QUATERNARY AUSTRALASIAQUATERNARY AUSTRALASIA JUNE 2004 5I write this in late April in Uppland, central Sweden. It is an interesting time of year here: the transition from winter to

QUATERNARY AUSTRALASIA

VOLUME 22 NO 1 JUNE 2004

Quaternary, quo vadis? Proposed Neogenisation of the Quaternary,and Quaternarists’ response

QUATERNARY AUSTRALASIA JUNE 2004 2

Cover photoFrom the IV Southern Connections Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, January 2004. John Flux(Ecological Research Associates, New Zealand) examines a Hyrax midden at Traveller’s Rest Farm, Cederberg region.These middens — the largest middens Stuart Pearson hadever seen — form important palaeoecological archives.Photo courtesy L. Gayler and S. Pearson.

Back CoverA hyrax near Capetown, image courtesy of L. Gayler and S. Pearson and San rock art, image courtesy of M. McKenzie

ISSN 0811-0433

Editorial 3

President’s Pen 4

Guest Editorial 5

Out of Australasia? 5

Redefining the Quaternary 8

Proposal to redefine the Quaternary 9

Redefining the Quaternary — 10commentary on responses received by INQUA

What does the term ‘Quaternary’ 14mean in New Zealand?: Historical usage and a way forward

A New INQUA Palaeoclimate Project 20‘Land-Ocean Correlation of Long Recordsfrom the Southern Hemisphere at Orbital and Sub-Orbital Scales’

Southern Connections reports

Southern Connections Conference, 22University of Cape Town, South Africa, January 2004

Southern Connections Karoo Tour 2324–28 January, 2004

Images From the Southern Connections 26coastal tour, 24–28 January, 2004

Research Report

Current activities of the Centre 27for Palynology and Palaeoecology, School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University

Other Recent Publications 30

Thesis Abstract

Coral Reconstructions of 31mid-Holocene Ocean-AtmosphereVariability in the Western Pacific Warm Pool

Review: Evolutionary Legacy of 33the Ice Ages

Mystery Fossil Spore 36

Financial Statement 2003 37

Forthcoming Conference and Meetings 38

CONTENTS


This issue of Quaternary Australasia includes discussionof an important challenge facing Quaternarists. The

International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) hasindicated its intention to eliminate the Quaternary, whichhas long lacked formal chronostratigraphic recognition,from the new Geological Time Scale by subsuming thepast ~2 Myr within the Neogene. No doubt this ismotivated in large part by a desire to rid stratigraphy ofthe last relics of Giovanni Arduino’s 18th C. legacy ofPrimary-Secondary-Tertiary-Quaternary, since similarlythe Tertiary will — probably with few objections? — beformally succeeded by the Palaeogene and Neogene.However, the need for this change is evidently notappreciated by many Quaternarists who, as a group, donot all think of their research as geological, let alonestratigraphic, and who, with very few exceptions,emphasise the many distinctive features both of theQuaternary and of our understanding of this most recentPeriod, that justify its special recognition and treatment.Brad Pillans, as president of the INQUA Stratigraphy &Chronology Commission, has offered for comment acounter proposal to the ICS (see page 8) through which itis hoped some formal status for the Quaternary can beretained; he then summarises, as well as reproducingverbatim, a range of responses that had been received aswe went to press. Finally, a New Zealand perspective,viewed primarily through the lens of the incomparableWanganui Basin, is offered by Naish, Beu and Alloway.

The Pillans INQUA proposal represents a compromisewhich retains the concept of the Quaternary at reducedstatus while extending the Neogene to the present.However, beyond this, a curious, innovative feature ofthe Pillans proposal which may prove to be its principalstrength is that it attributes ‘ownership’ of the 2.6–1.8Ma Gelasian Stage both to the Pliocene Series/Epoch(as is traditional) and to a novel Quaternary Subsystem/Subperiod extending back to 2.6 Ma. Essentially thisresolves the lingering ambiguity (at least from manyQuaternarists’ perspective) of Vai’s (1997, QuaternaryInternational 40:11–22) characterisation of the Gelasianas the ‘glacial late Pliocene’ by formally bestowing upon

it ‘dual nationality’ status. That is, the Gelasian — thefocus of late 1990s debate over the definition of thePliocene-Pleistocene boundary — would simultaneouslyremain within the Pliocene and form a basal Stagewithin an expanded Quaternary. It is hoped that thismay defuse persistent dissatisfaction in the Quaternarycommunity over the location of the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, since the lower boundary of thePleistocene would no longer correspond to the lowerboundary of the Quaternary, hence would be ofdiminished (perhaps trivial) significance. We lookforward to hearing whether the ICS accepts the PillansINQUA proposal. While its complete rejection at theICS might imply the need to rename (if facetiously)numerous ‘Quaternary’ organisations and entities suchas this magazine (Latest Neogene Australasia?), its moreprobable success has already been anticipated byNew Zealand’s newly re-christened ‘Friends of theQuaternary’ (see the Wanganui field trip inForthcoming events and meetings, p.39).

Also in this issue, Keith Bennett considers theintriguing links between European and Australasianbird faunas at seasonal to evolutionary scales, and thedifficulties of understanding how these are linked withMilankovitch-scale climate changes; I review a recentspecial issue of Philosophical Transactions of the RoyalSociety based on a discussion meeting concerned withevolutionary impacts of the ice ages, which Keith wasinstrumental in organising. Also included are reportsfrom the IV Southern Connections Conference, heldin Cape Town during January 2004; a proposal by PeterKershaw for a new INQUA palaeoclimate project onsouthern hemisphere land-ocean correlation; a reporton Quaternary research being carried out at MonashUniversity, and an abstract of Helen McGregor’srecently completed thesis concerned with mid-Holocene ocean-atmosphere variability in the westernPacific warm pool based on coral reconstructions.

Kale SnidermanEditor

EDITORIAL


also occur during this meeting. This will also be anopportunity to hear more about a new project, initiatedby Peter Kershaw in his capacity as Secretary of thenew INQUA Commission on Palaeoclimate, titled‘Land-Ocean Correlation of Long Records from theSouthern Hemisphere at Orbital and Sub-OrbitalScales’ (LOCLRSHOSOS?). This will also be the lastAQUA meeting in Australia before the INQUAconference in 2007, so I hope that everyone will makean effort to attend. All the information you need is nowon the web page.

Finally, with the budget having just been announced,how have our members fared? A few salient points fromthe FASTS summaries are worth noting:

• Total government expenditure on R&D in 2004–05is estimated at $5342m, compared to the estimatedactual of $5214.2m in 2003–04. If we use Treasury’sown assumptions of 3.5% GDP growth andinflation of 1.75%, this means an increase in realterms of $91m and a cut against percentage of GDPof $149.1m.

• The Research Training Scheme increased from$585m to $587m — a cut in real terms.

• CSIRO received a $30m increase for the flagshipsprogram as part of the $300m increase over 7 years,announced last week. It also reverts to triennialfunding agreements, as do the other PFRAs.

• The ARC appropriation increases from $413.9mto $482.4m as per the Backing Australia’s Abilitycommitments of 2001.

Simon Haberle

*Editor’s note: only some of the burden has been passedto the efficient Pandanus team…

Writing the President’s Pen always seems to comeat the last minute for me. Having a tolerant and

yet very efficient editor has been a great help here; withthe new format of QA, and the burden* of copy editingbeing passed to the publishers, Pandanus Books at TheAustralian National University, my tardiness seems tohave gone unnoticed. All this efficiency comes at aprice, however, which is something our Association willhave to address through a small rise in membership fees,to be voted on at the next AGM in Tasmania this year.At a recent meeting of executive and assorted AQUAmembers at the ANZGG in Mt Buffalo, Victoria, it wasthought that a rise of around $5 in membership feeswould not be too much. Given that our annual costshave risen by about $1,500 and our membership isapproaching 300, I hope this will receive your supportat the meeting in Tasmania.

Another reason for increasing our annual membershipfees is the need to maintain our support of postgraduatestudents through the annual Postgraduate Travel Prize.This year there have been an unusually large number ofapplications from New Zealand (15)and almost everyAustralian state (with only West Australia andQueensland unrepresented), which bodes well for thefuture of Quaternary studies in the region. The recipientof the prize this year was Karen Carthew of theDepartment of Physical Geography at MacquarieUniversity in Sydney. Karen will be attending theInternational Geomorphology Conference in Glasgowand will present data on the topic, ‘An EnvironmentalModel of Fluvial Tufas of the Seasonally Wet Tropics,Northern Australia’. All applications were of a highstandard, so it is unfortunate that more of them couldnot be supported in some way. Perhaps further rises inmembership fees in the future will help to facilitate this.

The biennial meeting in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania,in December of this year is shaping up to be a greatevent. Some great field trips are planned and it will bean excellent opportunity to explore Tasmania (beforethe school holiday rush). The meeting will hopefullybring together a wide spectrum of the AustralasianQuaternary community, with palaeo-oceanographersand Antarctic scientists being invited to attend. Thefirst presentation of talks from the AustralasianINTIMATE program (INTegration of Ice core, MArineand TErrestrial records of the Last Termination) or, as itis now known, ‘The Australasian INTIMATE project:towards an Event Stratigraphy for the Last GlacialMaximum and the Last Termination in Australasia’ will

PRESIDENT’S PEN


Iwrite this in late April in Uppland, central Sweden.It is an interesting time of year here: the transition

from winter to summer. An especially noticeable aspectof the changing season is the flood of birds intobreeding habitats from their winter quarters somewhereto the south. The resulting change in bird numbers isenormous, as is the overall change in diversity. Thethree most common breeding birds in Uppland —chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, willow warbler Phylloscopustrochilus and robin Erithacus rubecula — are all migrants.If I work hard, I might find 70 species in the regionduring February, and more than 200 species during May.Some of the distances covered by these birds areremarkable, many of them migrating to and fromsouthern Africa, for example. The Swedish long-distance record was recently set by an arctic tern Sternaparadisaea, ringed in June 2003 as a nestling in northernSweden, and found dead on Stewart Island, NewZealand, in December: a straightline distance of17,500km, but 25,000km by the most likely route(round South Africa).

We'll come back to these migrants shortly, but, firstly,something rather different. The question of the originof species has long fascinated both geologists andbiologists. Charles Darwin wrote a certain book thatfocused attention on mechanisms that are stillcontentious. But what about timescale? Darwin reallyhad no idea. Some kind of basic biostratigraphy was inplace during the nineteenth century, but timescaleswere more or less guesswork. The ‘Ice Age’ was afamiliar concept, but its complexity was unknown. Howthe ‘Ice Age’ timescale related to timescales of otherimportant phenomena, such as the origins of modernfauna and flora, for example, was unknown. Present dayfauna and flora had an origin at some point in time, ofcourse, but when? Are we talking about the Holocene,sometime earlier during the Quaternary, or even as farback as the Tertiary? Even if the answer varies betweendifferent groups of flora and fauna, it would be nice tohave a handle on it.

Thinking about timescales of speciation since Darwin hasbeen distinctly coy. In his classic work ‘Systematics andthe Origin of Species’ (Mayr, 1942), Ernst Mayr avoidsthe topic almost completely. He speculates thatsubspeciation might take a few thousand years. But notall subspecies become full species. He also indicates thatpopulation mixing as a result of Quaternary climatechange in higher latitudes would likely inhibitspeciation. But he gives no indication of how old presentspecies might be, although we can infer that he thoughtthat their origins must be pre-Holocene at least. About60 years later, he returned to the same theme, in co-operation with Jared Diamond (Mayr and Diamond,2001), with a detailed analysis of the speciation processesleading to the modern bird fauna of Northern Melanesia.This analysis presents a ‘movie’ of five stages in thespeciation process. Unfortunately, he provides no adviceas to how fast the movie should be played. Many haveassumed that the most recent glacial-interglacial cycleshave been important in generating modern species (seereferences cited in Klicka and Zink, 1997).

Palaeoecologists have not been entirely silent in thismatter. For the Quaternary, Russell Coope, inparticular, has drawn attention to the lack of evidencefor speciation among beetles (Coope, 1978), and PeterKershaw has discussed the lack of extinction amongplants (this being the other side of the coin) (Kershaw,1984). Most Quaternary palaeoecologists implicitlyassume a lack of evolution: we simply identify our fossilswith modern species.

The advent and widespread use of molecular techniquesfor the analysis of DNA has, over the last decade,brought about a revolution in understanding timescalesof speciation. We now have phylogenies for manygroups of organisms at taxonomic scales that range frompopulations to phyla. Even better, these phylogeniescan be placed on a crude timescale by means of the

GUEST EDITORIAL

Out of Australasia?K.D. BennettDepartment of Earth Sciences, Uppsala [email protected]


so-called ‘molecular clock’. This method is far fromperfect (Rambaut and Bromham, 1998), but it doesgive results at a level that are usable and significant inrelation to Quaternary timescales. Evidence frommolecular phylogenies of songbirds (and many othergroups) is pushing speciations back into the Tertiary(Zink et al., 2004). Our modern species have mostlybeen around for periods of up to 10 Myr, between 100and 250 glacial-interglacial oscillations.

Apart from timescale, a major strength of the newmolecular phylogenies lies in their ability to connectancestries, which is something that it is very hard to doworking solely from fossils. An early effort in thisdirection was made using DNA-DNA hybridizationtechniques to identify relationships among birds. Theperching birds, or passerines, are divided into twogroups — the suboscines and oscines — by the anatomyof their syrinx (the organ that produces song). Sibleyand Ahlquist (1990) produced a controversial re-classification of all the world’s birds, in which theysuggested that the oscine passerines consisted of twogroups, one of which — Corvida, includingAustralasian birds-of-paradise as well as northernhemisphere shrikes and crows — originated inAustralasia (where most still occur) but spread to Asiaand, from here, radiated across the northernhemisphere. This conflicts with conventional thinkingon the matter, in which Australasia is seen as a kind ofpassive dead-end, receiving but not providing. Thisthinking is evident in the pseudo-European names(New Zealand thrushes, Australian treecreepers, etc.)used for birds that have little morphologicalresemblance to their supposed European counterparts,and even less of a systematic relationship.

More recent work with molecular phylogenies,obtained by DNA sequencing, has substantiallyconfirmed this ‘Out of Gondwana’ or even ‘Out ofAustralia’ view for a large part of the world’s bird fauna(Ericson et al., 2002). The suboscine and oscinepasserines diverged in the late-Cretaceous and theoscines radiated out of Australia and into Eurasia, andthence into North America (either from the east or thewest) and, finally, to South America, after platemovement merged the two American continents. Thesuboscines also radiated from Gondwana into SouthAmerica and Africa/southern Asia. The New Zealandwrens Acanthisitta predate the oscine/suboscine split,and their molecular phylogeny is consistent with anorigin at the time that the New Zealand landmassseparated from the rest of Gondwana, about 85 Ma.

Passerine birds have radiated across the world to theextent that their Gondwanan origin is no longer visiblein their modern biogeography. On the other hand,there are groups of birds all over the world that haveradiated regionally, as part of the major radiation ofbirds. Some of these lesser radiations have probablyincluded movement back into Australasia.

What does all this have to do with the Swedish springand arctic terns? At some point in the next week or so,I shall visit the coast. I shall see arctic terns that havemigrated from Australasian seas in the past few months.I will see and hear various passerines, all of which areprobably the result of speciations in Europe, perhpaswithin the last 10 Myr, and which include descendantsof lineages that radiated out of Australia perhaps 70Myr ago. These passerines will mostly be migrants thathave returned to central Sweden from variouswintering grounds that range, depending upon species,from further south in Europe to the southern tip ofAfrica. A small group of species migrate betweenScandinavia and southeast Asia. Scandinavia wascompletely glaciated during the last glaciation, andprobably several (many?) times previously. All of thesemigrants must have shifted their migration ranges asclimate has changed. At the Scandinavian end, thismeans change on timescales of every 100 kyr over thelast 600 kyr, and every 40 kyr before then. Theamplitude of these changes, particularly during the last600 kyr, has been substantial, possibly the largest theworld has seen during the current phase of ice ages. Atthe southern end, the situation is more complex. In lowand mid-latitudes, dominance of timescales ofprecessional frequencies would be expected (20 kyr),but a wide-range of periodicities may occur, includingsome that are apparently non-Milankovitch (Kershawet al., 2003). Species such as my arctic terns must besimultaneously adjusting to climate change at differenttemporal scales — sometimes in phase, sometimes not— in different parts of the world!

As Quaternary researchers, we are used to thinkingabout global climate change and the ways in whichchange is transmitted around the planet, by air or bywater. Biodiversity, however, is a global phenomenon.Changes in one place have impacts elsewhere. Suchchanges operate at a variety of temporal scales, frominitiation of new groups — such as the Australianoscine passerines that now dominate the world’s birdfauna — through northern hemisphere glaciationsaffecting distributions of arctic terns that spend thenorthern winter in the southern summer (and vice


versa), down to the annual movement of billions ofbirds across the equator.

Australasia may not have the equivalent of a Swedishspring, but the connections between Australasian birdfaunas and European faunas are surprisingly strong atboth at an individual level as well as at the level ofevolutionary relationships. Even more surprising is thedegree of flexibility that appears to be present in the waythat species respond to climate change on Milankovitchscales (whether strictly ‘Milankovitch’ in origin or not).As our understanding of global climate change at thesescales deepens, our understanding of species responseseems to become relatively weaker. We now have accessto timescales and molecular phylogenies, both of whichDarwin and his generation lacked. One of the mostinteresting questions for the next decade is going to bewhether we can use these timescales and molecularphylogenies to start pinning down origins of species intime and space in such a way that we can test Darwin’shypothesis. Quaternary palaeoecologists should beplaying a strong part in this work, as much of the actionmay be more visible within the last 2 Myr than in anyother part of the fossil record. However, we might have tobe prepared to discover that, while the phenomenontakes place on, or within, Milankovitch timescales, it isnot particularly associated with the Quaternary.

ReferencesCoope, G. R. 1978. Constancy of species versus

inconstancy of Quaternary environments. InMound, L.A. and Waloff, N. (eds), Diversity ofInsect Faunas, 176–187. Blackwell, Oxford.

Ericson, P. G. P., Christidis, L., Cooper, A., Irestedt, M.,Jackson, J., Johansson, U.S. and Norman, J.A.2002. A Gondwanan origin of passerine birdssupported by DNA sequences of the endemicNew Zealand wrens. Proceedings of the RoyalSociety of London Series B 269: 235–241.

Kershaw, A. P. 1984. Late Cenozoic plant extinctionsin Australia. In Martin, P.S. and Klein, R.G.(eds), Quaternary Extinctions: a PrehistoricRevolution, 691–707. University of ArizonaPress, Tucson, AZ.

Kershaw, A. P., van der Kaars, S. and Moss, P. T. 2003.Late Quaternary Milankovitch-scale climaticchange and variability and its impact onmonsoonal Australasia. Marine Geology 201:81–95.

Klicka, J. and Zink, R. M. 1997. The importance ofrecent ice ages in speciation: A failed paradigm.Science 277: 1666–1669.

Mayr, E. 1942. Systematics and the Origin of Species fromthe Viewpoint of a Zoologist.: Columbia UniversityPress, New York.

Mayr, E. and Diamond, J. 2001. The Birds of NorthernMelansesia: speciation, ecology, and biogeography.Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Rambaut, A. and Bromham, L. 1998. Estimatingdivergence dates from molecular sequences.Molecular Biology and Evolution 15: 442–448.

Sibley, C. G. and Ahlquist, J. E. 1990. Phylogeny andClassification of Birds. A study in molecularevolution. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

Zink, R. M., Klicka, J. and Barber, B. R. 2004. Thetempo of avian diversification during theQuaternary. Philosophical Transactions of theRoyal Society of London Series B 359: 215–220.


From the Editor

The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)recently moved to formally eliminate the Quaternary

from the Geological Time Scale. Reproduced here areopen letters to the Quaternary community written inApril 2004 by the INQUA executive and the presidentof INQUA’s Stratigraphy and Chronology Commission,Dr Brad Pillans, alerting Quaternarists to the significanceof this impending change. Brad’s proposal, which seeks topreserve a formal status for the Quaternary, was alsooffered for comment, and is reproduced here. It isfollowed by a synthesis of responses received near thetime of publication of this issue. Also included is anupdate from John Clague, stating the formal positions ofINQUA and The International Association ofGeomorphologists. Finally, a New Zealand perspective onQuaternary stratigraphy and its bearing on the definitionof a lower period/subperiod boundary is provided byNaish, Beu and Alloway.

— K. Sniderman

From the INQUA executive

Colleagues,The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS),under the auspices of IUGS and ICSU, is revising theGeological Time Scale. A proposed revision of greatconsequence to the Quaternary community is anextension of the Neogene System to the present. ThePleistocene and Holocene would be retained as Series,but the Quaternary would be eliminated as a System.An argument made by ICS is that the ‘Quaternary’ and‘Tertiary’ are archaic terms. Elimination of Quaternaryas a System is clearly a highly charged issue, but ICSseems determined to make the change, whether or notQuaternarists agree.

INQUA does not accept the elimination of the word‘Quaternary’ from the Geological Time Scale.Accordingly, its Commission on Stratigraphy andGeochronology has suggested a compromise to theINQUA Executive Committee that may or may not beacceptable to both the larger Quaternary communityand ICS (see letter and proposal by Brad Pillans). Thegist of the proposal is to define a Quaternary Subsystemthat encompasses the present Pleistocene andHolocene Series, as well as the Gelasian Stage (2.6–1.8Ma). Under this proposal, the boundaries of thePleistocene and Holocene would remain unchanged.

The INQUA Executive Committee asks for yourfeedback on this important issue. Please send yourcomments to John Clague ([email protected]) and BradPillans ([email protected]).

— INQUA Executive CommitteeJohn J. Clague, Nicholas Shackleton, Peter Coxon,Margaret Avery, Allan Chivas, Jan Piotrowski, Denis-Didier Rousseau and An Zhiseng

From Brad Pillans

The Geological Time Scale (GTS) is one of thegreat achievements in Earth Sciences. Recent revisionsand proposed revisions are part of the ongoing mandateof the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)— see www.stratigraphy.org.

One of the proposed revisions of the GTS is to extendthe Neogene System (Period*) up to the present,thereby subsuming what is currently the QuaternarySystem (Period). While some may see this as a threat tothe Quaternary, I see it as a wonderful opportunity toredefine the Quaternary in the way that we havewanted for some time — namely, to extend the basedownwards from 1.81 Ma (Plio/Pleistocene boundary)to 2.6 Ma (base of Pliocene Gelasian Stage).

Let me speak plainly when I say that we (INQUA)have little hope of retaining the Quaternary System,above the Neogene System, as it is at present. Theweight of support within ICS for extending theNeogene up to the present is too great. Furthermore, wehave no hope of changing the Plio/Pleistoceneboundary — we tried that in 1997–98, resulting in amost acrimonious debate between INQUA and ICS.

I believe that our best and only reasonable course ofaction is to grasp the opportunity presented to us andredefine the Quaternary as a Subsystem within theextended Neogene System, with base at 2.6 Ma.Indeed, I have been asked to submit such a proposal toICS. The proposal below is a draft for comment/discussion and, perhaps, for endorsement by INQUA.As recommended by ICS, I have tried to keep thedocument short and to the point.

A strength of the proposal, I think, is that it decouplesthe base of the Quaternary from the ‘blood sweat andtears’ of the Plio/Pleistocene boundary.

The views expressed are my own, but I sense that theywill be widely supported by Quaternary scientists. After

Redefining the Quaternary


all, this is a chance to extend our time domain by800,000 years!

To reiterate, this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity— we are unlikely to get another opportunity to definethe Quaternary in the way we want it.

Red Clay (e.g. Ding et al. 1997. QuaternaryInternational 40, 53).

6. Around 2.6 Ma, deep sea oxygen isotope recordsshow the culmination of a series of cycles ofincreasing glacial intensity, also associated with thefirst major inputs of ice-rafted debris to the NorthAtlantic. For many, this marks the beginning ofthe ‘Quaternary ice ages’. It also marks a changefrom precession-dominated to obliquity-dominatedclimate forcing.

In summary, the extension of the Neogene System(Period) upwards provides an ideal opportunity toredefine the Quaternary as a Subsystem (Subperiod) ofthe Neogene. The proposal for a Quaternary Subsystemis consistent with popular usage, does not require anew GSSP and will end arguments about thePlio/Pleistocene boundary.

1.8 Ma

2.6 Ma

PRESENT PROPOSED

CENO

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NEOG

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LowerSubseries

GelasianStage

PiacenaianStage

ZancleanStage

GelasianStage

PiacenaianStage

ZancleanStage

Figure 1 Chronostratigraphic units of the Cenozoic Era illustrating theproposed redefinition of the Quaternary.

— Brad Pillans, President INQUA Stratigraphy & Chronology Commission

* ‘Period’ is the geochronologic unit equivalent of the chronostratigraphic unit ‘System’

In the revised geological time scale (GTS2004)Gradstein et al. propose to extend the Neogene

System (Period) up to the present, thereby making theQuaternary System (= Pleistocene + Holocene Series)redundant (see figure).

Here I propose that the Quaternary be redefined as aSubsystem (Subperiod) of the Neogene, and that itsbase be defined at the base of the Pliocene GelasianStage at 2.6 Ma (GSSP ratified — Rio et al. 1998.Episodes 21, 82.). After recent discussions by the ICSexecutive, in consultation with the IUGS executive,they have requested that the various formalstratigraphic groups of ICS and INQUA be asked toconsider the proposal.

In support of the proposal for a Quaternary Subsystem(Subperiod), I note the following:

1. There is overwhelming support from INQUAmembers — who I have talked with — to retain theQuaternary as a formal chronostratigraphic unit.

2. There is precedence for naming Subsystems in theGTS, specifically the Mississippian and PennsylvanianSubsystems of the Carboniferous.

3. Redefinition of the Quaternary will make use of anexisting GSSP (Gelasian Stage).

4. Decoupling the base of the Quaternary from thePlio-Pleistocene boundary (1.8 Ma) would, I believe,bring an end to long-running arguments over theposition of the Plio/Pleistocene boundary.

5. A majority of INQUA members appear to favour a‘long’ Quaternary (2.6 Ma) over a ‘short’ Quaternary(1.8 Ma). In essence, the preference for a ‘long’Quaternary reflects perceived continuity of characterover that time. For example, around 2.6 Ma, Chineseloess deposition becomes widespread and issubstantially different in character to the underlying

Proposal to redefine the Quaternary


Late last year, I discovered that the InternationalCommission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was about to

publish a new Geological Time Scale (Gradstein et al.in press) in which the Quaternary no longer hadstatus as a formal chronostratigraphic unit. Indeed, theICS web site (www.stratigraphy.org) stated that theQuaternary was considered to be ‘the interval ofoscillating climatic extremes (glacial and interglacialepisodes) that was initiated at about 2.5 Ma, and thereforeencompasses the Holocene, Pleistocene and uppermostPliocene. It is not a formal chronostratigraphic unit’. Inother words, ICS was relegating the Quaternary to aninformal climatostratigraphic unit.

Proposals to do away with the Quaternary and extendthe Neogene System (Period) to the present, are notnew (see Berggren et al., 1995, GSA Bulletin 107:1272).However, the ICS proposal appeared to be an officiallysanctioned position, soon to proceed towards formalratification. Furthermore, the proposal was apparentlybeing made with little or no liaison with INQUA.

After discussion with the members of the INQUAexecutive committee at a meeting in Dublin in Marchthis year, I put together a proposal to ‘save’ theQuaternary as a chronostratigraphic unit. The proposalwas intended to be a compromise that would allow theextension upwards of the Neogene System and thecreation of a Quaternary Subsystem within it. Inproposing a Quaternary Subsystem, I took the logicalstep (logical to me, anyway) of proposing to extend theQuaternary from its currently defined base (1.8 Ma =Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary) to the base of theuppermost stage (the Gelasian Stage) of the PlioceneSeries, at 2.6 Ma. In this way, the base of the Quaternarywould be decoupled from the Plio/Pleistocene boundary,a boundary that has been a source of long-runningdiscontent among Quaternarists (see papers in T.C.Partridge [ed.] Quaternary International 40).

In April 2004, my proposal was circulated to the emailaddresses of all participants at the Reno INQUACongress in August 2003 (about 1000 people) and, atthe instigation of Felix Gradstein (ICS President),placed on the ICS web site.

In the month or so since the proposal went public, I have received 70 email replies from individuals andorganizations. This is not exactly an overwhelmingresponse (less than 1%) to what I thought would be a ‘hot topic’. On the other hand, replies arecontinuing to arrive and, I daresay, will continue to doso once the proposal has been widely discussed byvarious organizations and societies with interests in theQuaternary.

Let me summarise the nature of the responses so far received:1. There is overwhelming support for retention of the

Q as a formal chronostratigraphic unit (67 of 70respondents support). Only 3 favour elimination ofthe Q as a chronostratigraphic unit.

2. Of those who favour retention of the Q, 60 supportthe proposal to redefine the Q as a Subsystem of theN, including extension of its base to 2.6 Ma.Another 2 favour extension of the Q to 2.6 Ma, butonly as a System above the N. A further 2 favourthe status quo (Q System, base 1.8 Ma), while 2others did not state a preference.

3. There is an anti-ICS reaction among Quaternarists,ranging from mild discontent to outrage, over theapparent lack of communication between ICS andINQUA. This is an area of concern. I hope that fulland open dialogue will henceforth occur betweenthe two parties. ICS actively encouraged me toplace the proposal on their web site (under ‘News’),so things are looking up at this stage.

4. A question has been raised over the validity of notfollowing the strict hierarchical arrangement ofchronostratigraphic boundaries, whereby the base ofthe proposed Quaternary Subsystem would notcorrespond to a Series boundary at the next lowerlevel of classification in the GTS. I hope we don’t getbogged down with such pedantry, but move forwardwith a practical scheme that works rather than atheoretical scheme that doesn’t. At this stage of thegame, the president of ICS, Felix Gradstein, has lenthis full support to the proposal, so I have to presumethat the hierarchical technicality is not an issue.

I will not mention any names, but here is a selection ofthe comments received:

Redefining the Quaternary – commentary onresponses received by INQUA

REDEFINING THE QUATERNARY


‘A brilliant solution to the age-old problems.’

‘Sometimes compromises are inevitable.’

‘I think that this is the right way forward.’

‘I really like Brad’s proposal.’

‘We recognize the logic of including the Gelasian.’

‘People are not going to stop using Quaternary justbecause some international commission drops it.’

‘What do you call the Neogene subsystem thatprecedes the Quaternary?’

‘There will be thousands of geologists that will signa proposal to preserve the Quaternary’

‘To eliminate the term Quaternary would be difficultand only cause new problems. There are too manyinstitutes, journals and even scientific disciplines —and INQUA! — containing this word to make itpossible to do so. The fact that the term is archaicis no basis for such action. That is a very unscientificway of discussion. The survival of this term, contraryto Primary, Secondary and even Tertiary onlydemonstrates its vitality. I guess that Quaternaristswill continue to use it whether ICS likes it or not.’

‘I doubt the ICS will see merit in it [the proposal] ifthey are on an ‘expunge archaisms’ jaunt. ICS will failto see merit in it because they have blinded themselvesto the reality that the Geological Time Scale (GTS)itself is an archaism, now that so many numericdating methods are available.’

‘Eliminate the Holocene because it is indistinguishablefrom other Pleistocene interglacials.’

‘I wish to express through you my strong disapprovalof the way ICS make these decisions almost in isolationwithout seriously discussing them with the largenumber of people (as represented by INQUA) whoactually work on the deposits involved. The decision toplace the Plio-Pleistocene boundary at the highlyinappropriate, poorly defined and poorly dated point inthe Vrica section was very much of this type. The solidrefusal to reconsider it despite the numerous cogentarguments advanced by INQUA was the same, andnow we are faced with a third arbitrary decision by asemi-detached committee, who are again prepared topontificate, ignoring the considered opinions of whatmust be almost everyone who is intimately involved inthe matter. I find this a quite intolerable way ofproceeding, and I feel INQUA should now complain toICSU, requesting that they insist ICS as part of IUGSact in a more democratic fashion. IUGS has gotto realize that the sole control they are able to exertover the stratigraphy and study of earlier geological

periods does not extend to the most recent period, inwhich numerous other non-geological scientific groupshave a long-standing and growing interest.’

‘For me it is no option to degrade the Quaternary to asubsystem. The base of the Quaternary is another issueand we should not discuss that in relation to themaintenance of the term. So no comments on thebase. NO SUBSYSTEM for the Quaternary.’

‘As an old friend of the Pleistocene, I think the bestway to redefine the Quaternary is simply to dump it,totally, and at the same time reduce the status of theHolocene to what in reality it is — one of thePleistocene interglacials.’

‘I think the Quaternary should be treated differentlythan the discarded Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary,simply because an entire field of scholarship andunderstanding has developed around the study ofrecent, mostly unconsolidated, sediments. The termsQuaternary geology, Quaternary studies, Quaternarylaboratories, and the like are common phrases ingeology and appear at the titles of programs, buildings,publications, and papers. This is unlike most of theother antiquated terms in the geologic time scale.’

‘As the forthcoming Editor of Journal of QuaternaryScience it saddens me to see my journal potentiallydisappearing at the moment I take over.’

‘Just wanted to voice my support for the outlined changewith the Quaternary as a subsystem encompassing thelast 2.6 Ma. These changes would also make better use ofthe Neogene when communicating results — far toooften I have found myself resorting to Late Cenozoic inthe meaning of the Neogene + the Quaternary.’

‘As an archaeologist I am much in favour of the newdefinition of the Quaternary. This means that theentire history of humans as tool makers would beenclosed in the new system.’

‘We are very much in favour of your proposal. Likemany others, for a long time we have accepted 2.6million years as the only defensible lower boundary forthe Quaternary, while being uneasily aware that therewas no widespread agreement about this. Your solutionneatly avoids the problem by permitting those whohave a primary interest in high frequency climatechange and its consequences to continue with a re-defined and much more usuable Quaternary definition,while leaving those more concerned with other aspectsof the earth system with a nomenclature that suitsthem. Well done.’

‘I find it incredibly arrogant that a group of workerswho will not mainly be working in the Quaternary getto ride roughshod over the wishes of thousands of


Quaternary Scientists. One of the defining aspects ofthe science of the Quaternary is its multidisciplinarynature. It has always struck me as anomalous that agroup (ICS) to which probably less than half of allQuaternary workers have any affiliation to, has theability to legislate for our community. If ICS pushesthrough with its changes without accepting acompromise of the type that Brad proposes, I will takethe only protest path that I have available to me andresign from any IUGS affiliated organizations to whichI belong. The need for INQUA to stand alone andaway from IUGS in ICSU is doubly reinforced.’

‘I consider it highly desirable to retain the termQuaternary, despite its archaic roots, and theopportunity to break with the rigid Plio-Pleistoceneboundary is irresistible.’

‘Perhaps the proposal to redefine the Quaternary asa subsystem that includes the Holocene, Pleistocene,and the latter part of the Pliocene is the best we canhope for in these circumstances. However, becausesuch a construct would produce a subsystem thatbridges only a portion of the Pliocene (the Gelasian),I am concerned that many would object because itlooks somewhat artificial. Is there a precedent for this?’

‘I am wholly in support of your strategy to preservethe Quaternary. ICS runs the risk of losing the supportof an important community and prompting a split instratigraphic usage that may continue ad infinitum.Neither is desirable.’

‘I take a dim view under the best of circumstances oftaxonomists of one stripe or another dictating termsto people they haven’t consulted. In the case of thejournal, I think a better name would be The JournalFormerly Known As Quaternary Research. Later, wecould have a contest to devise an iconographic symbolthat we asserted meant the same thing, and retitlethe journal with that.’

‘Considering that the only other option is for the term“Quaternary” to go away, this seems like a reasonableproposal. If they dump Quaternary entirely, what areall those journals going to do? What do you thinkabout ‘Late-Neogene Research’ and ‘Late-NeogeneScience Reviews’? Doesn’t really cut the mustard.’

‘The only bit of untidiness is the lack of parallelism ofthe Quaternary Subsystem with the Series boundaries(Pliocene-Pleistocene). For the 45 years of my career,there has been no good resolution of the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary. Given that this is impossible todefine without a huge minority dissent, we should letthis sleeping dog lie, and pragmatically accept an agefor the base of the Quaternary Subsystem (2.6 Ma) thatdiffers from the base of the Pleistocene (1.8 or 1.65 Ma).’

‘Brad is certainly trying to reach a compromise that willleave both sides in this sorry and unnecessaryencounter with some sense of victory.’

‘I cannot accept the suggestion that Brad has made.It would be perfect if it were not in reality very muchthe “thin edge of a very substantial wedge”. My dealingswith the ICS executive suggest strongly to me thatthey would be delighted if we accept Brad's idea becausethen the Pleistocene and the Holocene would be backprecisely where they wanted them — in the Neogene.’

‘The term “Quaternary” may be archaic, but at least it isrelatively clear what it means. In contrast, the Germanversion of “Neogene” (Neogen) means, according to thedictionary: “An alloy resembling silver, and consistingchiefly of copper, zinc, and nickel, with small proportionsof tin, aluminium, and bismuth.” No glaciers involved!The IUGS states that when the Neogene was defined byHoernes he already included in 1853 the Quaternary inthe Neogene. This statement is worthless, because (i) atthat time the glacial theory was not yet accepted (seeDana 1863, Lyell 1863) and next to nothing was knownabout the Quaternary, and (ii) for good reasons for about150 years nobody had followed Hoernes’ proposal. It maybe fashionable to introduce “hot” new terms, but I stillconsider Quaternary as being rather “cool” and wouldprefer to keep it that way. The new terminology mayshine like silver, but to me it is only a cheap substitute.’

‘I think your proposal makes a hell of a lot of sense.I especially like it because it gets INQUA out of thebox of being considered just a sub-group of the IUGSwhich has been a big political obstacle to full INQUAmembership in ICSU. The question is now whetherthe old farts that tend to occupy positions of powerin INQUA will see the light.’

‘I do very much appreciate your recognition of thissituation as an opportunity to redefine the Quaternaryas a subsystem with a 2.6 Ma base, and support theproposal wholeheartedly. Explaining the 1.7–1.8 Mabase is never easy, and moving it to 2.6 Ma would makethe Quaternary “whole”. Good work, and good luckwith the ICS!’

‘I agree with the desirability of the Gelasian beingassociated with the Quaternary, but it seems to methat by conserving its membership within the Plioceneseries, you contradict a general principle of hierarchicaltaxonomy. In your proposal, the Pliocene series wouldspan the boundary between two higher taxonomiccategories, by straddling the Neogene system’s boundarywith its Quaternary subsystem! In biological taxonomy,this would be analogous to assigning a genus (Plioceneseries) to a family (Neogene system), but placing onesection of the genus (Gelasian stage) within a subfamily(Quaternary subsystem) to which the remainder of the



genus does not belong; this is logically flawed, and inbiological taxonomy the absurdity would be obvious.It is not clear to me whether the logic behindstratigraphic nomenclature fundamentally differsfrom that of biological taxonomy, so I havereservations about the proposal in its current form.’

‘The comment that the ICS is determined to go aheadregardless of the opinions of Quaternarists strikes meas an appalling resurrection of the totalitarian state!Methinks that international science is becoming aThird World backwater!’

‘The date for the base of the Pleistocene andQuaternary (1.8 Ma) has been an anachronism forsome time now, and only politics has held back a morereasonable definition. I strongly support a definition ofthe Quaternary that spans the last 2.5 Ma or so. Do it!’

‘I think that this is the right way forward. I have alwaysresisted the idea of changing the Plio-Pleistoceneboundary because this has been so consistently utilizedover the past half-century by marine workers. But youare undoubtedly correct in saying that the majority ofQuaternary workers would favour an older position forthe base of the Quaternary, and to move the base of theQuaternary from the GSSP at the base of the Calabrian(top of the Gelasian), to the GSSP at the base of theGelasian, would (as you say) achieve this.’

‘In choosing the terminology of “Subsystem” (ratherthan “Subperiod”) you are running against the currentof another possible/likely change in internationalstratigraphic practices which is coming up. Which isthe proposal by Zalasiewicz et al. in Geology 32, 1–4 to

drop entirely the confusing and redundant category oftime-stratigraphic (time-rock) units, and retain onlythe parallel time units. Such a change was argued forstrongly about 30 years ago (amongst others, by me),but was too radical for the dominant Americanstratigraphers of the time. I believe (and certainlyhope) that there will now be widespread support fromyoung stratigraphers for the idea.’

‘I can live with 2.6 Ma as a compromise becauseI (nihilistically) believe that there are no such thingsas “natural” points at which to insert GSSP or to defineboundaries — the Plio/Pleistocene and base-Quaternary included. Indeed, it is a belief in suchnatural points, led largely by messianicbiostratigraphers, which has led to the last 100 years ofunproductive argument over the semantics of names.’

‘The proposals to lower the lower Quaternary boundarycannot be correct (valid) because they contradict theprevious decision of the ICS. They do not make thescale more stable. If we displace the adopted boundariesin accordance with changed views of some persons(these views have no scientific merits), we shall neverreach the general stability. The more so that thisconcerns the destruction of neighboring systems(Pliocene). The scale is used not only for theoreticalconsiderations, but also for practical purpose —geological mapping of both regional and subglobalmagnitude.’

Brad [email protected]

Revision of the Geological Time Scale:Implications for the ‘Quaternary’

Dr. Pillans’ proposal has been circulated to INQUAmembers and the larger community of earth scientistsinterested in the late Cenozoic and is included in nextissue of Quaternary Perspectives. An alternative position,that we stand our ground and demand that theQuaternary be retained as a System separate anddistinct from the Neogene, is presented in the sameissue by Phil Gibbard, Chair of the ICS Subcommissionon Quaternary Stratigraphy.

The INQUA Executive Committee is concerned thatICS has not consulted representatives of theQuaternary community about its changes to the late

Cenozoic part of the time scale. It would be prudent forICS to defer any changes to the ‘Quaternary’ until theQuaternary community has had time to more fullyconsider options and consequences. Consultation is inprogress and will continue — with INQUA’s support —at IGC in Florence this summer and at the nextINQUA Congress in Cairns, Australia, in 2007.

The INQUA Executive Committee asks that ICSconsider its formal position on this important issue andthe similar position of the International Association ofGeomorphologists (IAG), both of which are given below.Please express your views to the ICS Chairman (FelixGradstein, [email protected]) and SecretaryGeneral (James Ogg, [email protected]), with a copy toJohn Clague, President of INQUA ([email protected]).

The following is an extract of an open letter to Quaternarists from John Clague, INQUA Vice President, in June 2004


INQUA insists that ‘Quaternary’ be retained as aformal unit in the new Geological Time Scale. TheQuaternary is, in some respects, the most importantperiod in earth history, a time of major climatic,oceanographic, and biotic changes, as well as theappearance and evolution of the human species. Itsimportance is reflected in the fact that it has a stronginterdisciplinary union (INQUA), that it is appreciatedby scientists outside of the geological sciences, and thatit is a doorway through which new approaches andideas are introduced into geology. ‘Quaternary’ is tooimportant a term to be removed simply because it ismay make the geological time scale tidier (the ‘Primary’and ‘Secondary’ having been eliminated long ago, withthe Tertiary shortly to follow). ‘Quaternary’ is thebridge between humans and geology. It provides anumbrella for bringing other important and fundabledisciplines into the geological sciences.

In the interim, until this important matter is given fullconsideration by the Quaternary community, INQUArecommends that the ‘Quaternary’ be retained as aSystem separate from the Neogene, comprising thePleistocene and Holocene (the status quo). Iftemporary retention of the status quo is unacceptable toIUGS, INQUA recommends that ICS formally adoptBrad Pillans’ proposal that the Quaternary be a formalSubsystem of the Neogene, extending from the

beginning of the Gelasian Stage of the Pliocene to thepresent. Through its consultation with the Quaternarycommunity, the INQUA Executive Committee hasfound near-universal support for extending theQuaternary from its present lower boundary at 1.8 Mato 2.6 Ma, the beginning of the Gelasian Stage. Thereis also widespread support for maintaining the‘Pleistocene’ and ‘Holocene’ as formal Series.

The International Association of Geomorphologistsshares INQUA’s concerns and has issued the followingofficial statement, which is consistent with INQUA'sposition:

The International Association of Geomorphologists(IAG) has considered the proposed revisions to theGeological Time Scale by the InternationalCommission on Stratigraphy. The IAG regrets theproposed elimination of the Quaternary as a system.However, if this change does take place then it supportsthe idea that within the Neogene a QuaternarySubsystem is established with a long time-scale (i.e. thelast 2.6 million years). This would remove problemswith regard to the placing of the Plio-Pleistoceneboundary, and would reflect the major changes in theglobal environment which took place at 2.6 Ma (asrecorded both in loess sections and in the deep seaoxygen isotope record).

Position of the INQUA Executive Committee on the proposed revision of the Geological Time Scale


Historical use of the Quaternary

The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in New Zealandhas historically been placed at the earliest faunal

evidence of climatic cooling in southern North Islandsedimentary basins, as shown by the first occurrenceof the subantarctic scallop Zygochlamys delicatula,commonly in association with the cool-water crab

Jacquinotia edwardsii (Fleming 1953; Beu et al., 1987).In Wanganui Basin, this occurs at the base of theHautawa Shellbed, which defines the base of the NewZealand Nukumaruan Stage SSP. When Fleming(1944) first drew attention to the paleoclimaticsignificance of Z. delicatula, several hundred kilometresnorth of its modern range, the Nukumaruan Stage wasconsidered to be Pliocene in age. Subsequently, with

What does the term ‘Quaternary’ mean in New Zealand?:Historical usage and a way forwardTim Naish, Alan Beu and Brent AllowayInstitute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand


the proposal of an international Pliocene-Pleistoceneboundary at the horizon of first cooling in the ItalianNeogene succession at the base of the Calabrian Stagein 1948, the way seemed clear to correlate the boundaryto the base of the New Zealand Nukumaruan.Although such a correlation is widely attributed toFleming (1953), he qualified the correlation byadmitting that ‘more evidence is desirable before such astep be taken’ (p. 127). His qualification was apparentlyignored and, after an internal review in 1953, thedirector of the New Zealand Geological Surveyrecommended that the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary(L.I. Grange, internal memo) be correlated with thebase of the Nukumaruan Stage, with the result thatmuch of what had been considered Pliocene was nowplaced in the Pleistocene. Given the long historicalassociation of the base of ‘Quaternary’ with the base ofthe European Calabrian Stage (Deperet, 1918) and itsterrestrial correlative the Villafranchian Stage, the baseof Quaternary in New Zealand was also tied to the baseof the Nukumaruan at this time. Early palynologicalinvestigations in New Zealand (e.g. Couper andMcQueen, 1954) showed evidence of significantcooling in rocks of Lower Nukumaruan age, includingglacial deposits at Ross on the west coast of the SouthIsland. The Lower Nukumaruan thus became firmlyestablished within both marine and terrestrial sequencesas representing the time of earliest Pleistocene cold (seealso Gage and Suggate, 1958; Gage, 1961).

Biostratigraphic subdivision of the Quaternary in NewZealand (Fig. 1), largely based on endemic molluscanfauna, was recognised by Fleming as problematic, asmany taxa — such as Z. delicatula — have interruptedranges owing to fluctuating climatic conditions. Thesedifficulties led to a range of non-paleontological criteria(evidence of glaciation, chronology based on eustacy)being employed to subdivide the Quaternary into asystem of local stages (Fig.1). Historically, New ZealandQuaternary deposits were classified into two seriesequivalent to the Upper and Lower Quaternary.Sediments of the Upper Quaternary included thedeposits of four major glacial advances on the SouthIsland and intervening warm periods (Suggate, 1965).Those of the Lower Quaternary were thought to becloser in nature to preceding Pliocene sediments butcontained paleontological and glacio-eustatic evidencefor two broad cold and warm periods, with glacialdeposits of one cold period being known in SouthIsland (Ross Glacial). The biostratigraphic subdivisionsof the Lower Quaternary were first proposed as

substages of the Nukumaruan and Castlecliffian Stages(Fleming, 1953), but were later given stage status as thesequence Hautawan (cold), Nukumaruan (warm),Okehuan (cold) and Castlecliffian (warm). UpperQuaternary glacial sediments in the South Island werecorrelated with four glacial stages and four interveninginterglacial stages (Fig. 1). Difficulties with therecognition outside of type localities meant that thesubstages were not widely used. Moreover, publicationof the first oceanic oxygen isotope records (e.g.Shackleton and Opdyke, 1973) heralding the orbitaltheory of the ice ages (Hays et al., 1976) led to therecognition of a higher frequency glacio-eustaticcyclostratigraphy in the New Zealand Quaternary (e.g.Beu and Edwards, 1984), resulting in the eventualabandonment of climatically influenced substages(following the suggestion of Beu, 1969).

It is clear that the definition of Quaternary in NewZealand has its historical basis firmly entrenched in thepaleontological, geomorphological and sedimentologicalrecognition of the onset of major cooling and climaticfluctuations. However, age estimates for base of theNukumaruan Stage based on early radiometric andfission track dates ranged from 2.2 to 2.6 Ma (Mathewsand Curtis, 1966; Stipp et al., 1967). Kennett et al.(1971) also presented isotopic and faunal evidence ofclimate cooling in Wairarapa close to the Gauss-Matuyama (G/M) polarity transition (then dated at2.43 Ma), but noted that the internationally acceptedPliocene-Pleistocene boundary at the base of theCalabrian Stage in Italy probably lay close to the baseof the Olduvai (Gilsa) event at about 1.79 Ma. By theearly 1970s, there was already considerable uncertaintyabout the age and position of the base of theQuaternary in New Zealand. This was partly becausethe internationally proposed Pliocene-Pleistoceneboundary had yet to be rigorously defined and dated.With formal designation and characterisation of theGSSP in the Vrica section in southern Italy (Backmanet al., 1983; Tauxe et al., 1983; Aguirre and Pasini,1985), the way was open to establish the preciseposition of the boundary in New Zealand using allavailable techniques, but particularly biostratigraphy,tephrochronology and magnetostratigraphy of marinesediments in shallow marine North Island sedimentarybasins. The magnetostratigraphy of the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary stratotype at Vrica indicated astratigraphic location for the boundary immediatelyabove the top of the Olduvai Subchron. Earlymagnetostratigraphic and tephrostratigraphic studies in


Wanganui Basin (Seward et al., 1986) demonstratedthat the base of the Nukumaruan Stage was closer tothe G/M (2.43 Ma) polarity transition than it was tothe top of the Olduvai Subchron (1.79 Ma).Subsequently, Beu and Edwards (1984) showed that theboundary, as defined at Vrica, lay within the middle ofthe Nukumaruan Stage, well above the HautawaShellbed. While never formally defined, the base of theQuaternary has continued to be linked to the Pliocene-Pleistocene GSSP. Since the late 1980s, the QuaternaryPeriod in New Zealand has essentially been decoupledfrom the onset of major northern hemisphere glaciationand associated global climate fluctuations.

The current use of Quaternary

In a remarkable anticipation of the first high-resolutionisotope records linking global ice volume and sea-levelto Earth’s orbital variations, Fleming (1953, fig. 62)recognised as many as 35 ‘fluctuations in Pleistocenesea-level’ in Wanganui Basin. Unable to explain theorigin of these water depth changes within the ‘fourglacial’ European paradigm of the time, he turned tolocal crustal ‘yo-yoing’. Armed with oxygen isotoperecords and sequence stratigraphy, we now recogniseFleming’s ‘base level’ changes in Wanganui Basin as theproduct of 41 ka– and 100 ka–duration global glacio-eustatic sea-level cycles spanning oxygen isotope stages100 (2.46 Ma) to 5 (0.125 Ma) (Naish et al., 1998) —a remarkably complete record of shallow-marinesedimentary cyclicity since the onset of major northernhemisphere glaciations (Fig. 2). The development of an

astronomically tuned cyclostratigraphy for the 3 kmthick shallow-marine late Pliocene-Pleistocene marinesuccession in Wanganui Basin, supported by glass-FTdates of tephra interbeds (i.e. Alloway et al. 1993;Pillans et al., 1994) allowed precise location of the baseof the Quaternary in New Zealand, as defined at theVrica stratotype (Naish et al., 1996). This lies 60 mstratigraphically below the Vinegar Hill tephra (1.750.13 Ma) in the upper part of the Olduvai Subchron, atthe base of the shelf siltstone of the highstand systemstract of Wanganui Basin Sequence 17, corresponding tothe top of interglacial Oxygen Isotope Stage 65 (Fig. 2).As currently defined, the Quaternary encompasses theupper part of the Nukumaruan (2.40 to 1.63 Ma),Castlecliffian (1.63–0.34 Ma) and Haweran (0.34 Mato present) stages (Beu, 2001). However, because of thehistorical association of the Quaternary in NewZealand with the onset of climatic deterioration ataround 2.5 Ma, many Kiwi ‘Quaternarists’ havecontinued to extend their use of Quaternary to the baseof the Nukumaruan Stage (Hautawa Shellbed = MISStage 98–97). There is no faunal or sedimentologicalexpression of major climate change at the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in the New Zealand region. Thisled Naish et al. (1997) to support renewed discussionswithin the INQUA Commission of Stratigraphy tolower the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary to a level nearthe Gauss-Matuyama polarity transition, and to proposethe Rangitikei valley section in Wanganui Basin asa southern hemisphere reference (published in thespecial issue of Quaternary International on the

MaMa Ma

GPTSGlobal

Geochronological ScaleSeriesSystem

Cooper (in press) following Beu (1987, 2001) Carter & Naish (1999) Fleming (1978) Beu (1969)

Stages Stages StagesStages SubstagesSubstages

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PLIOCENE-PLEISTOCENE & QUATERNARY CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY

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Mangipanian

Figure 1 History of the chronostratigraphic subdivision of Plio-Pleistocene and Quaternary sedimentary deposits in New Zealand.



Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary). Recent ratification ofthe Vrica GSSP by the International Commission onStratigraphy (ICS) has fixed the Pliocene-PleistoceneBoundary at 1.81 Ma, for the next 10 years at least.

On the future use and definition of Quaternary

The definition of ‘Quaternary’ remains a grey area.While there are strong historical precedents for itsusage, extending to the early 18th century (e.g.

Wan

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{

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{

Taupo Tephra (1.8 ka)Kawakawa Tephra (22.6 ka)

Fordell AshGriffins Road tephraKakariki tephra

RangitawaTephra(0.34 ±0.03 Ma)

Onepuhi tephra

Kupe tephra(0.6±0.08 Ma)

Kaukatea tephra(0.87±0.05 Ma)

Unamed tephra

Mangapipi tephras (1.60±0.08 Ma), Ridge Ash, Unamed A,B,C tephras, Pakihikura Tephra (1.58±0.05 Ma), Birdgrove tephra, Unamed tephra Mangahou tephra, Maranoa tephra,Ototoka tephra (1.71±0.19 Ma), Table Flat tephra

Vinegar Hill Tephra (1.75±0.13 Ma)

Waipuru Tephra (1.87±0.15 Ma)

Ohingaiti Ash

Brunhes/Matuyama boundary (0.78 Ma)

Top Jaramillio Subchron (0.99 Ma)

Bottom Jaramillo Subchron (1.07 Ma)

Cobb Mountain Subchron (1.19 Ma)

Top Olduvai Subchron (1.78 Ma)

Bottom Olduvai Subchron(1.94 Ma)

Reunion Subchron (2.14-2.15 Ma)

Gauss/Matuyamaboundary (2.58 Ma)

FAD Pecten novaezealandiaeFAD Emiliania huxleyi

LAD Acacia

FAD Truncorotalia crassula

LAD Phialopecten triphooki FAD Towaipecten mariaeLAD Crassostrea ingensFAD Zygochlamys delicatulaLAD Truncorotalia crassiformis dextral

FAD Gephyrocapsa sinuosa

LAD Eumarcia, Glycymeris, Patro

LAD Truncorotalia crassaformis

FAD Helicosphaera sellii

LAD Helicosphaera sellii

FAD Maoriomactra n. sp

LAD Gephyrocapsa (large)

FAD Gephyrocapsa (large)

FAD Gephyrocapsa omega

FAD Truncorotalia truncatulinoidesLAD Hauslerella pliocenica

FAD Pecten

FAD Pecten kupei

LAD Pseudoemiliania lacunosa

LAD Globorotalia punticulinoides

LAD Pecten aotea

LAD Reticulofenestra asanoi

LAD Pecten marwicki

Pelicaria convexa

Potaka Tephra (1.00±0.03 Ma)

Rewa tephra (1.29±0.12Ma)

Unnamed tephra

Unnamed tephra

New

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Inte

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1.63 Ma

1.81 Ma

2.46 Ma

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Figure 2 Integrated chronostratigraphy for “Quaternary” shallow-marine sediments, Wanganui Basin.


Desnoyers, 1829; Gignoux, 1910, 1913), the term hasnever been formally defined as a chronostratigraphicunit. A number of classification schemes have seen theQuaternary used as a system or period above theNeogene. However, many believe that the Quaternaryis not a satisfactory term, as the original hierarchy ofPrimary and Secondary have been replaced byPaleozoic and Mesozoic respectively, and Tertiary hasbeen replaced by Paleogene and Neogene. The ICScurrently considers the ‘Quaternary’ informally as aninterval of oscillating climatic extremes (glacial-interglacial episodes) that was initiated at about 2.5Ma, encompassing the Holocene, Pleistocene anduppermost Pliocene. This fits well with the currentusage of many New Zealand Quaternary stratigraphers.In the revised geological timescale (GTS2004),Gradstein et al. propose to extend the Neogene System(Period) to the present, thereby making the QuaternarySystem redundant. By way of a compromise, BradPillans has proposed to redefine the Quaternary as aSubsystem (Subperiod) of the newly defined Neogeneand that its base be defined as the base of the PlioceneGelasian Stage at 2.6 Ma (GSSP ratified — Rio et al.1994). Pillans argues that redefinition of the NeogeneSystem provides an opportunity to formally define theQuaternary for the first time in a way that is consistentwith its historical and popular usage. His proposal iscertainly consistent with the philosophy and practise ofmore than half a century followed by the vast majorityof New Zealand Quaternary stratigraphers. It recognisesthe paleoclimatic significance of the time interval. Ithas the added benefit that it may put an end to thesterile and now rather futile debate over the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary.

So finally, we ask the question, ‘what is in a name?’ Willthe formal definition of the Quaternary advance ourscience or improve the communication of our science?Will we remain ‘Friends of the Pleistocene?’ Does theinclusion of the Quaternary as a chronostratigraphicunit provide a more useful means of subdivision andcorrelation of young geologic strata than the currentlydefined International Series and Stages? Or areendeavours to ‘save the Quaternary’ really rooted inmore emotive issues such as the need to define a handlefor a group of multidisciplinary researchers focused onthe last 2.5 Ma of Earth’s history and, in doing so,provide a sense of belonging and identity? Quaternarystill means many different things to many people and itis unlikely that everyone will be pleased with adefinition linking it to the base of the Gelasian Stage. If

one wanted to play devil’s advocate, one could say thatwe already have a perfectly useful GSSP at the base ofthe Gelasian tied to the G/M polarity transition andoxygen isotope stage 104 which marks the onset ofmajor ‘Quaternary’ climate fluctuations. The counter tothis is the idea that we may need a higher order of unitthat spans the late Neogene ‘glacial world’. These areimportant questions that will be discussed by ICS, theINQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and its membersas they consider the Pillans proposal. Though thesemight be tough questions to answer, in New Zealand welike the term Quaternary. We have used it for manyyears, it is like an old friend to us and we know what wemean when we use it. After all, don’t we have animpressive range of Quaternary sediments in NewZealand … and are they not world class?! Withoutwanting to appear flippant, we support Brad Pillans’endeavour to formalise the term. It should improvecommunication amongst Quaternarists and, at the veryleast, will allow us to keep on crowing about our worldclass ‘Quaternary’ stratigraphy!

References

Aguirre, E. and Pasini, G. 1985. The Pliocene-Pleistoceneboundary. Episodes, 8: 116–120.

Alloway, B. V., Pillans, B. J., Sandhu, A. S.and Westgate, J. A.1993. Revision of the marine chronology inWanganui Basin, New Zealand, based on theisothermal plateau fission-track dating of tephrahorizons. Sedimentary Geology, 82: 299–310.

Backman, J., Shackleton, N. J. and Tauxe, L. 1983.Quantitative nannofossil correlation to open oceandeep-sea sections from Pliocene-Pleistocene boundaryat Vrica, Italy. Nature, 304: 156–158.

Beu, A. G. 1969. Index macrofossils and New ZealandPliocene and Pleistocene time-stratigraphy. NewZealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics, 12: 643–658.

Beu, A. G. 2001. Local stages to be used for the WanganuiSeries (Pliocene and Pleistocene), and their means ofdefinition. New Zealand Journal of Geology &Geophysics, 44: 113–125.

Beu, A. G. and Edwards, A. R. 1984. New ZealandPleistocene and late Pliocene glacio-eustatic cycles.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 46:119–142.

Beu, A. G., Edwards, A. R. and Pillans, B. J. 1987. A review ofNew Zealand Pleistocene stratigraphy, with emphasison the marine rocks. In: Itihara, M. and Kamei, T.(eds). Proceedings of the First International Colloquiumon Quaternary Stratigraphy of Asia and Pacific Area,Osaka, 1986. INQUA Subcommission on QuaternaryStratigraphy of Asia and Pacific Area and NationalWorking Group of Quaternary Stratigraphy, ScienceCouncil of Japan., Osaka, 250–269.



Carter, R. M., Naish, T. R. 1998. Have local stages outlivedtheir usefulness for the New Zealand Plio-Pleistocene? New Zealand Journal of Geology andGeophysics, 41: 271–279.

Cooper, R. A. (ed.), 2004 (in press). The New ZealandGeological Timescale. Institute of Geological andNuclear Sciences Monograph 22.

Couper, R. A. and McQueen, D. R. 1954. Pliocene andPleistocene plant fossils of New Zealand and theirclimatic interpretation. New Zealand Journal of Science& Technology, B35: 398–420.

Deperet, Ch. 1918. Essai de coordination chronologique destempes Quaternaries. Comptes Rendus de l’Academiedes Sciences, 166: 480–486.

Desnoyers, J. 1829. Observations sur un ensemble de depotsmarins plus recent que les terrains tertiaries du basinde la Seine, et constituent une formation geologiquedistincte: precedes, d’une apercu de la non-simulaneite des bassins tertiaries. Annales SciencesNaturelles, Paris, 16: 171–214, 402–491.

Fleming, C. A. 1944. Molluscan evidence of Pliocene climaticchange in New Zealand. Transactions of the RoyalSociety of New Zealand, 74: 207–220.

Fleming C. A. 1953. Geology of Wanganui Subdivision. NewZealand Geological Survey Bulletin, 52: 362 pp.

Fleming, C. A. 1978. The Quaternary record in Australia andNew Zealand. In: Suggate, R.P. and Cresswell, M. M.(eds). Quaternary studies. Selected papers from IXINQUA Congress, Christchurch, New Zealand 2–10December 1973. Royal Society of New Zealand Bulletin,13: 1–20.

Gage, M. 1961: New Zealand glaciations and the duration ofthe Pleistocene. Journal of Glaciology, 3: 940–943.

Gage, M. and Suggate, R. P. 1958. Glacial chronology of theNew Zealand Pleistocene. Geological Society ofAmerica Bulletin, 69: 589–598.

Gignoux, M. 1910. Sur la classification du Pliocene et duQuaternarie dans l’Italie du Sud. Comptes Rendus del’Academie des Sciences, 150: 841–844.

Gignoux, M. 1913. Les formations marines du Pliocenes etQuaternaries de l’Italie du Sud et de la Sicile. AnnalesUniversité Lyon, n.s., I–36, 693 pp. Impr. A Rey Lyon.

Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., and Smith, A. G. 2004. AGeological Timescale 2004. Cambridge UniversityPress (in press).

Hays, J. D., Imbrie, J. and Shackleton, N. J. 1976. Variationsin the Earth’s orbit: pacemaker of the ice ages: Science,194: 1121–1132.

Kennett, J. P., Watkins, N. D. and Vella, P. P. 1971.Paleomagnetic chronology of Pliocene — EarlyPleistocene climates and the Plio-Pleistoceneboundary in New Zealand. Science, 171: 276–279.

Matthews, W. H. and Curtis, G. H. 1966. Date of thePliocene-Pleistocene boundary in New Zealand.Nature, 212: 979–980.

Naish, T. R., Kamp, P. J. J., Alloway, B. V., Pillans, B. J.,Wilson, G. S. and Westgate, J. A. 1996. Integratedtephrochronology and magnetostratigraphy forcyclothemic marine strata, Wanganui Basin:Implications for the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary inNew Zealand. Quaternary International, 34/3: 29–48.

Naish, T. R., Pillans, B. and Kamp, P. J. J. 1997. Recurringglobal sea-level changes recorded in shelf depositsnear the G/M polarity transition, Wanganui Basin,New Zealand: Implications for redefining the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, Quaternary International, 40:61–72.

Naish, T. R., Abbott, R. T., Alloway, B. V., Beu, A. G., Carter,R. M., Edwards, A. R., Journeaux, T. D., Kamp, P. J.J., Pillans, B. J., Saul, G. and Woolfe, K. J. 1998.Astronomical calibration of a Southern HemispherePliocene-Pleistocene reference section, WanganuiBasin, New Zealand. Quaternary Science Reviews, 17:695–710.

Pillans, B. J., Roberts, A. P., Wilson, G. S., Abbott, S. T. andAlloway, B.V. 1994. Magnetostratigraphic,lithostratigraphic, and tephrostratigraphic constraintson Lower and Middle Pleistocene sea-level changes,Wanganui Basin, New Zealand. Earth and PlanetaryScience Letters, 121: 81–98.

Rio, D., Sprovieri, R. and di Stefano, E. 1994. The GelasianStage: a proposal of a new chronostratigraphic unit ofthe Pliocene Series. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia eStratigrafia, 100: 103–124.

Seward, D., Christoffel, D. A. and Lienert, B. 1986. Magneticpolarity stratigraphy of a Plio-Pleistocene marinesequence of North Island, New Zealand. Earth andPlanetary Science Letters, 80: 353–360.

Shackleton, N. J. and Opdyke, N. D. 1973. Oxygen isotopeand palaeomagnetic stratigraphy of equatorialPacific core V28–238: oxygen isotopetemperatures and ice volumes on a 105 and 106year scale. Quaternary Research, 3: 39–55.

Stipp, J. J., Chappell, J. M. A. and McDougall, I. 1967.K/Ar age estimate of the Pliocene-Pleistoceneboundary in New Zealand. American Journal ofScience, 265: 462–474.

Suggate, R. P. 1965. Late Pleistocene geology of thenorthern part of the South Island, New Zealand.New Zealand Geological Survey Bulletin, 77. 91 pp.

Tauxe, L., Opdyke, N. D., Pasini, G. and Elmi, C. 1983.Age of the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in theVrica section, southern Italy. Nature, 304:125–129.


IntroductionIn my capacity as Secretary of the new Commission onPalaeoclimate, I have been encouraged to becomeinvolved in project formulation. This proposal, thatleads on from a previous southern hemisphereinitiative, was submitted to the INQUA ExecutiveCommittee meeting in March and has been accepted asan official INQUA project for the inter-INQUA period(2003–2007). However, the precise nature and aims aretotally open to discussion and modification. I would bepleased to receive comments on the proposal andparticularly from those who would like to be involvedin its final formulation and in its execution. There isthe possibility of the project being expanded into a sub-commission and certainly there is the expectation thatit will continue beyond 2007.

Rationale and aimsThis project is proposed in response to growing interestin the particular climatic history of the southerncontinents and oceans. As a result of their associationwith ENSO and monsoon generation, and their role inthe global thermohaline circulation, the southern oceansare critical to an understanding of global climatechange. In terms of terrestrial palaeoenvironments, anunderstanding of long-term environmental change onthe southern continents is still in its formative stages asproxy records are both spatially diffuse and temporallydiscontinuous. Further, an increasing awareness of majorinter- and intra-hemispheric disparities in the timing ofclimatic signals and forcing influences between land andocean records underscore the need for an integrated effortto explore the palaeodynamics of southern hemispheresystems.

In order to address these issues, the following aims areproposed:

1. To determine the present state of knowledge on thenature and location of land and ocean recordscovering a substantial part of the Quaternary andmake a preliminary assessment of regional andtemporal variability. Most data will probably relate

to the last glacial cycle (and essentially extend theperiod of interest covered by INTIMATEinitiatives). However, some coverage to at least 500ka is considered essential to examine the nature andcauses of the Mid-Bruhnes event that has beenidentified from the Pacific and Indian Oceans andmay have altered atmospheric and climatecirculation patterns in the region and, in the case ofthe SW Pacific, led to a trend of increasingvariability that had major impacts on terrestrialclimate and vegetation. Coverage of the wholeQuaternary would be desirable to examine causes ofsuggested variation in times and patterns of changewithin the southern hemisphere and between thetwo hemispheres in the Early Pleistocene andaround the Early-Mid Pleistocene boundary.

2. To identify critical gaps or areas on uncertaintyand encourage and facilitate development ofresearch proposals to fill them, particularly throughinvolvement of the IODP and the ContinentalDrilling Program.

3. To encourage and facilitate closer collaborationbetween marine and terrestrial researchers,especially in examination of land and marineclimate proxies within the same cores.

4. To generate and compile a potentially exciting dataset amenable to modelling as a means of betterunderstanding controls over southern hemisphereclimates and the roles of the tropics and Antarcticain forcing global climate change.

Methods/approachNow is an opportune time to start bringing informationtogether for the southern hemisphere, because there is agreat deal of activity by groups working largelyindependently who, hopefully, will welcome greaterinteraction. On land, the Continental Drilling Programhas recently been employed to produce long cores frompreviously inaccessible areas or water depths, such asLake Titicaca in South America and the rift valley lakeof Africa, that extend into the southern hemisphere,while research on long continuous records is beingactively pursued and supported within Australia and,

A NEW INQUA PALAEOCLIMATE PROJECT:‘Land-Ocean Correlation of Long Records from the Southern Hemisphere at Orbital and Sub-Orbital Scales’


recently, in New Zealand. Collaboration on techniquesof analysis and particularly on dating would beinvaluable to ensure independent chronologies onterrestrial sites and avoidance of what have beensomewhat misleading correlations with the marinestratigraphy. In the marine realm, exciting results areemerging from combined marine-terrestrial proxystudies off Southern America, with preliminary researchoff southern Africa at last providing some clarificationof climate patterns in this region. These results arebeginning to relate to those from more establishedstudies off more tropical West Africa and from terrestrialstudies in the south-western Cape. Intensive study ofterrestrial and marine proxies in the southern tropics ofthe northern-Australian Indonesian region is revealingcomplex relationships with forcing from the NorthAtlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean regions that cry outfor comparison with the other areas.

Because of the distances involved between study areaswithin the southern hemisphere and between researchparticipants who are resident in both hemispheres,it may be necessary to establish a number of groupsthat can collate and direct research from differentregions. However, it would be extremely valuable tohave at least two general gatherings. The first, withinthe next year, could be used to assess the present stateof knowledge and perhaps be formalised in theproduction of a multi-authored regional synthesis paper.This meeting could also provide the basis for theestablishment of regional and specific scientific issuestudy groups, as well as identification of profitable areasfor future study and facilitation of support for them.The second gathering could be for the presentation ofnew material and developments. It could also serve as aplanning meeting for a symposium at INQUA 2007and determination of future directions.

Suggestions are sought for appropriate meeting venues.Some seed money is available and could be used toattract funding sufficient for a stand-alone meeting.However, a more feasible option might be to combinethe meetings with other smallish relevant gatherings tomaximise their attraction.

One possible option is the final conference of theDEKLIM-EEM programme, to be held at Mainz,Germany, in March, 2005 (see ForthcomingConferences and Meetings, p. 39), as a number ofpotential associates are from Germany or have beenparticipants in the DEKLIN-EEM meetings. DEKLIM-EEM’s focus on past interglacials, abrupt events andtheir value for prediction of future climate, as well asthe mix of marine, terrestrial, ice workers andmodellers, is highly relevant to our project.

A second meeting could be held in association with theSouthern Connection conference, planned forAdelaide at the end of 2006. Southern Connection isperhaps the only relevant organisation that focuses onthe southern hemisphere. It has held its triennialmeetings in Australia, New Zealand, South Americaand South Africa. Quaternary climates have figuredprominently at each meeting.

Anticipated outcomesA much more coherent picture of southern hemisphereclimate change and its drivers will totally alterperceptions on global climates and contributesubstantially to understanding of the development ofpresent landscapes. Meetings and proposed publicationswill cement a presently disparate research communityand provide a base for long-term collaboration.

I welcome any suggestions, criticisms and especially expressionsof interest in being involved.

Peter KershawSchool of Geography and Environmental Science,Monash University, Vic. 3800, Australia Email: [email protected]


‘Avery successful international conferencewas held from 19–24 January 2004 at

the University of Cape Town. 328 delegatesattended from 18 countries and 156 papers werepresented during the week. A large selection ofposters were also displayed.

Southern Connections is a large group ofscientists from all continents who study aspectsof biology and earth history of the SouthernContinents — it meets every 3–4 years. Thetheme was Towards a Southern Perspective. Oneof the main aims of Southern Connections is todevelop and emphasise differences betweenNorth and South Africa, for example, with itslong history of hominids and its relatively wellpreserved megafauna, is a stark contrast to mostof the Northern Hemisphere. Besides this themethere were several other more specific themesrelating to, for example, ecology, biogeography,phylogeny, phylogeography, history andutilization.’http://web.uct.ac.za/conferences/sc2004/index.html

The Conference was very diverse and the concurrentsessions were relentlessly attractive, driving people toexcess. The plenary speakers — Ian Woodward, PeterCranston, Kevin Gaston and Steven Chown — were abit more awkward as they tried to keep their topics broad.

Some of the sessions gathered the range of players. As youcan imagine, the ‘Fire and biogeography of southerntemperate regions’ symposium was hotter than hot. Someof the papers I enjoyed most were the ones I went toalmost by mistake: Alexey Solodovnikov’s paper on agenus of beetle was great, and Steven Chown’s plenarydescribed how increasing scientific visits increasedinvasive species arrivals in the southern islands(one species per 116 visits). Overall, the modelers,geneticists and managers all mingled productively andmade new connections.

The mid-conference breakout tours were great; achance for a swim and also to see Australian weeds,such as Acacia, overwhelming the local Bitou Bush.Kirstenbosch Gardens was a wonderful venue for thelaunch of the Global Invasive Species Programme(http://www.gisp.org). The cloud-draped Tablemountainformed a great backdrop to the Conference and walks.My highlight was seeing hyrax (small Africanherbivores that build middens of organic material) butthe Fynbos and Karoo vegetation were a closesecond/third. Peter Kershaw developed a closefriendship with a local bird — see the conference website for details about his ostrich.

It would be good to have the conference papers andposter abstracts on line — I’ve just sent a request. Thenext conference is in Adelaide (www.southernconnection.org.au/fram) and I think it will be anothergreat meeting.

IV Southern Connections Conference,University of Cape Town, South Africa,January 2004Stuart PearsonGeography and Environmental ScienceUniversity of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW

SOUTHERN CONNECTIONS REPORTS


After a busy week at the Southern Connections2004 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, an

international group with representatives from Japan,Germany, Poland, Australia and New Zealand set outon the post-conference Karoo tour. Jasper Slingsby, ourvery knowledgeable tour guide, kept us well informedand as much on schedule as was possible for a disparategroup with very varied and wide-ranging interests and apronounced tendency to ignore time and disappear indifferent directions. Jasper, who was very familiar withthe areas we visited, had just completed hisundergraduate degree and for his Honours Degree wasundertaking a project on a group of the Restionaceae.

The itinerary traversed parts of the Cape FloristicRegion, regarded by some as the world’s sixth floralkingdom and the only one encompassed entirely withina single country. It displays high plant endemism of69% and is one of the world’s richest regions in terms ofbotanical diversity, with approximately 9,000 species ofvascular plant. The Region lies at the southernmost tipof Africa, stretching in an L-shape from Vanrhynsdorpand Nieuwoudtville in the west, along the west coast ofSouth Africa to Cape Town and then eastwards toGrahamstown. The Mediterranean-type climate has awinter rainfall, with elements of five different biomes:Fynbos (the most common), Succulent Karoo, NamaKaroo, thicket and forest.

After leaving Cape Town, we headed to the West CoastNational Park to examine Sandveldt vegetationwith scattered low shrubs and succulents ofMesembryanthaceae and Euphorbiaceae growing onthe typically nutrient-poor sandy soils. A nearbylimestone outcrop on the coast supported Strandveld,an open, scrub vegetation with several woody membersand a high proportion of succulents and plants whichproduce fleshy fruits. Although we did not see it,Chrysamthemoides monilifera, which Victorians know asBoneseed — a scourge in many of our National andState Parks — occurs in Strandveld. Our next stop wasto observe Renosterveld vegetation, which is

characterized by a grey shrub called renosterbos orrhinoceros bush (Elytropappus rhinocerotis, Asteraceae)with an understorey of mainly monocotyledonousgeophytes. The typical Fynbos families Restionaceae,Proteaceae and Ericaceae are scarce, although grassesare sometimes abundant. When rainfall is high — inexcess of 600mm per annum — Renosterveld isreplaced by Fynbos. When annual rainfall decreases to250mm, it is replaced by Succulent Karoo vegetation.Little of the original Renosterveld now remains, due toclearing for agriculture.

After lunch at Kraalbaai, we visited the site of thefootprints of Eve, which have been removed and nowreside in the South African Museum in Cape Town.

The next morning we visited the West Coast FossilPark at Langebaanweg, a dry windswept sandy areawith sparse vegetation. The settlement atLangebaanweg achieved recognition due to the nearbypresence of economically important phosphate depositsand an important military airbase. A 14 hectare fossil-rich area within the mine property was declared aNational Monument in 1996 and has been developedfor eco-tourism and as an educational resource. Thesystematic investigation of fossils and the deposits inwhich they occur is the main undertaking of the SouthAfrican Museum’s Department of CenozoicPaleontology. Ongoing multidisciplinary researchprojects are undertaken between the Museum and otherscientific institutions. The research facilities are utilizedby local and international researchers.

This area is one of the most prolific sources of lateTertiary vertebrate fossils. Beneath the barren surface,65m of marine and terrestrial sediments of Mioceneand Pliocene age rest on the local bedrock. ThePliocene elements in the succession include the mostimportant of the phosphate ore bodies as well as thelargest assemblage of fossils recovered to date. Oneparticular quarry has been painstakingly excavated and,as it has been found that the local pattern of sea-level

Southern Connections Karoo Tour 24–28 January, 2004Merna McKenzieSchool of Geography and Environmental Science,Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.


change is in remarkably close agreement with theglobal pattern, it is possible to correlate southernAfrican Tertiary succession, including Langebaanweg,with others elsewhere. During the Early to MiddleMiocene, the only recorded fossils are plant remains,mainly pollen, which indicate the presence of marshesand forests, including tropical forms such as palms.During a long period of little or non-deposition ofsediments, only a few fragmentary remains of terrestrialvertebrates were recovered. This was succeeded by theearly Pliocene transgression, at which time the mostimportant element in the Langebaanweg succession,the phosphatic and fossiliferous Varswater Formation— one of the most studied and best understood Tertiarysequences in southern Africa — was deposited. About200 species of invertebrate and vertebrate animals havebeen recorded from this formation so far. Apart fromthe great variety of animals, the formation contains anastonishing quantity of fossils. Of the vertebrate fossils,the mammals of the deposits are the most intensivelystudied. These include several groups that no longerhave living representatives south of the Sahara, such asbears, true seals, wolverines, and musk oxen as well asseveral other groups that are extinct, such as sabre-toothed cats and Agriotherium africanum, an enormouscarnivorous bear. The restriction in distribution orextinction of these animals is ascribed to theenvironmental changes that occurred during thePliocene. Plant remains are limited to occasionalunidentified root fragments, microscopic spores andpollen of higher plants preserved in great numbers.These include Fynbos vegetation types similar to thosefound in this vegetation in the southwestern Capetoday. We saw the active excavation site where fossilbones were crowded together in situ. Material from thesite was being sieved and we were given theopportunity to attempt identification of any fossilmaterial held by the sieves. This visit was one of themany highlights of our tour.

We travelled through some spectacular mountains andincredible rock formations over the Pakhuis Pass beforearriving at Traveller’s Rest, 34km from Clanwilliam.After settling into our fully equipped cottages(electricity, fridge, stove, crockery, cutlery, bedding etc— a palynologist’s idea of field trip heaven), we had anenormous and very sociable meal at the Khoisankitchen, a building on the Brandewyn River.

Up at 5am next morning to walk the Rock Art Trail forwhich Traveller’s Rest is famous. The paintings (seep.23, and back cover) were the work of the San ofSouthern Africa, a group of people who were massacred,enslaved and absorbed until their culture was extinct. A

wide variety of materials, including earth ochres, clayash and bird droppings, formed the basis of thepigments. Although many of the paintings are veryfaded due to the passage of time, weathering andvandalism, some are well-preserved and provide a visualstory of San beliefs and environment. The paintings arevaried, representing both human and animal figures.A particularly interesting painting was a line ofseven dancing women, showing the characteristic‘steatopygia’ of the San, a physical characteristic inwhich women in particular were able to store fattyreserves of food in enormously enlarged buttocks. Whilethe majority of the paintings represent people, a numberof animals, probably representing hartebeest, zebra andantelope and others, are preserved.

The natural vegetation of the area is rich and varied,being a transition area of mixed Fynbos and Strandveldwith many Karoo elements. During the walk weidentified shrubs of a number of families, includingAsclepiadaceae, Mesembryanthaceae (123 genera inSouth Africa), Proteaceae (Clanwilliam sugarbushProtea glabra), Anacardiaceae (Rhus undulata, R.dissecta) and Euphorbiaceae (Euphorbia mauretanica).As we crossed the river, a patch of riverine scrubincluded Wild olive (Olea europaea ssp. africana) andthe native willow Salix hirsute. Of relevance to theAustralians in the party, we observed Wild almondBrabejum stellatifolium, the only member of the sub-family Grevilloideae of the Proteaceae to occur inSouth Africa, a sub-family which is common in andwell-represented in Australia; Lance-leaved myrtle,Metrosideros angustifolia, the sole African member of agenus linking the southern continents, and Acaciasaligna. A. saligna, an introduction from Australiawhich poses a threat to native vegetation, is commonand a fungus, Uromycladium, that causes thedevelopment of rusty brown galls, has been importedfrom Australia to control the trees. Most of the shrubsand herbs we saw on the walk are found only in thisarea of the Cape. This makes the occurrence of SandOlive, Dodonaea angustifolia, of interest, as Dodonaea isnative to Africa, California, parts of Asia, Hawaii, NewZealand and Australia, which raises interestingquestions as to how all these distant places werecolonized by Dodonaea. The keen-eyed among us alsosaw a group of hoofed animals, but I was too busylooking at the plants to focus on them.

A walk to see Fynbos vegetation was planned forthe afternoon. Dutch settlers originally referred to thepredominant vegetation of the southwestern Cape asfijn-bosch, probably related to the small or leatheryleafed shrubs adapted to survive dry summers and


recurrent natural fires, with intervals between firesvarying from two to 60 years. Fires are thought to beone of the major factors influencing the high speciesrichness in the Cape, related to burn season, intensity,extent and interval. Other factors, including the ruggedlandscape, variable and complex rainfall patterns anddiverse soils poor in nutrients, combine to produce amosaic of different habitats.

Fynbos is dominated by Restionaceae, Ericaceae andProteaceae, three families that are well represented inthe Cape but poorly represented throughout the rest ofthe world. Restionaceae, which characteristicallyoccurs on sandy or peaty soils low in nutrients, often inseasonally wet sites, has a world-wide distribution of 40genera and 460 species, of which all except one areconfined to the Southern Hemisphere, with maincentres of diversity being South Africa (30 genera withmore than 250 species) and South-West Australia.Australia has 20 genera, with c.140 species occurring inall states. Ericaceae contains more than 650 Ericaspecies, almost all of which are confined to Fynbos. Thefamily Epacridaceae occupies a similar environment inAustralia, with 29 genera, c.355 species, occurring in allstates. Proteaceae is essentially a Southern Hemispherefamily, with Australia and Southern Africa being itscentres of greatest diversity. A number of theProteaceae we saw in the Fynbos, Protea, Leucospermumand Leucodendron, for example, are much prizedhorticultural plants in Australia.

Due to constraints of time and distance, it was notpossible to visit areas of Karoo, so we went toNiewoudtville to visit the Vanrhynsdorp succulentgarden and nursery. We were given a talk about thecharacteristics of the Karoo vegetation and then a tourof the nursery in order to illustrate the characteristicsand variety of succulents occurring in Karoo. The termKaroo comes from the Khoekhoe word ‘garo’, meaning‘land of thirst’. The Karoo vegetation is recognized asone of the world’s 25 biodiversity ‘hotspots’ and is theworld’s only entirely arid hotspot, carrying the richestarid flora in the world with approximately 5,000 plantspecies, of which 40% are endemic. Families that areparticularly rich in endemics include Amaryllidaceae,Asclepiadaceae, Asteraceae, Crassulaceae, Eriospermaceae,Geraniaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae, Euphorbiaceae,Aizoaceae and Zygophyllaceae. Like the Cape Floristicregion, the Succulent Karoo is also a largely winterrainfall region, although the average in the Karoo isonly 20–50mm per annum.

The nursery had an enormous range of succulents frommost of the families mentioned, with sizes ranging fromsmall, well-camouflaged stone plants to succulent ‘trees’

(such as Aloe, which reaches one or two metres inheight). The succulents have a range of survivalmechanisms, including resurrection plants, ephemerals,small leathery leaves with sunken stomata, retainingseeds tightly in dried flowerheads throughout one ormore summers until good rains fall and provideconditions suitable for germination and completion ofthe life cycle, geophytes with subterranean succulenttubers or bulbs, and stem succulents with thick barrelshaped stems with small scalelike leaves that are shed— the green stem serving for water storage andphotosynthesis. Most endemic succulents in SouthAfrica are leaf succulents that vary in shape, size andorientation. Most animal species in these dry regionsare dependent on plants for food and moisture, andplants are protected from animal depredation by anumber of strategies, including mechanical defence (inthe form of spines or prickles), chemical defence orcamouflage. The visit completely changed my view ofsucculents, as the range of size (from dwarf to 1–2m),forms and adaptations, the beauty of the plants andtheir flowers, and diversity of families represented wastruly incredible for an Australian — Australia being acountry with dry conditions prevailing over large areasand hence very few succulents.

We set out for Cape Town after a truly inspiring andmemorable visit to some of the varied vegetationcommunities of South Africa. The field trip has led to awish to revisit these areas, visit new ones and furtherinvestigate the South African and Australian floras andtheir differences and similarities.

Any errors and mistakes are entirely mine. Theinformation about the field trip draws heavily oninformation gleaned during the trip, field data providedby Jasper, and the following:

Hendey Q.B. (1991) Langebaanweg, A record of past life.The Rustica Press.

Slingsby P. (2000) Rock Art of the Western Cape. Book 1:The Seville Trail and Travellers’ Rest. The FontMaker,Zandvlei 7945.

van Jaarsveld, E., van Wyk, B-E., Smith, G., andBodley, E., (2000) Succulents of South Africa. TienWah Press, Singapore.


Images from the Southern Connectionscoastal tour, 24–28 January, 2004Barbara WagstaffSchool of Geography and Environmental Science,Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

Forest near Knysna. The high rainfall at the KnysnaForest meant that it is the soil that controls the

contrast between the forest and fynbos, with a verysharp division between the two. Oeteniqua yellowwoodand real yellowwood (Podocarus falcatus and Podocarpuslatifolius), stinkwood (Ocotea bullata) and ironwood(Olea capensis) dominate the canopy, with ferns,particularly Blechnum sp., forming the ground cover.The massive trees are still logged, although the foresterassured us that it was done with minimum damage tothe forest. Trees are selected on the basis of theirsenility. After felling, the tree is dragged out by horse.As the timber is only used to produce high qualityfurniture, the amount removed is minimal. Whenquestioned as to the need for the older trees to providehabitat for wildlife, we were assured that, unlikeAustralia, this was not necessary. A walk along thetrack through the forest involved us in encounters with10cm long millipedes, dung beetles, frogs and one verysmall snake, but no elephants. The Knysna Forestelephants were destroyed by hunting and the taking ofspecimens for scientific research, and there are probablynone left. I vainly began pulling out every Acaciaseedling that I saw along the side of the track, but gaveup as it would have been all I did.

Fire ecologist David Bowman touches an elephant atthe Knysna Elephant Park. Note the ever-present

Eucalyptus trees in the upper right corner of thephotograph. Re-introduction of the elephants to theforest is not practical, as the government would have toreimburse the farmers for any damage they caused in thesurrounding cultivated areas. The elephants in theKnysna Elephant Park are orphans resulting from theculling in Kruger National Park. They are reared bytheir carers and are hence reasonably safe for tourists totouch (Figure 2). This was an experience that I mustadmit was amazing — all that unexpected bristly hairon the skin. However, it was also very sad to see theseelephants reduced to such a situation


Current programmes include reconstruction of thevegetation and environments of the northern

Australia/Indonesia region (largely from marine coreevidence), reconstruction of Quaternary environmentson the basaltic western plains of Victoria and theAtherton Tableland, the relationship between sea leveland human occupation in northeastern Australia,vegetation variation in forests and at high altitudeswithin the Southeastern Highlands, and the history ofriver catchments through analysis of billabongsediments.

Marine records, produced by Dr Sander van der Kaars,extending through the last 100,000 to 500,000 yearswithin the Maritime Continent region are revealingmarked changes in the distribution and composition ofrainforest, savanna and arid vegetation in relation toglobal ice volume and monsoon forcing, and an overalltrend to more open canopied vegetation and alterationin fire activity as a result of drier climatic conditions. Asimilar vegetation trend is evident in northeasternAustralia, but ENSO variability rather than a waningmonsoon appears to be the critical influence here.There is also evidence, from a combination of alteredfire regimes and sustained vegetation change, for majorhuman impact regionally, dating from about 45,000years BP and possibly from about 130,000 years BP.Decoupling the relative importance of people andclimate on vegetation change and elucidation ofdetailed patterns of ENSO variation from the site ofLynch’s Crater are major aims of the PhD project of SueRule, supported by an ARC Discovery grant recentlyawarded to Raphael Wust of JCU and Peter Kershaw.Recoring Lynch’s Crater with a National Geographic

grant to Chris Turney and Peter Kershaw and with theANU drilling rig was attempted last year. A secondattempt, with additional support from JCU, will beattempted this year. It is hoped that the weather will beless inclement. Palynological study is continuing onKalimantan peatlands with a Holocene record beingproduced last year by Professor Wang Weiming, avisitor from the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology,Academia Sinica, Nanjing. The core was collected byRaphael Wust, primarily for geochemical study. Thisresearch, including the ongoing palynological studies ofresearch student Asha Thamotherampillai, iscontributing to the Kalimantan Tropical Peat SwampForest Research Project, headed by Jack Rieley,University of Nottingham.

Honorary Fellow Bob Morley is undertakingbiostratigraphic work for Unocal Indonesia Inc. in shelfand slope settings offshore Mahakam Delta and placingthis into a firm chronostratigraphic and sequencestratigraphic framework. Much of the palynologicalcomponent is being undertaken by Sander van derKaars and is contributing to the understanding ofclimate and vegetation change of the more generalMaritime Continent region in the late Quaternary.Patrick Moss, currently at the University of Wisconsin,has maintained close involvement with the Centre,including recent pollen analysis of Lynch’s Crater. Hehas also extended the ODP 820 record, the subject ofhis PhD, from 250,000 to 500,000 years BP in order totest the hypothesis that sustained vegetation changes innortheastern Australia were the direct result ofalterations in oceanic conditions within the mid-Brunhes period.

RESEARCH REPORT

Current activities of the Centre for Palynology and Palaeoecology, School of Geography and EnvironmentalScience, Monash UniversityPeter Kershaw


Large chunks of the Quaternary vegetation history ofthe Western Plains of Victoria are being revealed fromthe study of old volcanic craters. Dr Barbara Wagstaffhas recently completed analysis of two overlappingpollen sequences that extend from about 1.3 to 0.7million years ago and show marked vegetationresponses to changing orbital forcing around the early-to mid-Pleistocene boundary. These changes includemore marked vegetation variation with thedevelopment of existing, distinctive cool temperaterainforest, the possible loss from the region ofaraucarian forest remnants, and a decline in Callitrisdominated communities. An older sequence, dating tothe base of the Quaternary, being analysed by PhDstudent Kale Sniderman shows remarkable cyclicalalternation between rainforest and sclerophyllvegetation. The rainforest was diverse and shows verylate survival of almost all taxa that characterised themid to late Tertiary period in southeastern Australia. Incombination with Barbara’s records, it appears thatprecession-dominated southern hemisphere solarinsolation variation, rather than forcing from thenorthern hemisphere ice sheets, was the dominantinfluence on Quaternary climate until about 1 millionyears ago.

In the more recent past, PhD student RochelleJohnston is finalising her high resolution palynologicalstudy on the Pleistocene/Holocene transition at TowerHill, designed to examine vegetation responses to rapidclimate change. This site, together with similar highresolution and well dated transition studies of Lynch’sCrater and Rawa Danau in Java, are being compared,primarily by Chris Turney, to determine the regionalnature of transition events and their degree ofsynchroneity with the well-established pattern thatincludes the Younger Dryas in the northernhemisphere. A high resolution pollen record from LakeSurprise in far western Victoria is being prepared byPhD student Chris White, with support from an ARCLinkage grant to Peter Kershaw and archaeologistHeather Builth. The major aim of this project is toprovide a regional environmental record for assessmentof Aboriginal occupation and impact, and to shed lighton the timing of proposed intensification of occupationassociated with the development of eel aquiculture.The existing record covers the last 18,000 years. Recentcoring, with the assistance of Jim Neale, has extendedsediment recovery from an original 13m to 20m: thebase of the lake sediments. A link between the sub-humid plains and semi-arid environments, especiallyLake Mungo, is being provided by Ellyn Cook’s PhDstudy of the history of the lunette lake system of Bolac.Ellen is complementing pollen with analysis of other

regularly encountered but seldom acknowledgedpalynomorphs in pollen samples.

Volcanic Province related projects, utilisingconstructed palaeoecological records, include anassessment of the potential for tephrochronologicalcorrelation of records from both northeastern andsoutheastern Australia by PhD student Sarah Davies,working from Queen’s University Belfast, and theproduction of a dust record from Lake Surprise byhonours student Fiona Bertuck.

Archaeological applications are prominent in coastalstudies within northeastern Australia, where Dr JohnGrindrod is examining swamp histories within theWhitsunday Islands and on Cape York Peninsula. PhDstudent Cassie Rowe is undertaking a vegetation andfire history of Torres Strait Islands in order tocontribute to a major archaeological study of theseislands by members of the School’s fledgling IndigenousArchaeology Programme. She is supported by an ARCDiscovery grant. Further from the coast, researchstudent Nic Dolby continues to address Aboriginalwood use and vegetation change from charcoalidentified in the archaeological site of Ngarrabullganon Cape York, excavated by Dr Bruno David.

Caledonia Fen, in the Snowy Ranges, provides a major focus of research in the southeastern highlands.Dr Merna McKenzie celebrated her 80th year bycompleting a high resolution pollen record that extends through the whole of the last glacial cycle. Thisrecord provides some interesting insights into ‘normal’ conditions in the highlands that are verydifferent to those of today. Details of the stability of this environment are being provided by PhD student Jonathan Brown through physical analysis,mineral magnetism and OSL dating of catchment and lake sediments. Jonathon has benefited greatlyfrom a stint in the Mineral Magnetism Laboratory of Barbara Maher at the University of Lancaster, and from association with Bert Roberts and theMelbourne University OSL lab. In the mountain ash forests, PhD student Alex McLeod is modelling vegetation-fire relationships in association with JimClark of Duke University, with a historical perspective provided by the identification and dating ofsoil charcoal. PhD student Cecilia Elwood isattempting to reconstruct the vegetation and climatehistory of the Tasmanian highlands at a scalecomparable with ecological monitoring through the dendrochronology of Athrotaxis combined withhigh resolution pollen and charcoal analysis of lake sediments.


A number of existing sites of palaeoecologicalinvestigation have been utilised for palaeoclimaticreconstruction using fossil beetle assemblages. PhDstudent Nick Porch has applied an extensive data basethat he built on present-day ranges of Australianbeetles to the refinement of past temperatures that havebeen difficult to derive from other proxy data.

Palaeolimnological studies have been concentrated onthe study of diatoms in billabong sediments in order todocument changes in stream water quality andvariability through the last few thousand years. TheMurray Basin has been a central focus, althoughexpertise has largely moved to the Department ofGeography and Environmental Studies at theUniversity of Adelaide. However, the Centre is stillinvolved in providing broader catchment informationfrom pollen data. In a separate palaeolimnological studyof the Yarra River, PhD student Paul Leahy hasdocumented the pre-contact state of the river, as well asthe degree and causes of change within this systemsubsequent to the arrival of Europeans, through analysisof three billabongs. The results suggest that thepresumed natural state of the river needs to bereconsidered. Hopefully this information will berevealed if the acquisition of a job with the VictorianEnvironmental Protection Authority does not preventhim completing his thesis in the near future. NeridaBleakley has completed her thesis on a sediment-basedstudy of the diatoms and chemistry of a Fjord system inAntarctica, which provides some insights into thecomplexity of a lake-marine-ice system as well as adetailed climate record for the last 4,000 years. Theopportunity was taken to involve French/ Canadiandiatomist Aline Philibert, who is visiting the Universityof Adelaide, in the Lake Surprise project. She hasproduced an excellent continuous record of the last18,000 years.

The Centre has benefited greatly from continuedcollaboration with ex-members, especially SimonHaberle and John Tibby, who continue to play a veryactive role in student supervision. We are also gratefulto Meredith Orr, Chris Turney, Bruno David, PatrickDe Deckker and Andrew McMinn for their importantsupervisory contributions.

Publications

Genever, M., Grindrod, J. F. and Barker, B. 2003.Holocene palynology of Whitehaven Swamp,Whitsunday Island, Queensland, and implicationsfor the regional archaeological record.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology201: 141–156.

Haberle, S. 2003. Late Quaternary vegetation dynamicsand human impact on Alexander Selkirk Island,Chile. Journal of Biogeography 30: 239–255.

Hesse, P. P., Magee, J. W. and van der Kaars, S. 2004.Late Quaternary climates of the Australian aridzone: a review. Quaternary International118–119: 87–102.

Hope, G. S., Kershaw, A. P., van der Kaars, S., Sun, X.,Liew, P-M., Heusser, L. E., Takahara, H.,McGlone, M., Myoshi, N. and Moss, P. T. 2004.History of vegetation and habitat change in theAustral–Asian region. Quaternary International118–119: 103–126.

Kershaw, A. P., D’Costa, D. M., Tibby, J., Wagstaff, B. E.and Heijnis, H. (in press). The last million yearsaround Lake Keilambete, western Victoria.Proceedings, Royal Society of Victoria.

Kershaw, A. P., Moss, P. T. and van der Kaars, S. 2003.Causes and consequences of long-term climaticvariability on the Australian continent.Freshwater Biology 48: 1274–1283.

Kershaw, A. P., Moss, P. T. and Wild, R. (in press)Patterns and causes of vegetation change in theAustralian wet tropics region over the last 10million years. In C. Moritz and E. Bermingham(eds.) Tropical Rainforests: Past and Future.Chicago University Press.

Kershaw, A. P., van der Kaars, S. and Moss, P. T. 2003.Late Quaternary Milankovitch-scale climatechange and variability and its impact onmonsoonal Australia. Marine Geology 201: 81–95.

Morley, R. J., 2003. Interplate dispersal paths formegathermal angiosperms. Perspectives in PlantEcology, Evolution and Systematics 6: 5–20.

Morley, R.J. 2003. Missing fossils, molecular clocks, andthe origin of the Melastomataceae. Americanjournal of Botany 90: 1638–1644.

Sherwood, J., Oyston, B. and Kershaw, A.P. (in press).The age of Tower Hill volcano, southwestVictoria, Australia, Proceedings, Royal Society ofVictoria

Sniderman, J. M. K., O’Sullivan, P. B., Hollis, J. andKershaw, A. P. (in press). Late Pliocenevegetation and climate change in the WesternUplands of Victoria, Australia. Proceedings,Royal Society of Victoria.


Tibby, J. 2003. Explaining lake and catchment changeusing sediment derived and written histories: anAustralian perspective. The Science of the TotalEnvironment 310: 61–71.

Tibby, J. (in press). Development of a diatom-basedmodel for inferring total phosphorus in south-eastern Australian storages. Journal ofPalaeolimnology.

Tibby, J., Reid, M. A., Fluin, J., Hart, B. T. and Kershaw,A.P. 2003. Assessing long-term pH change in anAustralian river catchment using monitoringand palaeolimnological data. EnvironmentalScience and Technology 37: 3250–3255.

Turney, C. S. M., Kershaw, A. P., Clemens, S., Branch,N., Moss, P. T. and Fifield, L. K. 2004. Millennialand orbital variations in El Niño/SouthernOscillation and high latitude climate in the lastglacial period. Nature 428: 306–310

Van der Kaars, S. and De Deckker, P. 2003. Pollendistribution in marine surface sedimentsoffshore Western Australia. Review ofPalaeobotany and Palynology 124: 113–124.

Joyce, E. B. 2003. Landscape and geological heritage: aBaragwanath seminar sponsored by GSAheritage workers. The Australian Geologist, No.126, March 30, 2003, pp.11–13 + front cover.

Joyce, E. B., Webb, J. A., Dahlhaus, P. G., Grimes, K.G., Hill, S. M., Kotsonis, A., Martin, J.,Mitchell, M. M., Neilson, J. L., Orr, M. L.,Peterson, J. A., Rosengren, N. J., Rowan, J. N.,Rowe, R. K., Sargeant, I., Stone, T., Smith, B.K., and White, S. (with material by the late J. J.Jenkin) 2003. Geomorphology, the evolution ofVictorian landscapes. Chapter 18, In Birch W.D. (ed.) Geology of Victoria, pp. 533-561.Geological Society of Australia SpecialPublication No. 23. Geological Society ofAustralia (Victoria Division).

Joyce, E. B. 2004. The geomorphology of Victoria: anew view of the landscape. 11th ANZGGMeeting, Mt Buffalo, Australia, February 15–20,2004. Conference Program, Abstracts andParticipants, ANZGG Occasional Paper No. 3,p.38.

Taylor, D.; Lu, X.X.; Adger, W.N.; Lowe, D.J.; de Lange,W.P.; Newnham, R.M.; Dodson, J.R. 2004.Interactions of natural hazards and society inAustral-Asia: evidence in past and recentrecords. Quaternary International, 118–119:181–203.

Turney, C.S.M.; Lowe, J.J.; Davies, S.M.; Hall, V.A.;Lowe, D.J.; Wastegård, S.; Hoek, W.Z.; Alloway,B.V. 2004. Tephrochronology of LastTermination sequences in Europe: a protocol forimproved analytical precision and robustcorrelation procedures (a jointSCOTAVINTIMATE proposal). Journal ofQuaternary Science, 19: 111-120.

Haworth, R.J., Baker, R.G.V, Flood, P.G. 2004. A 6000year old dugong from Botany Bay: inferencesabout changes in Sydney's climate, sea levels,and waterways. Australian Geographical Studies,42: 46-59.

Gale, S.J. 2003. Making the European landscape: earlycontact environmental impact in Australia. InGeography's New Frontiers. Geographical Societyof New South Wales Conference Papers, 17: 7-16.

OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS


This thesis explores Holocene climate conditions inthe western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) using

geochemical tracers in fossil corals from the north coastof Papua New Guinea (PNG). The WPWP, withan annual average sea surface temperature (SST)exceeding 28°C, is not only a major heat source drivingequator-to-pole atmospheric circulation, but is afundamental component of the El Niño-SouthernOscillation (ENSO) system. Ocean-atmosphereinteractions in the warm pool are instrumental intriggering ENSO warm events (El Niño events). Giventhe often severe ENSO-related climate impacts aroundthe globe, the mid-Holocene has emerged as a keyperiod for investigating this system due to subtledifferences in the distribution of solar insolation,relative to that of today. An understanding of how theWPWP climate responded to this altered backgroundstate can give us clues as to how ENSO may changeunder other altered background climate conditions,such as that brought about by atmospheric CO2 levelsduring the 21st century. To address this issue, fossil andmodern Porites corals were sampled from uplifted andliving reefs on Muschu and Koil Islands, PNG, toreconstruct the mid-Holocene climate in the WPWP.Skeletal Sr/Ca and oxygen isotope ratios ( 18O) weremeasured in seven fossil corals with ages between 7.6-5.4 ka (x1000 calendar years ago), one 2 ka coral, andthree modern corals. The results were used to calculateSST and the oxygen isotope residual (S 18O), the twomain proxies for warm pool climate used in this study.

Three modern corals, two from Muschu Island and onefrom Koil Island, were analysed for Sr/Ca and 18O toestablish the methodologies to apply to the fossil corals.

Sr/Ca and 18O analyses on annually-resolved samplesfrom the three modern corals were used to assess thelevel of reproducibility amongst coral records for thisregion. The spread of 18O data about the mean valuefor the three corals was 0.04‰, and for the Sr/Ca datawas 0.00001. When converted to SST, the spread forthe Sr/Ca data is equivalent to ± 0.7C. Seasonallyresolved Sr/Ca data from a modern Muschu Island coralwere found to track SST changes observed in theinstrumental records. This was combined with othermodern coral Sr/Ca data from the PNG region and usedto develop a calibration equation to convert Sr/Ca toSST. The Sr/Ca-SST calibration equation isSr/Caatomicx103 = 11.0 – 0.075 x SST. The modernMuschu coral was also analysed for 18O at seasonalresolution. The seasonal 18O and Sr/Ca data from theMuschu coral were then used to calculate S 18O, byremoving the SST component from the 18O results.S 18O was converted to sea surface salinity (SSS) usingthe following seawater 18O-SSS relationshipdeveloped from tandem measurements on watersamples from the north coast of PNG: 18Ow = –8.7 +0.26 x SSS. The modern corals record seasonal, inter-annual and decadal scale climate variability. Theseasonally resolved Sr/Ca-SST data showed one annualminimum in January, probably due to northwesterlywind driven coastal upwelling. A S 18O maximum inJanuary, also likely reflects upwelling, as well as theannual rainfall minimum. S 18O was at a minimumwhen rainfall was highest from May-August andsoutheasterly winds prevail. Both coral Sr/Ca-SST andS 18O show relatively cool and more saline conditions(reduced rainfall) respectively, during ENSO warmevents. The annually-resolved Sr/Ca and 18O records

THESIS ABSTRACT

Coral Reconstructions of mid-HoloceneOcean-Atmosphere Variability in theWestern Pacific Warm Pool Helen V. McGregor*The Australian National University, August 2003

*Current address: Universität Bremen, FB5 Geowissenschaften, Postfach 330440, D-28334 Bremen, Germany, [email protected]


for the three modern corals were averaged and used asthe baseline for assessing relative changes in meanclimate observed in the fossil coral climate records.

Climate reconstructions derived from the geochemistryof fossil corals can be corrupted by diagenetic alterationof coralline skeletal aragonite. To understand theimpact of vadose-zone diagenesis on coral climateproxies, two of the mid-Holocene Porites corals wereanalysed for Sr/Ca, 18O, and 13C along transects from100% aragonite to 100% calcite. Thin-section analysisshowed a characteristic vadose zone diageneticsequence, beginning with leaching of primary aragoniteand fine calcite overgrowths, transitional to calcite voidfilling and neomorphic, fabric selective replacement ofthe coral skeleton. Average Sr/Ca and 18O values forcalcite were lower than those for coral aragonite,decreasing from 0.0088 to 0.0021 and –5.2 to –8.1‰,respectively. Diagenesis has a greater impact onreconstructions of SST from Sr/Ca, relative to 18O;the calcite compositions reported here convert to SSTanomalies of 115C and 14C, respectively. Thus, basedon the calcite Sr/Ca compositions analysed in this studyand in the literature, the sensitivity of coral Sr/Ca-SSTto vadose-zone calcite diagenesis is 1.1–1.5°C perpercent calcite. In contrast, the rate of change in coral 18O SST is relatively small (–0.2 to 0.2°C per percentcalcite). The results indicate that large shifts in 18O,reported for mid-Holocene and Last Interglacial coralswith warmer than present Sr/Ca-SSTs, cannot becaused by diagenesis. X-ray diffraction and petrographicanalysis of fossil coral skeletons used for climatereconstruction in this thesis revealed no significantdiagenesis.

Fossil corals records of Sr/Ca and 18O were used toinfer mean SST, S 18O and SSS conditions in theWPWP during the mid-Holocene. The U-Th datedfossil corals show that from 7.6 to 6.1 ka SSTs were onaverage ~0.9C cooler than at present, and S 18Oconverted to SSS suggests conditions were ~1.5 psumore saline than today. Taken together with othertropical Pacific SST proxy records, the overall SSTstructure is evocative of the modern-day ENSO coolphase (La Niña). If a mean La Niña state was operatingduring this time, then the easterly trade winds werelikely to have been stronger, thus increasingevaporation relative to precipitation and raising theSSS of the warm pool. An abrupt shift, particularly inthe S 18O, was identified between 6.1 and 5.4 ka. Thisshift, indicating a decrease in SSS of ~1.5 psu, mayrepresent the establishment of a modern-like WPWP.

The timing of the abrupt shift is similar to abrupt shiftsidentified in proxy climate records from the Indian sub-continent, Indian Ocean and tropical eastAtlantic. The timing is also similar to an enhancedmillennial-scale climate oscillation in drift-ice raftingand deepwater production, identified in the NorthAtlantic. This shift points to the WPWP playing astronger role than previously thought in global climatechange during the Holocene.

Annually-resolved 18O data from the seven fossilcorals aged from 7.6–5.4 ka showed an El Niñorecurrence interval of nine years, compared to sevenyears for a 18O coral record spanning 1911–1997AD.This suggests that El Niño was slightly suppressedduring this time as indicated by models, though not tothe same extent as suggested by South American lakesediment records. Four fossil corals dating to 7.3 ka,6.1 ka, 5.4 ka and 2 ka were analysed at bimonthlyresolution for Sr/Ca and 18O to investigate changes inthe seasonal cycle of SST and S 18O, and changes inthe El Niño signal. The results for the period 7.3–6.1 kasuggest locally increased rainfall during the middle ofthe year, implying strengthened southeasterly winds,consistent with an enhanced La Niña state during thistime. By 5.4 ka, mid-year S 18O were at a maximumlocally, implying that the southeast trade windsweakened. This is consistent with overall fresher meansurface ocean conditions and suggests that the modernSST and SSS structure of the WPWP may have beenestablished at this time. Analysis of S 18O for the ElNiño years observed in the 7.3 ka, 6.1 ka and 5.4 kacoral records showed that El Niño events at these timespeaked during the middle of the year. This peak in mid-Holocene El Niño events is 4–6 months earlier thanthe peak in El Niño today (usually at the end of theyear). A 7-year protracted El Niño was identified in the2 ka coral 18O records, consistent with increased ElNiño frequency and intensity found in both modellingand proxy studies. High-resolution Sr/Ca and 18Oanalysis of one year of the 7-year El Niño event showedthat it peaked at the same time as today. The high-resolution results imply that small changes inbackground conditions — such as orbital parametersand/or the strength of the tropical monsoons — asproposed by modelling studies, can influence thedevelopment of ENSO events. Therefore, it is notpossible to rule-out the potential for changes inbackground conditions, such as the current increase inCO2 levels in the atmosphere from the burning of fossilfuels, to cause large changes in the ENSO.


The evolutionary legacy of the Ice Ages: Papers of aDiscussion Meeting organized and edited by K. J.

Willis, K.D. Bennett and D. Walker. A special issue(Volume 359, no. 1442) of Philosophical Transactions ofthe Royal Society. £45/US$70 from The Royal Society,(TB 1442) PO Box 20, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS237EB, UK.

The stated purpose of the Royal Society discussionmeeting which formed the basis for this special issuewas ‘to examine current fossil and molecular researchfor the degree to which Ice Ages may have contributedto the evolution of organisms’, and, more specifically, to‘examine the mechanisms and rates of organismalresponses to a known critical period of climate changein the Earth’s history’ (Willis et al., p. 157). Theseissues are addressed in 13 contributed papers, at bothmacroevolutionary (speciation) and phylogeographic(infraspecific) genetic scales, in attempts to answerseveral questions: Has speciation occurred within theQuaternary and, if so, has it occurred at rates exceedingthose typical of earlier intervals of Earth history? Whatis the relationship between phylogeographic patterns(the geographic distribution of infraspecific geneticvariation), orbitally forced glacial cycles, andspeciation?

Contributing authors address these questions at avariety of temporal scales, ranging from the LateNeogene to the Holocene, through analysis of a rangeof organisms including modern humans and hominids,mammals, birds, insects and vascular plants. With thisdiversity in mind, it may be difficult to makegeneralisations across taxonomic groups within whichthe evolutionary response to the Quaternary has rangedfrom abundant speciation (in mammals) to apparentlynear universal stasis (in beetles). We are clearly still along way off providing general explanations for thisvariability, given, among other factors, the counter-intuitive lack of a correlation between speciation rateand generation time. The uncertainties introduced bythis variability lead some authors to question whether

at least some of the differences in observedevolutionary responses simply reflect interdisciplinarymethodological artefacts (A. M. Lister) or, given thatmost of the data presented here is derived fromnorthern temperate latitudes, our relative ignorance oftropical neo- and palaeodiversity (G. R. Coope).Despite these uncertainties, Keith Bennett concludes inhis summary paper that speciation during theQuaternary has, in general, been minimal.

To interpret this conclusion, Bennett focuses onMilankovitch cycles as potential forcing agents ofevolutionary change. He proposes that population levelgenetic divergences accumulated within one phase(traditionally, an interglacial) of an orbitally forcedclimate cycle are likely to be eliminated during thesubsequent opposite phase (traditionally a glacial,though J. W. Kadereit et al. argue — in the contextof inferred Pleistocene speciation of European alpineherbs — that glacial phases may have been asimportant for speciation as interglacials). Hencemicroevolutionary processes at the ecological scale(natural selection, Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘first tier’) areundone at orbital scale (Bennett’s ‘second tier’) andevolutionary stasis is the norm. As a theoreticalframework explaining why we should not expectspeciation as a consequence of orbitally forced cyclicclimate fluctuations, there is little in this collection tocontradict Bennett’s thesis. For example, manyphylogeographic patterns (G. M Hewitt and M.Lascoux et al.) appear to result primarily from changingdistributions only within the most recent glacial cycle,hence they are presumably evolutionarily trivial withlittle significance for speciation (but see thecontribution by G. E. McKinnon et al., which suggeststhat at least some Eucalyptus species are merelystabilised hybrid forms, drawn from the regionaleucalypt gene pool and specific to the currentinterglacial phase; this appears to imply that someeucalypt ‘species’ are either created anew, or perhapsresurrected, with each glacial cycle).

REVIEW

Evolutionary Legacy of the Ice Ages

Reviewed by K. Sniderman


Conversely, Lascoux et al. also present evidence (fromwestern North American Pinus ponderosa) of between-population genetic divergences that appear to be olderthan the most recent cycle, suggesting thatthe evolutionary clock is not always reset to zero byMilankovitch cycles. It follows that trends ofdivergence such as that seen in P. ponderosa occurdespite, rather than because of glacial cycles andperhaps represent cases of incipient speciation thathave little or no evident causal relationship toMilankovitch cyclicity. However, Bennett effectivelysweeps the general question of Quaternary speciationunder the carpet of a stasis-reinforcing Milankovitchcyclicity, by implying that, because speciation does notoccur at Milankovitch time scales, it is unimportantwithin the Quaternary. As a fallback position, it isacknowledged that limited Quaternary speciation hasoccurred, but at rates indistinguishable from — in somecases faster, in other cases slower than — those inferredfor other periods, hence speciation rate has not been adistinctive feature of the Quaternary.

These are not surprising conclusions, partly because thisis familiar ground (Bennett, 1990, 1997), but they begthe question of the extent that the modern biotarepresents an evolutionary response more generally tothe onset and continued development of ‘Quaternary-like’ conditions. The decoupling of speciation andMilankovitch forcing is reinforced by A. M. Lister’soverview of the evidence for macroevolutionaryresponses by mammals to peculiarly Quaternaryenvironments, showing that the many undeniableQuaternary mammal originations and extinctionsappear to have little relationship to individual orbitalcycles. Yet Lister is alone in emphasising Quaternaryneospecies (e.g., mammoth, reindeer) as ecologicallydistinctive evolutionary products (though C. Gamble etal.’s exploration of fundamental differences in socialconstruction between Neanderthals and modernssimilarly focuses on the distinctive characteristics of asuccessful neospecies). Perhaps this emphasis willreceive more attention if the hypothesis upon whichthis Royal Society discussion was based — thatindividual glacial cycles might have driven speciation— deserves to be abandoned.

Alternatively, there is relatively little attention paid tothe possibility that speciation occurs in response tomajor shifts in climatic regime — such as that whichmarked the onset of the Quaternary — or associatedwith the shift in frequency and amplitude of orbitalcyclicity around the Early/Middle Quaternarytransition. This theme is taken up only by E. S. Vrba

and D. DeGusta, who argue that late Neogene Africanmammal speciation events were clustered withinturnover pulses coordinated by large scale climaticshifts. This perspective suggests that much of theevolutionary action with respect to the Quaternarybiota may have occurred near the beginning of theperiod and, while stasis may dominate the middle andlate Quaternary, this doesn’t imply that the period hasbeen an uneventful time evolutionarily.

There is further evidence, beyond that presented in thiscollection, for speciation both immediately before, butalso well within the Quaternary. Phylogenetic evidencebased on a range of molecular markers indicates theradiation of several modern plant taxa, beginning, inmany cases, around the latest Miocene/Early Pliocene,but often extending well into the Pleistocene. Forexample, the species-rich Moraeae (Iridaceae)(Goldblatt et al., 2002), Phylica(Rhamnaceae)(Richardson et al., 2001b), Ruschioideae(Aizoaceae) (Klak et al., 2004), Plantago(Plantaginaceae) (Rønsted et al., 2002) and Inga(Mimosaceae) (Richardson et al., 2001a) appear to firstdiverge near and presumably in response to this distinctstep within ongoing global late Cenozoic refrigeration.While some of the constituent species appear to benearly as old as their genera, the larger proportion ofspecies exhibit very limited interspecific geneticdistances and are thus inferred to represent LatePliocene-Early Pleistocene radiations. Regionally,Australasian and Pacific representatives of severalherbaceous genera — including Lepidium(Mummenhoff et al., 2001) and Cardamine (Bleeker etal., 2002) (Brassicaceae), Microseris (Asteraceae)(Vijverberg et al., 1999), and Plantago, and, of thearboreal genera Sophora sect., Edwardsia (Fabaceae)(Mitchell and Heenan, 2002) and Metrosideros(Myrtaceae)(Wright et al., 2001) — exhibit verylimited (in some cases zero) sequence divergencesconsistent with radiations ranging from 2 to as little as0.5 million years ago. While many of the taxamentioned are confined to the southern hemisphere,some, such as Lepidium and Plantago, include equallyyoung Eurasian species groups, so it is not clear thatsuch recent evolution is solely an austral phenomenon.All of these taxa — rapidly maturing shrubs, herbs andtrees of ruderal habitats — seem to share commonecological traits often considered to have been favouredby Quaternary aridity, cold, strong seasonality andgeneral climatic variability. Their age-calibratedphylogenies suggest a pattern of radiation in response tothe development and progressive expansion of more orless novel habitats to which the incumbent, ‘Tertiary’


biota was perhaps relatively poorly adapted. Whileproviding no support for the importance of anyindividual glacial cycle, let alone the most recent one,this evidence does imply that, for some ecologicalgroups at least, the Quaternary has been a time ofcontinuing adaptation within lineages that mostly aroseearlier in response to developing Late Cenozoicenvironments.

I am not convinced that speciation has beenunimportant in the Quaternary — in the sense of itscontribution to the populating of modern ecosystems. Itseems possible, however, in contrast with theconclusion of K. J. Willis and K. J. Niklas, thatQuaternary glacial cyclicity may not have beenoperating long enough to see evolutionary results, thatmuch of the evolutionary novelty of the Quaternarywas concentrated near and soon after its initiation.This special issue forms an important contribution tothe ‘continuing … debate on the role of Quaternaryenvironmental change for macroevolution’, but, I hope,will not be the last word on the subject.

References cited beyond those included in the specialissue:Bennett, K. D. 1990. Milankovitch cycles and their

effects on species in ecological and evolutionarytime. Paleobiology, 16: 11–21.

Bennett, K. D. 1997. Evolution and Ecology: The Pace ofLife. Cambridge University Press.

Bleeker, W., Franzke, A., Pollman, K., Brown, A. H. D.and Hurka, H. 2002. Phylogeny andbiogeography of southern hemisphere high-mountain Cardamine species (Brassicaceae).Australian Systematic Botany, 15: 575–581.

Goldblatt, P., Savolainen, V., Porteous, O., Sostaric, I.,Powell, M., Reeves, G., Manning, J. C.,Barraclough, T. G. and Chase, M. W. 2002.Radiation in the Cape flora and the phylogenyof peacock irises Moraea (Iridaceae) based onfour plastid DNA regions. MolecularPhylogenetics and Evolution, 25: 341–360.

Klak, C., Reeves, G. and Hedderson, T. 2004.Unmatched tempo of evolution in SouthernAfrican semi-desert ice plants. Nature, 427:63–65.

Mitchell, A. D. and Heenan, P. B. 2002. Sophora sect.Edwardsia (Fabaceae): further evidence fromnrDNA sequence data of a recent and rapidreadiation around the Southern Oceans.Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 140:435–441.

Mummenhoff, K., Bruggemann, H. and Bowman, J. L.2001. Chloroplast DNA phylogeny andbiogeography of Lepidium (Brassicaceae).American Journal of Botany, 88: 2051–2063.

Richardson, J. E., Penningston, R. T., Pennington, T.D. and Hollingsworth, P. M. 2001a. Rapiddiversification of a species-rich genus ofneotropical rain forest trees. Science, 293:2242–2245.

Richardson, J. E., Weitz, F. M., Fay, M. F., Cronk, Q. C.B., Linder, H. P., Reeves, G. and Chase, M. W.2001b. Rapid and recent origin of speciesrichness in the Cape flora of South Africa.Nature, 412: 181–183.

Rønsted, N., Chase, M. W., Albach, D. C. and Bello,M.A. 2002. Phylogenetic relationships withinPlantago (Plantaginaceae): evidence fromnuclear ribosomal ITS and plastic trnL-Fsequence data. Botanical Journal of the LinneanSociety, 139: 323–338.

Vijverberg, K., Mes, T. H. M. and Bachmann, K. 1999.Chloroplast DNA evidence for the evolution ofMicroseris (Asteraceae) in Australia and NewZealand after long-distance dispersal fromwestern North America. American Journal ofBotany, 86: 1448–1463.

Wright, S. D., Yong, C. G., Wichmann, S. R., Dawson,J. W. and Gardner, R.C. 2001. Stepping stonesto Hawaii: a trans-equatorial dispersal pathwayfor Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) inferred fromnrDNA (ITS + ETS). Journal of Biogeography,28: 769–774.


I am studying the Holocene vegetation/fire and climateof the giant sand islands of south-east Queensland(Fraser, Moreton, North Stradbroke Islands) and ofCooloola sand mass. I have attached three photos of aspore which I am finding in increasing quantities from150cm down. The only spore I can find that resemblesit is Sphagnum. However, my supervisor, Ian Thomas, issure that no Sphagnum would be present, due to thenature of a low altitude coastal inter-dunal depression.So I am hoping for help with identification.

The core that I am looking at is from a small depressionat 153.17°E 25.67°S and is situated in aEucalyptus/Banksia depression some 7km from theeastern coastline. From very rough calculations, I amassuming its age is 3-4 ky bp (no dating available yet,due to lack of funding).

The description of the grain is:

Triangular with max. length 40µmExine ~2.5µm, thickens at corners to 3.5µmScar is very clear but arms do not extend to edge

Photos taken at 100×.

Mystery fossil sporeAngus Tye Doctoral Candidate School of Anthropology, Geography and Environment StudiesUniversity of [email protected]


FINANCIAL STATEMENT 2003

INCOME AND EXPENSE REPORT (1 January, 2003 to 31 December, 2003)Uncommitted balance brought forward $32,484.11 $30,503.55

2003 2002

INCOMEBusiness income — Concession 1,095.00 1,240.00Business income — Full 3,920.00 3,770.00Business income — Institute 489.10 467.32Business Income Total 5,504.10 5,477.32C'wealth Bank Interest 50.57 43.56Bank Melbourne Interest (12 month) 647.74 524.50Bank Melbourne Interest (6 month) 82.24 479.59Bank Interest Total 780.55 1,047.65Port Fairy Income 195.30Westport Conference Income 2,010.24Quaternary International special issue 100.00 425.00Misc. Income 10.10

TOTAL INCOME 8404.99 7,145.27

EXPENSESQA expense — printing 3,720.00 1,636.00QA Expenses (software) 413.60 30.00

Bank Fees 13.00GDT 33.20 15.60Merchant bank fee 230.17 208.18Transaction Errors 65.00

Australian Geosciences Council 550.00 550.00Science Meets Parliament Forum 99.00Prize — travel 1,000.00 1,500.00Incorporation cost 33.00Postage 785.71 841.48Committee expenses 284.45Subscription refunds 60.00

Westport Travel Subsidies 2,500.00Westport Conference Expenses 214.45Westport Conference Student Prizes 1350.00

2004 Conf. Deposit – Doherty’s Hotel 4,005.00

TOTAL EXPENSES 14973.13 5,164.71INCOME LESS EXPENSES –6,568.14 1,980.56

Transfer Bank Melbourne — Commonwealth Bank 3,058.28

Assets (31 December 2003)

Commonwealth Bank account 5,915.97 8,847.50Bank of Melbourne Term Deposit ( 6 month) closed 10,000.00Bank of Melbourne Term Deposit (12 month) closed 13,636.61Commonwealth Fixed Interest Account (6mth) 20,000.00

TOTAL 25,915.97 32,484.11

[Income variation on 2002 balance due to conference deposit and increases in publication costs.]

I have examined the records of the Australasian Quaternary Association and I am of the opinion that the above Income and Expense Report gives a true and fair view of the affairs of the Association for the year ended 31 December, 2003. Marcia Murphy ASA

Expense Report gives a true and fair view of the affairs of the Association for the year ended 31 December, 2002. Dick Adair

Australasian Quaternary Association Financial Statement for 2003


4th International Symposium on Extant and Fossil Charophytes Robertson, New South Wales, Australia. 25–27 September,2004 (21–30 September including pre- and post-symposiumfield trips).

The Symposium is open to all topics dealing withCharophytes: Systematics, phylogeny, palaeolimnology(application to Quaternary studies), management ofwater bodies, molecular biology, ecology, palaeontology,geochemistry.

Milutin Milankovitch AnniversarySymposium: Paleoclimate and the Earth Climate System Belgrade, Serbia, 30 August–2 September, 2004

On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birthof Milutin Milankovitch, Serbian.

The Academy of Sciences and Arts is organising aninternational symposium aimed at reviewing the state-of-the-art of climate science as it relates to the work ofMilankovitch. The emphasis of the symposium will bepaleoclimate, but present understanding of the Earth’sclimate dynamics and a summary of the numerical toolsused nowadays will be briefly covered. Review lectureswill be presented on paleoclimate record (deep seacores, continents, ice cores), and long-term climatedata analysis, modeling, and astronomical forcing.Milankovitch’s life and work, the colorful memories hehas of the events of his time and his opus as a poeticscience writer will also be highlighted. The symposiumwill consist of invited lectures, but will include postersessions to accommodate contributed papers.

For more detailshttp://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/meetings/milankovitch.pdf

or contact:Prof. M. Ercegovac: [email protected]

AQUA 2004 Biennial meeting 6–10 December, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.

For more details please visithttp://aqua2004.anu.edu.au/

8th Australasian Environmental Isotope ConferenceThe 8th Australasian Environmental Isotope Conferencewill be held in Melbourne from Monday, 29 November–Wednesday, 1 December, 2004.

This is the latest in a long-running series of conferencesdedicated to the application of stable and radiogenicisotopes to studies of environmental processes.

As with previous conferences in this series, we invitepresentations on applications of stable, radiogenic, andcosmogenic isotopes to understanding the naturalenvironment. Topics include:

• Climate and environmental change• Groundwater and surface water• Soils• Landscape evolution• Applications of cosmogenic isotopes• Dating• New analytical techniques and applications

Further information can be found athttp://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/conferences/index.html

FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE AND MEETINGS


The climate of the next millennia in theperspective of abrupt climate change duringthe late pleistocene pages/deklimConference

Convenors: Frank Sirocko, Jerry McManus, Martin Claussen, Keith Alverson Date: 7–10 March, 2005 Location: Mainz, Germany

Call for Papers: ‘The climate of the past is the key tounderstanding the climate of the future’. Is this often-used statement truly correct for the next two millennia?The conference will examine past records of abruptclimate change and discuss if the processes that causedpast abrupt change are relevant for the Holocene andpredicted climate evolution. Keynote lectures on themechanisms that dominated past climate evolution willbe followed by sessions (talks and posters) on long (0–3Ma), medium (0–150 ka) and very short (Holoceneand last millennium) time scales. Discussions areintended to separate processes unique to the past fromthose that have the potential to effect global climateduring the next millennia. The conference is sponsoredby the German DEKLIM program (www.deklim.de)and represents a German contribution to PAGES. Wehope to welcome you in Mainz (50 minutes fromFrankfurt International Airport) and would appreciateyour early registration.

For Registration details please contact:Saskia Rupert email: [email protected] documents can also be downloaded athttp://www.uni-mainz.de/FB/Geo/Geologie/sedi/en/index.html.

Friends of the Quaternary (Pleistocene & upper Pliocene) field trip

Wanganui Basin, 20–22 August, 2003Co-organised through the Geological Society of NewZealand (GSNZ) and the Australasian QuaternaryAssociation (AQUA)

Immediately prior to a NZ-INTIMATE workshopscheduled at GNS-Gracefield on 23–24 August(programme yet to be announced). As the majority ofNZ Plio-Pleistocene stages have been defined fromWanganui Basin, this field trip offers an opportunityto discuss the proposed redefinition of the QuaternarySystem.

For further information and/or registration detailsplease contact:Brent Alloway (b.alloway @gns.cri.nz) GNS, Wairakei Research Centre, Private Bag 2000, Taupo

M. Fletcher, SAGES, University of Melbourne

Quaternary Australasia publishes news, commentary,notices of upcoming events, travel, conference andresearch reports, thesis abstracts and peer-reviewedresearch papers of interest to the community. Non-refereed material should reach the editor by 1 November, 2004. Please ensure that citations, inboth refereed and non-refereed manuscripts, areformatted to conform to Quaternary Australasiastyle. An Endnote 7.0 for Mac style file is availableon request.

The Australasian Quaternary Association (AQUA) isan informal group of people interested in the manifoldphenomena of the Quaternary. It seeks to encourageresearch by younger workers in particular, to promotescientific communication between Australia and NewZealand, and to inform members of current researchand publications. It holds biennial meetings andpublishes the journal Quaternary Australasia twice a year.Quaternary Australasia is edited by Kale Sniderman. Theannual subscription is A$25, or A$15 for students,unemployed or retired persons. To apply formembership, please contact Janelle Stevenson (addressbelow). Members joining after September gainmembership for the following year. Existing memberswill be sent a reminder in December.

Quaternary Australasia EditorMr Kale Sniderman, Monash UniversitySchool of Geography and Environmental ScienceBldg 11 (Menzies), Victoria 3800Ph: +61 (0) 3 9905 2919, Fax: +61 (0) 3 9905 2948Email: [email protected]

QUATERNARY AUSTRALASIA

Australian Quaternary Association

Committee MembersPresidentDr Simon HaberleDepartment of Archaeology and Natural HistoryResearch School of Pacific and Asian StudiesThe Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT 0200, AustraliaPh: +61 (0) 2 6125 3373, Fax: +61 (0) 2 6125 4896Email: [email protected]

Vice-PresidentDr Brent AllowayWairakei Research Centre, State Highway 1Private Bag 2000, Taupo, New ZealandPh: +64 7 376 0160, Fax: +64 7 374 8199Email: [email protected]

TreasurerDr Janelle StevensonDepartment of Archaeology and Natural HistoryResearch School of Pacific and Asian StudiesThe Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT 0200, AustraliaPh: +61 (0) 2 6125 3153, Fax: +61 (0) 3 2 61254917Email: [email protected]

SecretaryDr Henk HeijnisEnvironment Division, ANSTO (Bld 34)PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234, AustraliaPh: +61 (0) 2 9717 3209, Fax: +61 (0) 2 9717 9270Email: [email protected]

Information Technology OfficerDr Timothy T. BarrowsDepartment of Nuclear PhysicsResearch School of Physical Sciences and EngineeringThe Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT 0200, AustraliaPh: +61 (0) 2 6125 2077Email: [email protected]

Documents

QUATERNARY AUSTRALASIAQUATERNARY AUSTRALASIA JUNE 2004 5I write this in late April in Uppland, central Sweden. It is an interesting time of year here: the transition from winter to