[Aqualist] Reminder - abstract submission due soon for AQUA human impacts session

[Craig Woodward]

We are pleased to announce the 'Late Quaternary human impacts and activities in Australasia and Oceania' session at the AQUA meeting in Auckland, 5-9 December 2016, convened by Craig Woodward (craig.woodward at ansto.gov.au<https://exchnlb-b51.ansto.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?REF=I2v7uQdIsZNi-8up3dA2pk7K0Cu70XBJEp3GomOhzj3zMHMQO9fTCAFtYWlsdG86Y3JhaWcud29vZHdhcmRAYW5zdG8uZ292LmF1>) and Krystyna Saunders (krystyna.saunders at ansto.gov.au<mailto:krystyna.saunders at ansto.gov.au>).



Overview: Australasia and Oceania were settled by humans in multiple phases during the Late Quaternary. This includes a period of earlier (> 60,000 BP) settlement of Indonesia and Australia, the colonisation of Polynesia up until ca. 800 BP and the arrival of Europeans in the last few centuries. Human activities have had a major effect on the environment in this area including the destruction or alteration of natural habitats and the extinction of many plant and animal species. The diverse settlement history provides us with many challenges and opportunities for studying human impacts on the environment in this region. Long settlement histories (e.g. Aboriginals in Australia) provide challenges in terms of disentangling the effects of climate and humans on the landscape. Shorter settlement histories (e.g. Melanesian/Polynesian occupation of south Pacific Islands, Polynesians, Maori and Europeans in New Zealand) provide us with the opportunity to study the natural evolution of ecosystems during the Holocene and determine baseline conditions. This session will focus on the "footprint" of human activity in Australasia and Oceania seen through the lens of multiple techniques. This includes but is not limited to environmental records (e.g. charcoal, pollen, diatoms, geochemistry) of environmental change from natural archives such as lakes, peat deposits and estuaries, archaeological and documentary records, paleoecological records of changes in faunal assemblages (e.g. from cave deposits), and emerging techniques such as high-resolution scanning x-ray fluorescence and ancient DNA.



We particularly welcome contributions from students and early career researchers.



Abstracts should be submitted to the AQUA website:https://www.niwa.co.nz/climate/research-projects/climate-present-and-past/Aqua2016

Deadline:15th September 2016



We would be grateful if you could pass this onto colleagues.

We look forward to seeing you in Auckland!



Best regards



Craig and Krystyna