Stratigraphy, landsnail faunas, and paleoenvironmental history of Late Holocene coastal dunes, Tauroa Peninsula, northern New Zealand

Abstract

The post ‐700 years BP depositionai history of the Holocene coastal dunebelt on northwestern Tauroa Peninsula involved an initial progradational phase, then a subsequent predominantly stable phase that began some time after 650 years BP, followed by a highly unstable phase from late prehistoric time to the present‐day Fossil landsnail faunas indicate that sandfield and prostrate shrubland have been the mam vegetation types on the dunefield since at least 700 years BP, but that taller shrubland established locally during the later part of the prehistoric period of dunefield stability Five species of landsnails became extinct on the dunefield in late prehistoric historic time, probably as a result of vegetation disturbance cause by widespread dune mobilisation and erosion. © 1999 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.