Subfossil chironomid-based mean July temperature transfer function was created based on 100 lakes from southwest China. Here, we present a quantitative summer temperature record spanning the last c.5000 years from an alpine lake located on the SE margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), southwestern China applying this newly developed transfer function model. The SE QTP is strongly influenced by the Indian Ocean Summer Monsoon (IOSM) in the present day. The reconstructed summer temperature changes are within 2.4 °C of modern throughout the whole period. The results suggest that the summer temperature changes in the SE QTP predominantly responds to Asian Summer Monsoon influence, forced by summer insolation on the multi-millennial scale. Solar irradiance could be an important mechanism driving the centennial-scale variability of summer temperatures in this region. The SE QTP summer climate could be determined by solar-forced high-northern-latitude temperature variations, which drove meridional migration of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) that modifies the strength of the IOSM on the decadal-centennial time scales.

A 350 cm sediment core has been collected from Swallow Lagoon, a perched lake located within the highest dunes (above 150 m in elevation) of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) that provides a unique picture of environmental change over the last 8,000 years for the eastern subtropics region of Australia. This high-resolution study provides an overview of the vegetation and fire history of the site from analysis of fossil pollen and charcoal, particularly in terms of landscape response to key climatic drivers and evidence of human impacts on the high-dunes of Minjerribah. This record can also be compared with a number of other records collected from the numerous wetlands (i.e. perched lakes, window lakes, springs and swamps) that the island contains to provide a regional representation of Holocene environments. Furthermore, the pollen and charcoal data can also be contrasted to a quantitative reconstruction of rainfall from the same site based on the carbon isotope composition of leaves of Melaleuca quinquenervia in order to understand the linkages between hydro-climatic variability, fire and vegetation change.

This study investigates possible vegetation thickening and encroachment at Moon Point wetlands on Fraser Island using historical aerial photographs with present day data and a land change modeler TerrSet to identify the extent of thickening and encroachment of three major vegetation types, forest, Banksia and wetlands. Through quantified assessment of the aerial photographs using fine-gauged graticules vegetation types were manually assessed and counted to identify changes in woody vegetation density. Further vegetation polygons were created of the three vegetation types for analysis through the Land change modeler for change analysis to identify gains or losses of vegetation types, transition potential for change and change prediction to fifty years into the future.