Late Quaternary environmental changes on Pacific islands: controversy, certainty and conjecture

✍ Scribed by Patrick D. Nunn

• Book ID: 101283012
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 89 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0267-8179
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1417(199709/10)12:5<443::aid-jqs327>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

The late Quaternary history of the Pacific islands is poorly known. Most details about Pleistocene history come from studies of ocean-floor sediments, although a few insular pollen records extend back into the last glacial stage. There is limited evidence for Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) aridity and a rise in LGM-early Holocene precipitation associated with strengthening of the Southern Oscillation.

The middle Holocene warming is best represented by sea-level records, which, from all parts of the Pacific, now show a contemporary maximum ca. 5000-3000 yr BP. Late Holocene cooling and precipitation increase were probably more widespread than available data suggest.

The advent of humans into Pacific island environments, mostly during the late Holocene, is critically reviewed. Vegetation change may have, at least in part, been the result of climate change. Many Pacific island grasslands may be climatogenic rather than anthropogenic. Fires may have occurred naturally long before people arrived on Pacific islands. Ideas about early human impacts on Pacific island enviroments need to be critically reviewed.