Modern pollen-vegetation relationships in western Tasmania, Australia

This paper describes the results of a modern pollen survey of plant communities in western Tasmania, Australia. Sampled communities occur in the main vegetation types: alpine/subalpine, rainforest and moorland. We show that despite the over-representation of rainforest trees in the regional pollen rain, vegetation type and some communities can be distinguished using pollen analysis. Temperature (altitude) and fire frequency are significantly correlated with the ordination axes, consistent with the ecology of the region, indicating that pollen composition is a good reflection of vegetation and that pollen spectra can be effectively used to reconstruct changes in these environmental parameters. Moorland communities are clearly distinguished by ordination analysis. Seasonality is significantly correlated with moorland community type. Although percentage cover of the major plant taxa correlates significantly in most cases with pollen percentages, the high variability means that quantitative estimates of vegetation cover from pollen data alone are not possible.