Altered ecologies : : fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes / / edited by Simon Haberle, Janelle Stevenson, Matthew Prebble.

• Superior document: Terra Australis ; Volume 32
• TeilnehmendeR: Haberle, Simon,; Stevenson, Janelle,; Prebble, Matthew,
• Place / Publishing House: Canberra : : ANU Press,, [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Terra Australis ; Volume 32.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (512 pages) :; illustrations, maps.

Like a star chart this volume orientates the reader to the key issues and debates in Pacific and Australasian biogeography, palaeoecology and human ecology. A feature of this collection is the diversity of approaches ranging from interpretation of the biogeographic significance of plant and animal distributional patterns, pollen analysis from peats and lake sediments to discern Quaternary climate change, explanation of the patterns of faunal extinction events, the interplay of fire on landscape evolution, and models of the environmental consequences of human settlement patterns. The diversity of approaches, geographic scope and academic rigor are a fitting tribute to the enormous contributions of Geoff Hope. As made apparent in this volume, Hope pioneered multidisciplinary understanding of the history and impacts of human cultures in the Australia- Pacific region, arguably the globe's premier model systems for understanding the consequences of humans colonization on ecological systems. The distinguished scholars who have contributed to this volume also demonstrate Hope's enduring contribution as an inspirational research leader, collaborator and mentor. Terra Australis leave no doubt that history matters, not only for land management, but more importantly, in alerting settler and indigenous societies alike to their past ecological impacts and future environmental trajectories.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- 1. A D-section and a tin whistle: A tribute to Prof. Geoff Hope -- Ecosystem responses to long and short term climate change -- 2. The contrasting biology of tropical versus temperate Nothofagus species and its relevance to interpretations of Cenozoic rainforest history in southeast Australia -- 3. Beneath the peat: A refined pollen record from an interstadial at Caledonia Fen, highland eastern Victoria, Australia -- 4. The vegetation cover of New Zealand during the Last Glacial Maximum: Do pollen records under-represent woody vegetation? -- 5. Holocene vegetation history of a high-elevation (1200 m) site in the Lake Heron Basin, inland Canterbury, New Zealand -- 6. Last Glacial Maximum habitat change and its effects on the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus Temminck 1825) -- 7. Observations on feeding frequencies among native and exotic birds and fruit bats at Erythrina variegata and Dysoxylum trees on American Samoa -- Human colonisation and ecological impacts -- 8. Megafaunal extinctions and their consequences in the tropical Indo-Pacific -- 9. Marsupials as introduced species: Long-term anthropogenic expansion of the marsupial frontier and its implications for zoogeographic interpretation -- 10. The empty coast: Conditions for human occupation in southeast Australia during the late Pleistocene -- 11. Early Holocene human occupation and environment of the Southeast Australian Alps: New evidence from the Yarrangobilly Plateau, New South Wales -- 12. Holocene lowland vegetation change and human ecology in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea -- 13. Geomorphic and archaeological consequences of human arrival and agricultural expansion on Pacific islands: A reconsideration after 30 years of debate -- 14. Pollen evidence for plant introductions in a Polynesian tropical island ecosystem, Kingdom of Tonga -- 15. Integrating social and environmental change in prehistory: A discussion of the role of landscape as a heuristic in defining prehistoric possibilities in northeast Thailand -- Fire and its role in transforming our environment -- 16. A 40,000 year wood charcoal record from Carpenter's Gap 1: New insights into palaeovegetation change and indigenous foraging strategies in the Kimberley, Western Australia -- 17. The burning question: Claims and counter claims on the origin and extent of buttongrass moorland (blanket moor) in southwest Tasmania during the present glacial-interglacial -- 18. Ecological drift or stable fire cycles in Tasmania: A resolution? -- 19. Restoration of mires of the Australian Alps following the 2003 wildfires -- 20. Post-fire experimental trials of vegetation restoration techniques in the peatlands of Namadgi (ACT) and Kosciuszko National Parks (NSW), Australia -- Methodological advances and applications in environmental change research -- 21. The archaic and puzzling record of Lake Xere Wapo, New Caledonia -- 22. Comparative AMS 14C dating of plant macrofossils, beetles and pollen preparations from two Late Pleistocene sites in southeastern Australia -- 23. Can Myrtaceae pollen of the Holocene from Bega Swamp (New South Wales, Australia) be compared with extant taxa? -- 24. The evolution of a coastal peatland at Byron Bay, Australia: Multi-proxy evidence from the microfossil record -- 25. Development of mountain peatlands in stable equilibrium with open-channel hydraulics: A new concept in peatland formation and maintenance -- 26. Glacier crippling and the rise of the snowline in western New Guinea (Papua Province, Indonesia) from 1972 to 2000 -- 27. Altitudinal limits of 230 economic crop species in Papua New Guinea.