Taphonomic influences on the interpretation of the palaeoecological record from Lynch's Crater, northeastern Australia

Pollen and plant macrofossil analysis of a sediment core from the margin of Lynch's Crater provides a discontinuous record of vegetation and environments on and around Lynch's Crater through the last glacial cycle. A chronology for the sequence is provided by palynological correlation with an existing, more continuous record from the central part of the crater. A comparison of the two records provides insights into processes of pollen transport and deposition that allows clearer separation of regional vegetation from that growing on the swamp surface. There is evidence from both pollen and macrofossils for the existence of a previously unsuspected swamp forest which grew on the swamp margins within the early part of the last glacial. The records illustrate the extinction of components of this forest in the latter part of the last glacial period and its eventual demise in the Holocene.