| Abstract: | Pollen data from the Rooty Breaks swamp – a Sphagnum bog surrounded by Atherosperma-Elaeocarpus rainforest – in the eastern Victorian highlands appears to reflect changes in the mode of pollen and spore deposition at the study site, from the time sediments began accumulating at about 5500 BP until the present day. In the lower half of the deposit, pollen of rainforest taxa is more common than it is in the top half, while Eucalyptus pollen reflects the reverse situation. Although the pollen changes may reflect climatic change it is suggested that most of the pollen and spores in the lower sediment were stream-borne. Later the stream moved away from the site and the records became more representative of atmospheric pollenrain. Throughout the period covered by the pollen diagram the Rooty Breaks swamp itself was dominated by Leptospermum grandifolium. The pollen record shows that the association of important taxa in rainforests of the highlands of eastern Victoria was established by at least 5500 BP. The presence of sparse old eucalypts throughout the area dominated by rainforest suggests that sclerophyll forest was replaced by rainforest in the recent past. However, this change is not evidenced in the pollen diagram. |
