Journal article
Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental change in the Australian drylands
KE Fitzsimmons, TJ Cohen, PP Hesse, J Jansen, GC Nanson, JH May, TT Barrows, D Haberlah, A Hilgers, T Kelly, J Larsen, J Lomax, P Treble
Quaternary Science Reviews | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2013
Abstract
In this paper we synthesise existing palaeoenvironmental data from the arid and semi-arid interior of the Australian continent for the period 40-0ka. Moisture is the predominant variable controlling environmental change in the arid zone. Landscapes in this region respond more noticeably to changes in precipitation than to temperature. Depending on their location, arid zone records broadly respond to tropical monsoon-influenced climate regimes, the temperate latitude westerly systems, or a combination of both.The timing and extent of relatively arid and humid phases vary across the continent, in particular between the westerly wind-controlled temperate latitudes, and the interior and north wh..
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Funding Acknowledgements
INTIMATE (INTegration of Ice-core, MArine and TEerrestrial records) is a core programme of the INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) Palaeoclimate Commission (PALCOMM), Project Number 0806. The INQUA inter-congress project "AUSTRALASIAN-INTIMATE Phase II", and the "CcASH" project facilitated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), provided financial support for the attendance of TJC at the Past Climates workshop (Wellington, New Zealand, 2009), to facilitate co-coordination for the Australian (OZ)-INTIMATE project. The generous support of AINSE is gratefully acknowledged for funding three workshops in 2009-2011 to discuss the synthesis of arid zone records, among those of other climatic zones. Thanks to S. Marx, L. Petherick and J. Campbell for providing unpublished data to complement the published material. We would like to thank John Magee and Martin Williams for their constructive comments on the manuscript.