Researchers and local Indigenous people say a beautifully preserved metre-wide and 40-centimetres-high tree stump may be a thousand-year-old messenger with a story to share about climate change.
For more than three hours she works, flinging scoop after scoop of black goopy mud onto the powder-like sand above.
Researchers and local Indigenous people say it may just be a thousand-year-old messenger with a story to share about climate change.Wharton Beach, 90 kilometres east of Esperance on Western Australia's south coast, has often been called a magical place. But, perhaps, the most exciting factor was it had been sealed over by sand and sea, creating a time capsule of preserved DNA, pollen and organic material.Ingrid Ward, from the University of Western Australia's School of Biological Sciences, was on a plane from Perth to Esperance within two days of finding out."Australia is very dry and very arid. So it's very rare to find organics being preserved.
Dr Barrows said it was an important tool for understanding the past, which could provide lessons for the future."Understanding those natural ways of the climate change gives us an insight into how it could be changing at the moment," he said.that we are putting into the atmosphere." Wudjari elder Aunty Donna Beach said the work also strengthened cultural connections with the country.Two months after Ms Graham dug the stump out of the beach, Dr Barrows called the Tjaltjraak rangers, including Wudjari Nyungar Mirning Ngudju elder Mr Reynolds and Hayleigh Graham, with the radiocarbon dating results."We divided the peat up into two samples," Dr Barrows explained."And the tree trunk was just a little bit older than that, at 7,120 years.
Wharton Beach Ancient Forest Peat Bog Ancient Dune Sand Dune Tree Stump Chronos
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