Sea-level change and demography during the last glacial termination and early Holocene across the Australian continent

Williams, AN; Ulm, S; Sapienza, T; Lewis, S; Turney, CSM

Sea-level change and demography during the last glacial termination and early Holocene across the Australian continent

Williams, AN Ulm, S Sapienza, T Lewis, S Turney, CSM

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Publisher:: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, 182, pp. 144-154
Issue Date:: 2018-02-15

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Williams, AN
dc.contributor.author	Ulm, S
dc.contributor.author	Sapienza, T
dc.contributor.author	Lewis, S
dc.contributor.author	Turney, CSM
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-09T23:28:59Z
dc.date.available	2022-09-09T23:28:59Z
dc.date.issued	2018-02-15
dc.identifier.citation	Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, 182, pp. 144-154
dc.identifier.issn	0277-3791
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/161611
dc.description.abstract	Future changes in sea-level are projected to have significant environmental and social impacts, but we have limited understanding of comparable rates of change in the past. Using comprehensive palaeoenvironmental and archaeological datasets, we report the first quantitative model of the timing, spatial extent and pace of sea-level change in the Sahul region between 35-8 ka, and explore its effects on hunter-gatherer populations. Results show that the continental landmass (excluding New Guinea) increased to 9.80 million km2 during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), before a reduction of 2.12 million km2 (or ∼21.6%) to the early Holocene (8 ka). Almost 90% of this inundation occurs during and immediately following Meltwater Pulse (MWP) 1a between 14.6 and 8 ka. The location of coastlines changed on average by 139 km between the LGM and early Holocene, with some areas >300 km, and at a rate of up to 23.7 m per year (∼0.6 km land lost every 25-year generation). Spatially, inundation was highly variable, with greatest impacts across the northern half of Australia, while large parts of the east, south and west coastal margins were relatively unaffected. Hunter-gatherer populations remained low throughout (<30,000), but following MWP1a, increasing archaeological use of the landscape, comparable to a four-fold increase in populations, and indicative of large-scale migration away from inundated regions (notably the Bass Strait) are evident. Increasing population density resulting from MWP1a (from 1/655 km2 to 1/71 km2) may be implicated in the development of large and complex societies later in the Holocene. Our data support the hypothesis that late Pleistocene coastal populations were low, with use of coastal resources embedded in broad-ranging foraging strategies, and which would have been severely disrupted in some regions and at some time periods by sea-level change outpacing tolerances of mangals and other near-shore ecological communities.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
dc.relation	http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL100100195
dc.relation.ispartof	Quaternary Science Reviews
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.030
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	04 Earth Sciences, 21 History and Archaeology
dc.subject.classification	Paleontology
dc.title	Sea-level change and demography during the last glacial termination and early Holocene across the Australian continent
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	182
utslib.for	04 Earth Sciences
utslib.for	21 History and Archaeology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2022-09-09T23:28:56Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	182

Abstract:

Future changes in sea-level are projected to have significant environmental and social impacts, but we have limited understanding of comparable rates of change in the past. Using comprehensive palaeoenvironmental and archaeological datasets, we report the first quantitative model of the timing, spatial extent and pace of sea-level change in the Sahul region between 35-8 ka, and explore its effects on hunter-gatherer populations. Results show that the continental landmass (excluding New Guinea) increased to 9.80 million km2 during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), before a reduction of 2.12 million km2 (or ∼21.6%) to the early Holocene (8 ka). Almost 90% of this inundation occurs during and immediately following Meltwater Pulse (MWP) 1a between 14.6 and 8 ka. The location of coastlines changed on average by 139 km between the LGM and early Holocene, with some areas >300 km, and at a rate of up to 23.7 m per year (∼0.6 km land lost every 25-year generation). Spatially, inundation was highly variable, with greatest impacts across the northern half of Australia, while large parts of the east, south and west coastal margins were relatively unaffected. Hunter-gatherer populations remained low throughout (<30,000), but following MWP1a, increasing archaeological use of the landscape, comparable to a four-fold increase in populations, and indicative of large-scale migration away from inundated regions (notably the Bass Strait) are evident. Increasing population density resulting from MWP1a (from 1/655 km2 to 1/71 km2) may be implicated in the development of large and complex societies later in the Holocene. Our data support the hypothesis that late Pleistocene coastal populations were low, with use of coastal resources embedded in broad-ranging foraging strategies, and which would have been severely disrupted in some regions and at some time periods by sea-level change outpacing tolerances of mangals and other near-shore ecological communities.

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