Sinkholes, swamps and savanna: A palaeoecological update

CABAH seminar by Dr Cassandra Rowe

Savanna ecosystems are highly dynamic. The species compositions and relative abundances of mixed trees and grasses that characterise savannas can shift dramatically over time and in response to numerous ecological and human factors. They are also a culturally diverse space, and feature prominently in Australian Indigenous and European heritage, identity and imagery. 

This seminar is an update on the sites and palaeoecological techniques used to examine vegetation change and fire history across the forest-savanna-grassland ecotones in the ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory over the past 12,000 years and before. The aim is to identify periods in, and the direction of, transitions in vegetation type and to explore the possible causes of these transitions. The focus will be on understanding the interplay between climatic change, fire history and human landscape management. Understanding the interplay between these factors is essential not only to conserving the resilience of savanna ecosystems for biodiversity and human resources through appropriate management, but also to predicting how savannas might respond to changing climatic change and land-use in the future.

Friday 6 October 2017 | 4:00-5:00 pm Cairns: B001-107 | Townsville: 004-006