New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics abstracts

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Holocene pollen stratigraphy and sedimentation, Wellington Harbour, New Zealand

GAVIN B. DUNBAR*
BILL MCLEA
JAMES R. GOFF

Research School of Earth Sciences
Victoria University of Wellington
P.O. Box 600
Wellington, New Zealand

*Present Address: Department of Earth Sciences, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Q4811, Australia.

Abstract  Pollen and spore spectra obtained from within, and around, Wellington Harbour provide a record of climate and land-use change from early Holocene to the present day. Samples of four cores from Wellington Harbour show that Nothofagus group pollen has increased six-fold relative to Dacrydium cupressinum since c. 10 000 years ago.

From A.D. 1840 there is evidence of land clearance and the introduction of exotic species by European settlers. Historical records show that 80-90?% of the native forest was replaced with grassland between A.D. 1840 and 1900, a far greater land-use change than that indicated by the pollen record.

Palynomorphs from the modern harbour floor contain assemblages similar to those obtained from contemporary forested terrestrial sites. Both are dominated by Nothofagus group, Dacrydium cupressinum pollen, and fern spores. In contrast, assemblages from non-forested areas are dominated by the local pollen source and contain considerable grass and shrub spores. There is a uniform, mixed nature to the palynomorph spectra in Wellington Harbour. It is concluded that almost all pollen entering Wellington Harbour does so via the Hutt River from reworked forested parts of the upper river catchment.

Keywords  Wellington Harbour; palynology; Holocene; climate; land-use change; palynomorph sources; Nothofagus group; Dacrydium cupressinum; Hutt River

New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 1997, Vol. 40: 325-333

0028-8306/97/4003-0325 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1997

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (831K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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