Pollen-vegetation relationships on the subantarctic Auckland Islands, New Zealand

• Published in: Review of palaeobotany and palynology 1997-05, Vol.96 (3), p.317-338
• Main Authors: McGlone, M.S., Moar, N.T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Long-distance pollen rain; Palynology; Pollen dispersal; Pollination
• ISSN: 0034-6667; 1879-0615
• DOI: 10.1016/S0034-6667(96)00058-9

A modern pollen-vegetation cover data set of 51 sites from the subantarctic Auckland Islands is presented. The islands are completely peat covered, and extensive bogs occur throughout. Low forest and scrub covers the lowland areas of the islands, with maritime tussock and herbfield associations on exposed coasts. With increasing altitude low scrub and shrubland-grassland predominate and, above 300 m altitude, tussock grassland and fellfield. Tall, wind-pollinated species do not occur on the island, and pollen deposition is thus largely local. The broad vegetation communities are clearly recognisable by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of the pollen data. Although percentage cover of the major plant taxa correlates significantly in most cases with pollen percentages, reliable quantitative inferences are not possible because of the high variability. Pollen types derived from Australia and the New Zealand mainland are consistently represented in the pollen rain, averaging 0.9% and not exceeding 5%. Comparison by DCA of fossil samples from a Holocene peat core with the modern data set demonstrate a close resemblance between modern and fossil samples. This survey shows that when tall wind-pollinated trees are excluded, low-growing vegetation with poorly dispersed pollen can be accurately characterised by its pollen rain.