The Bass Strait islands are some of the few areas in Australia that were not occupied by humans at the time of European contact. There is archaeological evidence that Flinders Island at the eastern end of Bass Strait supported people until c. 4500 years ago but after that there is no evidence of human presence. Two previous pollen studies, covering the Holocene, from a swamp on the eastern side of the island were interpreted rather differently in terms of how influential humans were in their effects on the island’s vegetation. In this paper, two short pollen diagrams from very different places than the earlier studies are described. These add to the evidence of the type of vegetation on the island over the late Quaternary. One diagram covers only the last 1500 years and is from a 1-m deposit from near the highest peak on the island in the south. This shows that there has been little change over that time in the vegetation around the site and there has been no influence of fire in the area. By contrast, a thin peat deposit, overlying lake sediments containing freshwater mollusc shells and Characeae oogonia, from Killiecrankie Bay in the north of the island dated at c. 34000 14C calibrated (cal) before present (BP) shows evidence of fire. The vegetation at the time was not similar to the vegetation during the Holocene with little representation of eucalypts but prominence of shrubby species (Leptospermum, Melaleuca) and herbaceous taxa such as Restionaceae and Asteraceae, particularly the Pleistocene Asteraceae pollen type. The vegetation on the eastern Bassian isthmus at that time was likely to have had less tree cover than in the Holocene and was more heath-dominated.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚东南部弗林德斯岛全新世晚期和末次冰川前的两个短花粉记录

巴斯海峡群岛是澳大利亚少数几个在欧洲人接触时未被人类占领的地区之一。有考古证据表明，巴斯海峡东端的弗林德斯岛一直支持着人类，直到公元前。4500 年前，但之后没有人类存在的证据。之前两项针对全新世的花粉研究，来自该岛东侧的沼泽，在人类对岛上植被影响的影响方面得到了截然不同的解释。在本文中，描述了来自与早期研究非常不同的地方的两个短花粉图。这些增加了第四纪晚期岛上植被类型的证据。一张图表仅涵盖最近 1500 年，来自南部岛上最高峰附近 1 米的矿床。这表明在此期间，场地周围的植被几乎没有变化，该地区没有受到火灾的影响。相比之下，来自该岛北部基利克兰基湾的薄泥炭沉积物，覆盖在湖沉积物上，其中含有淡水软体动物贝壳和 Characeae oogonia，日期为 c。34000 14C 校准 (cal) 之前 (BP) 显示起火迹象。当时的植被与全新世的植被并不相似，几乎没有桉树的代表性，但突出的灌木物种（Leptospermum，千层）和草本类群，如水草科和菊科，特别是更新世菊科花粉类型。当时巴西亚斯地峡东部的植被可能比全新世的树木覆盖率更少，而且以荒地为主。