Late Quaternary pollen records from the Lower Cobb Valley and adjacent areas, North-West Nelson, New Zealand

Ten pollen records from the Cobb Valley and adjacent areas in North-West Nelson are described. Collectively they provide a vegetation record extending from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present day. During the Last Glacial Maximum the uplands of North-West Nelson were glaciated. By about 17 000 radiocarbon years BP ice had retreated some distance up the Cobb River valley and a podocarp heath and tussockland vegetation covered non-glaciated areas. By 14 000 radiocarbon years BP, the valley floor and adjacent lower ridges were occupied by montane podocarp forest dominated by Phyllocladus and Halocarpus. Beech forest expanded into some sites as early as 13 000 yr BP but the modem beech cover was not established until the Holocene. Forest cover has fluctuated in response to disturbance over the Holocene, but the most significant recent change, which is related to clearing for pastoralism in the last two centuries, has had surprisingly little impact on the pollen records.