Age determination of Lynch´s Crater, Australia

The pollen diagram from Lynch's Crater extends the climatic and vegetation record for the Atherton Tableland back to about 60,000 years B.P. Subtropical rain forest, with abundant Araucaria, was present around the site from before 60,000 B.P. to about 38,000 B.P. and existed under about half the present-day annual rainfall. This was replaced by sclerophyll vegetation between 38,000 and 27,000 B.P. as a result of a decrease in precipitation, a decrease in temperature or the activities of aboriginal man. In any case the agent of rain forest destruction was probably fire. The record for the last 10,000 years or so is probably incomplete and radiocarbon dates unreliable, but changes during this period are in broad agreement with those evidenced from previously described sites within the area. The sequence from Lynch's Crater provides a basis for the interpretation of many problematical features of present-day vegetation distributions.

林奇火山口（Lynch's Crater）的孢粉图（pollen diagram）将阿瑟顿台地（Atherton Tableland）的气候与植被记录的时间跨度追溯至距今约60000年。在距今60000年至38000年期间，该遗址周边分布着以丰富南洋杉（Araucaria）为特征的亚热带雨林，其生存环境的年降雨量约为现今的一半。在距今38000年至27000年期间，这类雨林被硬叶植被（sclerophyll vegetation）取代，诱因可能包括降水减少、气温下降或是原住民先民的活动。无论具体驱动因素为何，雨林消亡的主要媒介大概率为火。距今约10000年以来的记录大概率并不完整，且放射性碳测年结果（radiocarbon dates）的可信度有限，但该时段内的植被变化与该区域此前已报道的遗址所揭示的变化大体吻合。林奇火山口的孢粉序列为解释现今植被分布的诸多疑难特征提供了重要的研究基础。