Holocene palaeoecology of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, based on stick-nest rat (Leporillus spp.) middens: a preliminary overview

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(96)01113-3

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Volume 123, Issues 1–4, July 1996, Pages 205-218

https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(96)01113-3 Get rights and content

Abstract

Eight stick-nest rat (Leporillus spp.) middens from three locations in the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia provide a discontinuous palaeoecological record spanning the Holocene. Evidence from radiocarbon dates, pollen, plant macrofossils and animal macrofossils is presented. Both pollen and plant macrofossils show that in the early to mid-Holocene (c. 8.8-5.3 ka), woodlands with grassy understoreys were more widespread than present. This accords with other studies suggesting wetter conditions at this time. Samples dating of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (10.9-9 ka) are dominated by halophytes. It is not yet clear whether this is due to the continuation of Pleistocene aridity, changes in rainfall seasonality, or local influences on vegetation.

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The methods and approaches pioneered for packrat midden research have also been applied in the Australian context, though results here have been less substantive, in part due to the late Holocene age of most middens and the general stability of Australian ecosystems during this time (Pearson and Betancourt, 2002). In Australia the first stick-nest rat midden analysed for palaeoenvironmental purposes was from Gnalta rockshelter in western New South Wales (Green et al., 1983), followed by others mostly in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia (SA), argued to have been created by stick-nest rats (Leporillus spp.) (Allen et al., 2000; Berry, 1991; McCarthy, 1999; McCarthy and Head, 2001; McCarthy et al., 1996; Nelson et al., 1990; Pearson, 1999; Pearson and Betancourt, 2002:499–500; Pearson and Dodson, 1993; Pearson et al., 1999; Webeck and Pearson, 2005). Such studies have provided a localised record of flora and fauna in the Holocene for sites in Australia's central arid and southern semi-arid regions.
The Pilbara region in Western Australia (WA) is of high biological and archaeological significance, though our understanding of its environmental history is limited. Potentially valuable palaeoenvironmental archives exist throughout the Central Pilbara in caves and rockshelters in the form of amberat middens (crystallised animal urine), which are known from elsewhere to preserve botanical and faunal remains. Here we report a pilot study aimed at assessing how a multiproxy analysis of these middens could be used to infer past environmental change in response to climate change and therefore help to characterise the nature of past human-environmental relationships in the Pilbara region. Findings show that rockshelters of the inland Pilbara contain some of the oldest known amberat middens in Australia, extending fully back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Well preserved pollen and macrofossils in the middens tentatively suggest that vegetation throughout the late Pleistocene was likely dominated by an open woodland with a shift after 6000 BP to a more heterogenous pattern of vegetation with the increasing dominance of grassland communities. Several hiatuses in midden accumulation are apparent, which are tentatively interpreted as indicating that the region was affected by prolonged dry periods in the past. This may help explain concomitant patterns of decreased human occupation in the corresponding archaeological record. This pilot study has demonstrated the value of amberat middens for providing much needed local paleoenvironmental data in arid and semi-arid regions of Australia.
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Multiple Australia-wide records indicate an abrupt transition into much wetter and warmer conditions associated with the Middle Holocene “climatic optimum”, centred at c. 7000 years ago (Gingele et al., 2007; Quigley et al., 2010; Stanley and De Deckker, 2002; Xia et al., 2001) and potentially related to peak sea levels and modern-day temperatures by 8000 years ago (Lewis et al., 2013; Reeves et al., 2013). Southeastern Australia also records a warmer, wetter and more homogenous climate than at present during the Early to Middle Holocene (Gouramanis et al., 2013; D’Costa et al., 1989; McCarthy and Head, 2001; McCarthy et al., 1996) in paleoclimatic archives that include speleothems collected at Royal Cave in Buchan, 5 km west of Cloggs Cave (Green et al., 2013). Following the collapse and rapid infilling during this peak wet phase, sedimentation of what was then a shallow depression continued more slowly, as indicated by the less chaotic structure of the upper fill (GP8).
New research undertaken at Cloggs Cave, in the foothills of the Australian Alps, employed an integrated geological-geomorphological-archaeological approach with manifold dating methods and fine resolution LiDAR 3D mapping. Long-standing questions about the site’s chronostratigraphy (e.g. the exact relationship between basal megafaunal deposits and archaeological layers), sedimentation processes and geomorphic changes were resolved. The cave’s formation history was reconstructed to understand its changing morphology and morphogenic processes, and to clarify how these processes shaped the cave’s deposits. Key findings include the identification of: 1) the geomorphological processes that caused the lateral juxtaposition of 52,000 year-old megafaunal and later occupational layers; 2) the existence of one and possibly two (now-buried) palaeo-entrance(s) that enabled now-extinct megafauna and extant large fauna to enter the cave, most likely via a free-roaming passage rather than a pit drop; 3) morphological changes to the cave during the time of the Old People, including the timing of changes to the inclination of palaeo-surfaces; and 4) modifications to stalactites, crushing of calcite formations for the manufacture of powder, construction of a stone arrangement, and movement of large limestone blocks by the Old People. Ultimately, these findings demonstrate that to properly understand what Cloggs Cave was like when the Old People visited the site requires the construction of a narrative that spans some 400 million years and the development of an approach capable of integrating the many scales and processes (e.g. geological, geomorphological, archaeological) that configured to shape the site.
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Various palaeoclimate proxies including low level disconnected Lakes, changing minerals and salts in beach ridges, active sediment supply from the Flinders Ranges and dust fluxes show that central Australia became wetter and warmer from 8 to 5 ka (Bowler et al., 1986; Chappell, 1991; Cohen et al., 2011; Gliganic et al., 2014; Griffiths et al., 2010; Kershaw, 1994; Kershaw and Nanson, 1993; May et al., 2015; Nanson et al., 2008; Quigley et al., 2010b; Reeves et al., 2013; Singh, 1981; Turney et al., 2006; Wasson and Clark, 1988). Preserved pollen and insects are also evidence of wetter conditions during 8.8–5.3 ka in southern Australia (McCarthy et al., 1996). Fluvial records in northern Australia indicate enhanced discharge between ~ 10–6 ka (Fitzsimmons et al., 2013) and dust records also a highlight the Australian climate was wetter prior to 5 ka (Marx et al., 2009).
Travertine deposits precipitated by groundwater discharging from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) are widespread in central Australia and have the potential to provide a record of palaeohydrogeology and palaeoclimate. The GAB is one of the largest artesian basins in the world and a relationship between travertine deposits and recharge sites has potential importance regarding the time and position of past climate events, given that the travertines growth forms from precipitation discharge. We sampled numerous travertine sites in the southwest section of the GAB as a first approach to test this relationship. U-series dating of the travertine deposits reveal that spring discharge has likely been episodic for the last several hundred thousand years. Spring travertine deposition occurred episodically around 465 ± 50 ka, 370 ± 20 ka, 335 ± 15 ka, 285–240 ka, 185 ± 10 ka, 160–150 ka, 110–100 ka and during the past 30 ka. The periodicity of travertine ages observed with simultaneous deposition at multiple locations, argues for regional palaeohydrologic controls. Comparison of the travertine deposit ages with climate proxies in Australia shows that elevated travertine deposition rates are synchronous with wet periods in both central and southern Australia. Due to the large size of the GAB and that the recharge zones extend over multiple climatic regions of Australia, the times of travertine deposition are interpreted to represent times of high rainfall regionally. This study shows that the travertine deposits of central Australia provide a datable archive of past climate and hydrogeology of importance for understanding the groundwater evolution of the Great Artesian Basin, and that further more comprehensive studies are warranted.
High-throughput sequencing of ancient plant and mammal DNA preserved in herbivore middens
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Citation Excerpt :
Indeed, not only does the amberat help to create an impermeable mass but its properties enable it to seal breaks in the weathering rind and discourage insect attack (Spaulding et al., 1990), further reducing possible exogenous contamination. This does not completely remove the possibility of “old” contamination, arising from the movement of material up through the stratigraphy of the midden (Spaulding and Robinson, 1984; Pearson and Dodson, 1993; McCarthy et al., 1996), although this is not an issue with the TK midden sample, as hyrax middens maintain stratigraphical integrity significantly better than rodent nest middens (Chase et al., 2012). As noted previously there are a number of taxa that have been “detected” in the midden material that are somewhat problematic (Table 1).
The study of arid palaeoenvironments is often frustrated by the poor or non-existent preservation of plant and animal material, yet these environments are of considerable environmental importance. The analysis of pollen and macrofossils isolated from herbivore middens has been an invaluable source of information regarding past environments and the nature of ecological fluctuations within arid zones. The application of ancient DNA (aDNA) techniques to hot, arid zone middens remains unexplored. This paper attempts to retrieve and characterise aDNA from four Southern Hemisphere fossil middens; three located in hot, arid regions of Australia and one sample from South Africa's Western Cape province. The middens are dated to between 30,490 (±380) and 710 (±70) cal yr BP. The Brockman Ridge midden in this study is potentially the oldest sample from which aDNA has been successfully extracted in Australia. The application of high-throughput sequencing approaches to profile the biotic remains preserved in midden material has not been attempted to date and this study clearly demonstrates the potential of such a methodology. In addition to the taxa previously detected via macrofossil and palynological analyses, aDNA analysis identified unreported plant and animal taxa, some of which are locally extinct or endemic. The survival and preservation of DNA in hot, arid environments is a complex and poorly understood process that is both sporadic and rare, but the survival of DNA through desiccation may be important. Herbivore middens now present an important source of material for DNA metabarcoding studies of hot, arid palaeoenvironments and can potentially be used to analyse middens in these environments throughout Australia, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.
Rock hyrax middens: A palaeoenvironmental archive for southern African drylands
2012, Quaternary Science Reviews
Citation Excerpt :
This work has also lead to important perspectives on ecological theory (Betancourt et al., 1990), which have impacted on management strategies (Betancourt et al., 1991, 1993) by allowing a distinction to be made between anthropogenic environmental impacts and natural processes. More recently, midden studies have also been undertaken in Australia (Pearson, 1999; Pearson and Dodson, 1993; McCarthy et al., 1996; Pearson and Betancourt, 2002) and South America (Betancourt et al., 2000; Holmgren et al., 2001; Latorre et al., 2003; Maldonado et al., 2005; Latorre et al., 2006; Holmgren et al., 2008; Díaz et al., 2012; Gayo et al., 2012). This work has highlighted a fundamental difference between middens from these regions and hyrax middens.
Like many of the world's subtropical regions, southern Africa is highly sensitive to changes in the earth's climate system, but a dearth of reliable palaeoenvironmental records means that relatively little is known about how regional environments have been affected over centennial to multi-millennial timescales. To a large extent this sensitivity is a function of the position of these regions at the interface between temperate and tropical circulation systems. The resulting seasonality and irregularity of rainfall have limited the development of suitable archives, such as lakes and wetlands, for the preservation of palaeoenvironmental proxies.
This paper reviews and evaluates the value of rock hyrax middens as novel palaeoenvironmental archives in southern Africa. Considered are (1) the contemporary taxonomy, distribution and ecology of hyraxes, (2) the mechanisms of hyrax midden development, their physical and chemical structure, rates of accumulation and age; and (3) the palaeoenvironmental proxies preserved within hyrax middens, including fossil pollen, stable isotopes and biomarkers. The interpretive constraints and opportunities offered by these various midden characteristics are assessed with a view to demonstrating the potential of these deposits, widespread as they are through arid and semi-arid southern Africa, in providing a more detailed and chronologically resolved view of late Quaternary palaeoenvironments across the subcontinent.
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2012, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Citation Excerpt :
It is also in keeping with evidence of reduced ENSO variance at 6.5 ka (Tudhope et al., 2001), with increased climatic variability and frequency of El Niño events from 5 to 4 ka onwards (Shulmeister and Lees, 1995; Moy et al., 2002; Gingele et al., 2007; Moros et al., 2009; Quigley et al., 2010), and with peaks in Southern Ocean sea-surface temperature between 7.5 and 6 ka (Calvo et al., 2007). Palynological and speleothem data from the adjacent Flinders Ranges (Fig. 3; McCarthy et al., 1996; Quigley et al., 2010) suggest increased moisture availability between 9.9 and 6.6 ka (based on growth rates and tree pollen abundance) with the attainment of the modern variable arid climate by 5 ka. This timing is also in good agreement with other estimates of when the current ENSO pattern was obtained and it would appear that this mid-Holocene lake filling represents one of the final transitions to a dryer (or more variable) hydrological interval.
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Holocene palaeoecology of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, based on stick-nest rat (Leporillus spp.) middens: a preliminary overview

Abstract

Quat. Res.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Australasia

The potential of fossil mammal middens as indicators of vegetation history in Central Australia

Aust. J. Bot.

The Stick Nest Rats of Australia

Modern pollen rain in southeastern New South Wales, Australia