Abstract
The North-east Australian Coastal Catchments (NACC) are host to nationally significant wetland complexes, many of which, are ecologically connected to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. However, these wetlands are subject to ongoing and increasing pressure from human activities such as the intensification of land use. Current wetland condition is monitored across the NACC, being assessed against a pre-development static baseline, which includes the use of Regional Ecosystem mapping of remnant and pre-clearing vegetation to provide a broadscale present-day biotic reference. Two sediment cores from wetlands within the Fitzroy Basin were analysed to establish a history of wetland variability and to identify the potential influence of climate and land-use changes over the past ~1000 years. Our results have provided long-term environmental reconstructions, showing wetland histories influenced by natural climate variability (El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the Little Ice Age), and environmental changes associated with European land-use intensification. This study is the first of its kind for wetlands located within the Fitzroy Basin.
Highlights
Wetlands are under pressure from climate change and human land-use intensification (Dudgeon et al 2006; Gangloff et al 2016; Finlayson et al 2017; Reid et al 2019)
An additional tie point for the chronology at Lake Mary North is the observation of introduced vegetation indicative of European occupation (Plantago lanceolata) at 15 cm, which is known to have occurred in the 1840s calibrated age (CE) in Rockhampton (Seabrook et al 2006)
There is an extended peak in micro-charcoal at the base of this record (,1100 CE), which may be due to increased El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity, which was suggested to be drier and more variable from,3000 years before present (Barr et al 2019)
Summary
Wetlands are under pressure from climate change and human land-use intensification (Dudgeon et al 2006; Gangloff et al 2016; Finlayson et al 2017; Reid et al 2019). Such pressures on wetlands include hydrological modification (Schneider et al 2017), increased runoff and sedimentation rates (Ogden 2000), increased nutrients and pollutants (Gell et al 2009), the introduction of exotic species (Finlayson and Rea 1999) and extreme climatic conditions (Pasut et al 2021). The status of Regional Ecosystems is considered an important indicator of catchment modification and wetland
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