The Response of Aboriginal Burning Practices to Population Levels and El Niño–Southern Oscillation Events during the mid- to late-Holocene
A case study from the Sydney Basin using charcoal and pollen analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8382826 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Manu P Black, Scott D Mooney, Scott Mooney (0000-0003-4449-5060, UNSW Sydney, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-52 |
| Publication date | 2007-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Australian Geographer (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-9182 • E-ISSN: 1465-3311 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00049180601175857 |
| OpenAlex | W2063755877 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 30 |
Pollen and macroscopic charcoal have been analysed from a sedimentary sequence representing approximately 6100 years from a site within Wollemi National Park. This is located to the north-west of Sydney and forms a part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The overall aim of the work was to examine the prehistoric interrelationships between vegetation, fire and human activity. There were relatively minor changes in the vegetation over the last ∼6000 years, perhaps reflecting the climate- and fire-resilient nature of the sclerophyllous vegetation found on Hawkesbury Sandstone throughout the Sydney Basin. Casuarinaceae declined in the late Holocene, a trend that has been detected in numerous palaeoecological studies throughout south-eastern Australia. This decline was unrelated to fire, which has been a persistent feature at the site over the entire analysed sequence. The fire regime at the site changed from 5.7 ka, which is interpreted as reflecting the onset of increased climatic variability associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Another dramatic change in the fire regime occurred at 3 ka, which was coeval with archaeological changes in the region. It is possible that the change in fire activity from 3 ka represented an alteration to Aboriginal management strategies associated with an increasing population and/or the increased risk of conflagrations in an ENSO-dominated climate
Archaeology · Charcoal · Climate change · Ecosystem · Fire regime · Foreland basin · Geography · Holocene · Mediterranean climate · Paleoecology · Period (music · Physical geography · Population · Prehistory · Sclerophyll · Structural basin · Vegetation (pathology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Ecology · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Oceanography · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Paleontology
‘Burning Love’, Living Ngurra
Bushfire impacts proposed Anthropocene markers in a Southern Hemisphere World Heritage peatland
Geographical Fire Research in A ustralia
Holocene palaeofire records in a high-level, proximal valley-fill (Wilson Bog), Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia
Implications of a 14 200 year contiguous fire record for understanding human—climate relationships at Goochs Swamp, New South Wales, Australia
The fire, human and climate nexus in the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia
Fire, humans and climate as drivers of environmental change on Broughton Island, New South Wales, Australia
Volatile Worlds, Vulnerable Bodies
Letting the plants speak
The Evolution of Peat-Swamp Channels and Organic Floodplains, Barrington Tops, New South Wales, Australia
Aboriginal Cosmopolitanism
Burning the Land
Variability of El Niño/Southern Oscillation activity at millennial timescales during the Holocene epoch
An Improved Peat Sampler
An ~15,000-Year Record of El Niño-Driven Alluviation in Southwestern Ecuador
Charcoal as a Fire Proxy
Australian Natural History1
Vegetation and fire response to late Holocene human occupation in island and mainland north west Tasmania
Australasian evidence for mid-holocene climate change implies precessional control of Walker Circulation in the Pacific
The late-Holocene decline of Casuarinaceae in southeast Australia
Habitation and land use patterns in the Upper Mangrove Creek catchment, New South Wales central coast, Australia
What's Changing
Shcal04 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–11.0 Cal Kyr BP
Fine Resolution Palaeoecology Confirms Anthropogenic Impact During the Late Holocene in the Lower Hawkesbury Valley, NSW
Environmental change in Greater Australia
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Highly cited | No |