| Abstract: |
There are at least three reasons for suspecting the vegetation of the New Guinea highlands to be changing. Firstly, forest is being actively cut down by the New Guineans to make gardens and it has been ever suggested (Robbins 1960) that almost all the non-forest (i.e. vegetation other than forest) is anthropogenic. Secondly, there is geomorphological evidence of a lower snowline formerly in New Guinea (Dozy 1937
Reiner 1960
Bik 1967) and the vegetation may therefore have been influenced by long-term climatic changes. Thirdly, New Guinea is subject to tectonic disturbance and volcanic activity (Taylor 1957), which may have had vegetational repercussions.
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