AN EXAMINATION OF MODERN AND PRE-EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT POLLEN SAMPLES FROM SOUTHEASTERN AUSTRALIA - ASSESSMENT OF THEIR APPLICATION TO QUANTITATIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF PAST VEGETATION AND CLIMATE

Most information and ideas on regional patterns of climate change and vegetation response within the late Quaternary have been derived from pollen studies in previously glaciated areas of the northern hemispher e, which may not be representative of the terrestrial environments of the world as a whole. This paper presents initial results from a proje ct designed to help redress this global imbalance. Specifically, modem and pre-European pollen samples from 71 pollen diagrams from sea leve l to ca. 2000m, covering a mean annual precipitation range of 1600 mm and a temperature range of 13-degrees-C in southeastern Australia are examined to assess their application to quantitative reconstruction of past regional patterns of vegetation and climate from the fossil poll en data. It is concluded that the pre-European rather than modem polle n samples provide potentially more suitable analogues for past vegetat ion. A range of climatic indicator taxa are identified, but variabilit y within the pollen data will place some constraints on the degree of resolution achievable in vegetation and climatic reconstructions.