Environment change in SEA since Ice Age - Prof Micheal Bird Part 3

During the last ice age (20,000 years ago) it was possible to walk from Singapore to Borneo or Sumatra. Sea level was 120m lower than today, exposing the continent of 'Sundaland' (now island southeast Asia), with an area about the same size as Europe.

Drier, open savannas covered the area around Kuala Lumpur and Palawan with moist tropical forest area contracting substantially toward the equator. In contrast, 6,000 years ago, sea level in Singapore was about 2.5m higher than now and the island shrunk to half its present size.

The high-rise buildings of downtown Singapore are built upon the thick deposits of marine mud were laid down at this time. The modern patterns of biodiversity in the region have been shaped by these massive changes in the configuration of land and sea and by the large changes in climate and vegetation that have occurred in the region in the past.

This talk will provide an introduction to environmental change in island southeast Asia since the last ice age and explain how sea-level and climate change have helped shape the modern biogeography of the region. It will also examine the potential role of environmental change in modulating the trajectory and timing of early human dispersal through 'Sundaland' and on into Australia.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• JCU Singapore
• James Cook University
• Australia
• Environmental changes
• Micheal Bird
• JCUSG
• JCUS
• South East Asia
• Singapore
• Public Lecture
• Series