, the phenology of native and non-native plants in various habitats near the pollen-trapping site was undertaken between August 2008 and July 2009. The pollen load was found to have a strong seasonal component associated with the start of spring in September. This is incongruent with the peak flowering season of the total taxa in October. In most taxa, atmospheric pollen signatures appeared before flowering was observed in the field. The presence of most pollen types in the atmosphere also exceeded the observed flowering duration of potential pollen-source taxa. Reasons for this may be related to the s ling effort of phenological monitoring, pollen blown in from earlier flowering populations outside of the s ling area, the ability of pollen to be reworked, and the large pollen production of some wind-pollinated taxa. In 2007–2008, 15 pollen types dominated the atmosphere, accounting for 90% of the airborne pollen load. The top six pollen types belonged to Betula, Cupressaceae, Myrtaceae, Salix, Poaceae and Ulmus. Comparatively, the annual pollen load of Hobart is lower than in most other Australian cities however, the pollen signal of Betula is inordinately high. Native plants play a minor role as pollen contributors, despite the proximity of native habitats to the pollen-s ling location. The implications of the aerobiological observations are discussed in relation to public health.
Mutations in the vesicular trafficking protein annexin A11 are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 03-05-2017
DOI: 10.1126/SCITRANSLMED.AAD9157
Abstract: Annexin A11 mutations, implicated in ALS, prevent binding to calcyclin and induce the formation of cytoplasmic inclusions.
The SOD1-mediated ALS phenotype shows a decoupling between age of symptom onset and disease duration
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-11-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-022-34620-Y
Abstract: Superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene variants may cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, some of which are associated with a distinct phenotype. Most studies assess limited variants or s le sizes. In this international, retrospective observational study, we compare phenotypic and demographic characteristics between people with SOD1 -ALS and people with ALS and no recorded SOD1 variant. We investigate which variants are associated with age at symptom onset and time from onset to death or censoring using Cox proportional-hazards regression. The SOD1 -ALS dataset reports age of onset for 1122 and disease duration for 883 people the comparator population includes 10,214 and 9010 people respectively. Eight variants are associated with younger age of onset and distinct survival trajectories a further eight associated with younger onset only and one with distinct survival only. Here we show that onset and survival are decoupled in SOD1 -ALS. Future research should characterise rarer variants and molecular mechanisms causing the observed variability.
Rainforest, woodland or swampland? Integrating time, space and culture to manage an endangered ecosystem complex in the Australian Wet Tropics
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-11-2020
Southward Shift of the Pacific ITCZ During the Holocene
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 12-2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018PA003469
The palaeoenvironments of Kuk Swamp from the beginnings of agriculture in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2012
Project MinE: study design and pilot analyses of a large-scale whole-genome sequencing study in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-06-2018
Late Quaternary fire regimes of Australasia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
ALS-associated missense and nonsense TBK1 mutations can both cause loss of kinase function
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2018
Value of systematic genetic screening of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 14-02-2021
Abstract: The clinical utility of routine genetic sequencing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is uncertain. Our aim was to determine whether routine targeted sequencing of 44 ALS-relevant genes would have a significant impact on disease subclassification and clinical care. We performed targeted sequencing of a 44-gene panel in a prospective case series of 100 patients with ALS recruited consecutively from the Sheffield Motor Neuron Disorders Clinic, UK. All participants were diagnosed with ALS by a specialist Consultant Neurologist. 7/100 patients had familial ALS, but the majority were apparently sporadic cases. 21% of patients with ALS carried a confirmed pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutation, of whom 93% had no family history of ALS. 15% met the inclusion criteria for a current ALS genetic-therapy trial. 5/21 patients with a pathogenic mutation had an additional variant of uncertain significance (VUS). An additional 21% of patients with ALS carried a VUS in an ALS-associated gene. Overall, 13% of patients carried more than one genetic variant (pathogenic or VUS). Patients with ALS carrying two variants developed disease at a significantly earlier age compared with patients with a single variant (median age of onset=56 vs 60 years, p=0.0074). Routine screening for ALS-associated pathogenic mutations in a specialised ALS referral clinic will impact clinical care in 21% of cases. An additional 21% of patients have variants in the ALS gene panel currently of unconfirmed significance after removing non-specific or predicted benign variants. Overall, variants within known ALS-linked genes are of potential clinical importance in 42% of patients.
Palaeoenvironmental changes in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-1996
Seasonal distribution of pollen in the atmosphere of Darwin, tropical Australia: Preliminary results
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2007
Climate change reduces resilience to fire in subalpine rainforests
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-03-2019
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14609
Abstract: Climate change is affecting the distribution of species and the functioning of ecosystems. For species that are slow growing and poorly dispersed, climate change can force a lag between the distributions of species and the geographic distributions of their climatic envelopes, exposing species to the risk of extinction. Climate also governs the resilience of species and ecosystems to disturbance, such as wildfire. Here we use species distribution modelling and palaeoecology to assess and test the impact of vegetation-climate disequilibrium on the resilience of an endangered fire-sensitive rainforest community to fires. First, we modelled the probability of occurrence of Athrotaxis spp. and Nothofagus gunnii rainforest in Tasmania (hereon "montane rainforest") as a function of climate. We then analysed three pollen and charcoal records spanning the last 7,500 cal year BP from within both high (n = 1) and low (n = 2) probability of occurrence areas. Our study indicates that climatic change between 3,000 and 4,000 cal year bp induced a disequilibrium between montane rainforests and climate that drove a loss of resilience of these communities. Current and future climate change are likely to shift the geographic distribution of the climatic envelopes of this plant community further, suggesting that current high-resilience locations will face a reduction in resilience. Coupled with the forecast of increasing fire activity in southern temperate regions, this heralds a significant threat to this and other slow growing, poorly dispersed and fire sensitive forest systems that are common in the southern mid to high latitudes.
Postglacial fire history and interactions with vegetation and climate in southwestern Yunnan Province of China based on charcoal and pollen records
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 16-06-2016
DOI: 10.5194/CP-2016-61
Abstract: Abstract. A high-resolution, continuous 18.5 ka-long (1 ka=1000 cal yr BP) macroscopic charcoal record from Qinghai Lake in southwestern Yunnan Province, China reveals the postglacial fire frequency and variability history. The results show that three periods with high fire frequency and intensity occurred during the periods 18.5–15.0 ka, 13.0–11.5 ka, and 4.3–~1.0 ka, respectively. This record was compared with the pollen record from the same core, and tentatively correlated with the regional climate proxy records with the aim to separate climate- from human-induced fire activity, and discuss vegetation-fire-climate interactions. The results suggest that fire was mainly controlled by climate before 4.3 ka and by combined action of climate and humans after 4.3 ka. Before 4.3 ka, high fire activity corresponded to cold and dry climatic conditions, while warm and humid climatic conditions brought infrequent and weak fires. Fire was an important disturbance factor and played an important role in forest dynamics around the study area. Vegetation responses to fire before 4.3 ka are not consistent with that after 4.3 ka, suggesting that human influence on vegetation and fire regimes may have become more prevalent after 4.3 ka. The correlations between fire activity and vegetation reveal that evergreen oaks and Alnus are flammable plants. Evergreen oaks are fire-tolerant taxa and Alnus is a fire-adapted taxon. The forests dominated by Lithocarpus/Castanopsis and/or tropical arbors are not easy to ignite, but Lithocarpus/Castanopsis and tropical arbors are fire-sensitive taxa in the study area.
Dynamic ecological observations from satellites inform aerobiology of allergenic grass pollen
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2018
Using crowd-sourced allergic rhinitis symptom data to improve grass pollen forecasts and predict individual symptoms
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2020
History of human impact on Lake Kutubu, Papua New Guinea: The geochemical signatures of oil and gas mining activities in sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.CHEMOSPHERE.2015.12.086
Abstract: Lake Kutubu, a large tropical lake in Papua New Guinea, is well known for its ecological importance however, there have been recent changes to the pristine nature of this lake due to activities associated with the largest oil and gas project in PNG. The aim of this study was to determine the geochemical profile of sediment cores of Lake Kutubu and to comprehend the contamination changes undergone in this lake due to mining activities utilising the hydraulic fracturing method. Sediment core profiles of Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Cd, Ba, Ce, Pb and U, grain size and dating analyses were conducted for five sites in the lake. Grain size and dating demonstrated that the northwest side of Lake Kutubu has sediments of allocthonous origin while the southeast sediments are of autochthonous origin. Ba was the element with the largest changes in concentrations since 1990 and the best tracer of mining activities near the lake. Sites KTB 02 and KTB 10 northwest of the lake showed the most distinct changes in element concentrations. Element enrichment factors (EF = 2.8, 4.2 and 3.2 respectively) demonstrated that Mn, Se and Ba have undergone a moderate enrichment in the lake since mining activities started. Ni, Cd and Se concentrations exceed sediment guidelines in some s les. No guideline is available for Ba, and special attention should be given to this element in this lake. This study demonstrated that Lake Kutubu oil/gas extraction activities are significant sources of elements to this lake and highlights the need for studies on the partitioning and speciation of elements to understand organism metal exposure.
Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk variants and the genetic architecture of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-07-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NG.3622
Exome sequencing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identifies risk genes and pathways
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 27-03-2015
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig's disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Cirulli et al. sequenced the expressed genes of nearly 3000 ALS patients and compared them with those of more than 6000 controls (see the Perspective by Singleton and Traynor). They identified several proteins that were linked to disease in patients. One such protein, TBK1, is implicated in innate immunity and autophagy and may represent a therapeutic target. Science , this issue p. 1436 see also p. 1422
Climate‐driven shifts in the distribution of koala‐browse species from the Last Interglacial to the near future
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-06-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04530
Age of onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is modulated by a locus on 1p34.1
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2013
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Amount: $420,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivitySpecial Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0567379
Start Date: 10-2005
End Date: 12-2007
Amount: $110,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI110100019
Start Date: 2011
End Date: 01-2013
Amount: $199,742.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityResearch Networks - Grant ID: RN0457921
Start Date: 10-2004
End Date: 10-2009
Amount: $1,500,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivitySpecial Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354580
Start Date: 12-2003
End Date: 12-2004
Amount: $10,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989624
Start Date: 2009
End Date: 12-2009
Amount: $200,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE170100015
Start Date: 06-2017
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $33,750,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE230100009
Start Date: 07-2024
End Date: 06-2031
Amount: $35,000,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP170100242
Start Date: 03-2019
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $460,429.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100053
Start Date: 2018
End Date: 12-2018
Amount: $358,031.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP120103202
Start Date: 03-2012
End Date: 03-2016
Amount: $335,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity