Pollen–climate reconstruction from northern South Island, New Zealand (41°S), reveals varying high‐ and low‐latitude teleconnections over the last 16 000 years

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Jara, Ignacio A., Newnham, Rewi M., Vandergoes, Marcus J., Foster, Courtney R., Lowe, David J., Wilmshurst, Janet M., Moreno, Patricio I., Renwick, James A., Homes, Aline M.
• Other Authors: Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Alpine Lake; New Zealand; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2818; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.2818; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.2818

ABSTRACT We present a 16 000‐year vegetation and climate reconstruction from pollen and plant macrofossil records obtained at a small alpine lake in South Island, New Zealand (41°S). The expansion of lowland forest taxa suggests a lifting of the altitudinal forest limits because of a warming pulse between 13 and 10k cal a BP and between 7 and 6k cal a BP, while their decline relative to upland forest taxa indicates cooling phases between 10 and 7k cal a BP and over the last 3000 years. The modern treeline was first established locally by 9.7k cal a BP. Forest persisted at the site until 3k cal a BP then disappeared from the record. Close correspondence between the temperature trends inferred from the pollen and macrofossil records and proxies from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean suggests a strong teleconnection between New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere high‐latitudes between 15 and 6k cal a BP. We note that the breakdown of this coupling, a cooling trend in Adelaide Tarn and the local disappearance of beech forest after 3k cal a BP occur during a period of increased frequency of El Niño events, suggesting an enhanced teleconnection with the low‐latitudes during the late Holocene.