Climatic and environmental variability during the termination of the Last Glacial Stage in coastal eastern Australia: a review

Abstract

By comparison with the Northern Hemisphere, there is a paucity of high-resolution, continuous records extending into the Last Glacial Maximum from the Southern Hemisphere. With specific reference to coastal eastern Australia, there are long records of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental variability available from the tropical north and temperate south. However, there are significant spatial gaps between such records: in particular, until relatively recently, little attention had been paid to the subtropics. This review paper summarises understanding of regional paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic variability in coastal eastern Australia during the termination of the Last Glacial Stage, with the aim of highlighting gaps in the current state of knowledge. Recommendations for future research are prioritised to answer knowledge gaps in understanding climate variability in eastern Australia between ca 33–18 kyr BP.

KEY WORDS:

• Last Glacial Stage
• Last Glacial Maximum
• eastern Australia
• paleoclimate
• paleoenvironmental variability

Acknowledgements

The continued support of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, the University of Queensland is gratefully acknowledged. The comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers towards improving the manuscript are also greatly appreciated.