Climate change is altering habitat suitability and driving shifts in species distributions. To understand potential responses by mobile animals, it is essential to assess levels of plasticity in habitat use, ranging from transience to long‐term fidelity. Here, we evaluate the fidelity of hawksbill sea turtles ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) to habitats used while foraging (our primary focus), migrating, and nesting. After satellite...

Turbidites, deposited by sub‐aqueous gravity flows, are common in sedimentary archives worldwide and present a unique challenge and opportunity when reconstructing past vegetation through pollen analysis. When sampling pollen from a sediment core for palaeovegetation records, it is common practice to target background sediments (i.e. pelagic sediment) and avoid sampling turbidites, as they are presumed to portray a misleading...

Aromia bungii Faldermann (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is an emerging invasive pest of economically important Prunus species that is native to China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, Korea, and Vietnam. It was recently introduced to Japan, Germany, and Italy, where it is spreading and damaging crops and ornamental trees. It exhibits an adaptable lifecycle, a high reproductive output, and the larvae live concealed under the bark of...

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is an air pollutant of major environmental concern, with agriculture representing 60% of anthropogenic global N 2 O emissions. Much of the N 2 O emissions from livestock production systems result from transformation of N deposited to soil within animal excreta. There exists a substantial body of literature on urine patch N 2 O dynamics, we aimed to identify key controlling factors influencing N 2 O emissi...

Analysis of deposits at a Lapita site in Vanuatu revealed putative starch grains of Dioscorea nummularia in ~2800–3100cal. BP layers and of Dioscorea pentaphylla in a ~2000 cal. BP layer, suggesting local cultivation of these tuberous crops. The Dioscoreaceae are a new addition to the introduced cultigens thus far directly identified for prehistoric Vanuatu.

A sedimentological and plant microfossil history of the Late Quaternary is preserved in two sediment cores from early Polynesian ditch systems on southern Aupouri Peninsula. The study places human activities into a geomorphological and ecological context and allows comparison of natural and anthropogenic effects on two different geological settings: a floodplain and a relatively closed peat swamp. The data fill part of the cur...

A 2.34 m sediment profile from the base of the crater of Mt St John volcano (a small basaltic cone on Auckland Isthmus) provides a partial environmental record of the Late Quaternary. The record highlights potential age control problems with sediment cores taken directly from archaeological sites. Two distal tephras were recorded: 9.5 ka Rotoma and 7 ka Tuhua. A date of 16 309 ± 90 14C yr BP from the basal scoria of the profil...

One hundred and eight vegetation plots were measured along six transects, running from estuarine mudflats to freshwater swamp in Whangapoua Estuary. These were analysed to define the patterns of plant communities, and evaluate their relationships with environmental gradients. TWINSPAN classification of the vegetation plots and species suggests that the three main vegetation zones (mangroves, salt meadow/marsh, and freshwater s...

Plant microfossils from New Zealand provide direct evidence of prehistoric Polynesian cultivation and gathering of a variety of plants in different depositional settings. The microfossils include pollen, phytoliths, and starch residues of introduced Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd), Broussonetia papyrifera (paper mulberry), Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato, kumara), and Colocasia esculenta (taro). The settings span 600 km and i...

Linear discriminant function analysis (LDF) is assessed as a method of interpreting fossil pollen assemblages from Mt Hauhungatahi, Tongariro National Park, and Ohakune‐Horopito, central North Island, New Zealand. Pollen types selected by stepwise discriminant analysis were used in LDF to predict the vegetation type (forest, dense scrub, open fernland, or open tussockland) and canopy type (closed or open) represented by fossil...

A pollen, sediment, and tephra record from a drained swamp at Harataonga contains a history of the local coastal environment from the Mid Holocene. This commences c. 6000 cal yr BP in a freshwater environment with swamp forest composed mainly of Laurelia, Leptospermum, Ascarina, and Cyathea spp. Dodonaea and Cyperaceae grew on margins of this forest. Forest on the hills surrounding the wetland comprised mainly Metrosideros, wi...

Aim To reconstruct the history of a Holocene sand dune using pollen and phytolith analyses, and to identify the strengths, weaknesses and compatibility of these two methods in the interpretation of Quaternary coastal environments. Location Great Barrier Island, northern New Zealand. Methods Pollen and phytolith analyses were carried out on a sequence through a Holocene sand dune containing a palaeosol. Results Phytoliths were...

An altitudinal series of eleven fine resolution pollen diagrams were used to examine the role of volcanism in forest dynamics on Mt Hauhungatahi. Partial pollen diagrams from four of these sites, chosen to illustrate the major effects of the 1718 bp Taupo eruption, are presented. Following the eruption Libocedrus bidwillii expanded in all sites. Open sites created by the eruption may have facilitated an expansion already under...

Fine resolution pollen analysis of a core from Erua Swamp shows that prior to the Taupo eruption of c. 1718 B.P., the site bore a dryland vegetation type on river flats. Patchy Nothofagusl Phyllocladus forest on the flats was destroyed by the eruption and replaced by Gleichenia‐restionad swamp vegetation with abundant Halocarpus. Regional forest during the period from after the eruption to c. 650–560 B.P. was mixed podocarp, d...

Fine resolution pollen analysis shows that the late‐glacial (c. 13 000–10 700 B.P.) vegetation of the Ohakune‐Horopito area was dominated by Prumnopitys taxifolia, indicating a cooler and probably drier climate than the present. Around 10 700 B.P., Dacrydium cupressinum replaced Prumnopitys taxifolia as the forest dominant, and tree ferns and hardwood trees expanded, suggesting a change to wanner or wetter conditions. Around 5...