Light islands in a sea of dark rainforest: Human influence on fire, climate and biodiversity in the Australian tropics

The use of fire in Australian Aboriginal society has been well documented and has been pivotal to arguments about human impact on the Australian biota. We will combine archaeological and palaeoecological approaches to investigate the interaction between northeast Queensland Aboriginal rainforest people and fire. The relationship between the intensity of human occupation, climate variability and, the onset of burning will assist in understanding the primacy of natural and anthropogenic firing events and the Aboriginal maintenance of economically important plants within fire managed mosaics. It will provide an understanding of role of fire in the maintenance of biodiversity