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...

Two sediment sequences from Pukekawa crater, Auckland Domain, contain silty clay underlain by fibrous peat. The peat contains a pollen flora and wood indicating the presence of a warm‐temperate, conifer‐hardwood forest with Metrosideros, Agathis, Prumnopitys taxifolia, P. ferruginea , and especially Dacrydium . Radiocarbon dates indicate that the peat was deposited before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Absence of tephras and...

Aims To quantify pollen–vegetation relationships from saline to freshwater in an estuarine gradient from surface samples of the modern pollen rain, to allow more accurate interpretations of the stratigraphic palynological record. Location Whangapoua Estuary, Great Barrier Island, northern New Zealand. Methods Six transects were laid out along a vegetation sequence running from estuarine mud to freshwater swamp. Along these tra...

The fossil foraminiferal faunas preserved in intertidal sediment in six cores document the impact of human activities on the ecosystems of the north‐east arm of the Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand. They indicate that Polynesian forest clearance and horticulture had negligible impact on the harbour biota. Before 1960, organic‐rich discharges from four large meat works around the head of Mangere Inlet produced changes in...