Late quaternary dynamics of a lowland tropical peat swamp : Nee Soon Swamp, Singapore
2004
Oh, H. Y. | Taylor, D. | Sanderson, P. G.
Current understandidng of long-term dynamics of vegetation in coastal Southeast Asia is based upon few empirical studies, the results of which suggest that vegetation has responded in predictable ways to past changes in sea level. Thus extant areas of freshwater peat swamp forests (PSF) are assumed to have displaced mangroves as a result of marine regression since the mid Holocene. Nee Soon swamp, northeast Singapore, is situated within 10 m of sea level. Freshwater and peat-forming conditions presently dominate, although the site is thought to be sensitive to variations in hydrological conditions. Samples from two cores of sediment from 4 m above sea level have been analysed for their pollen, spore and radiocarbon contents. Results include AMS date of 11,800 plus and minus 50 BP and suggest the presence of peat-forming conditions during the last glacial. More recently accumulated swamp record a complex history of change. Overall the data suggest that accepted models of mangrove and lowland freshwater peat swamp dynamics that emphasise the role of marine influences and processes of succession are oversimplified.
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