Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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Stratigraphy, landsnail faunas, and paleoenvironmental history of Late Holocene coastal dunes, Tauroa Peninsula, northern New Zealand

F. J. Brook*

*Department of Conservation, P. O. Box 842, Whangarei, New Zealand

The post -700 years BP depositional history of the Holocene coastal dunebelt on northwestern Tauroa Peninsula involved an initial progradational phase, then a subsequent predominantly stable phase that began some time after 650 years BP, followed by a highly unstable phase from late prehistoric time to the present-day. Fossil landsnail faunas indicate that sandfield and prostrate shrubland have been the main vegetation types on the dunefield since at least 700 years BP, but that taller shrubland established locally during the later part of the prehistoric period of dunefield stability. Five species of landsnails became extinct on the dunefield in late prehistoric-historic time, probably as a result of vegetation disturbance cause by widespread dune mobilisation and erosion.

Keywords  landsnails; coastal dunes; Holocene; extinction; Loisels pumice; vegetation history; northern New Zealand

(c) Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand,

Volume 29, Number 4, December 1999, pp 395-405

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (633K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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