EARLY CLIMATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 10

EARLY CLIMATE

STUDY TO BE MADE

SWEDISH SCIENTIST'S VISIT

To investigate various swamps with the idea of ascertaining previous climatic .-conditions in New** Zealand, Professor Carl Scottsberg, director of the Botanic Gardens at Gothenberg, Sweden, is expected to arrive in Auckland on October 16, states the "New Zealand Herald." Professor -Scottsberg, who will also give a series of lectures throughout the Dominion, is making the visit at the invitation of the University of New Zealand, and the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the institutes which comprise the Royal Society.

At present he is in Honolulu conducting researches into peat swamps, in which work he is being assisted by Miss L. M. Cranwell, botanist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, who will also return to New Zealand on October 16. Miss Cranwell has been doing similar work to that engaging the attention of Professor Scottsberg.

Professor Scottsberg is one of the pioneers of a form of analysis of peat deposits in swamps with the object of determining earlier climates. The system is to study the pollen grains in the peat. Pollen is extremely resistant to decay, and by analysis of the pollen layers in peat it is possible to determine the types of vegetation to which they belonged, and from those premises the climatic conditions that ruled at the time of the deposit. In the course of his investigations, Professor Scottsberg has travelled extensively, doing much research in Easter Island, South America, and Juan Fernandez Islands. While in Auckland his researches will embrace the Rukuhia swamp south of Hamilton.