Orbital‐ and millennial‐scale fluctuations in late Quaternary marine pollen records from the Japan Sea

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Ikehara, Ken, Oshima, Hideaki
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2009
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1355; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.1355; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.1355

Abstract Quaternary surface water conditions within the Japan Sea change with eustatic sea‐level changes and fluctuations in the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM), influencing regional climate and vegetation through the delivery of heat and moisture. Our marine pollen data suggest overall cooling from the Last Interglacial (ca. 125 ka) to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a cold climate during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, gradual warming from 12 ka and rapid warming after 10 ka. These stages are concordant with published palaeoceanographic changes in the Japan Sea. During mid MIS 5 to MIS 3, marine sediments in the Japan Sea are characterised by fine alternations of dark‐ and light‐coloured layers that formed under the influence of fluctuations in the EASM, possibly correlated with Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. During the deposition of dark layers, high levels of precipitation are inferred from the abundance of Cryptomeria . In contrast, a cool and dry climate is interpreted for the light layers, based on an abundance of subarctic conifer pollen. The palaeoclimate of the Japan Sea region appears to have been influenced by orbital‐scale changes in global climate and millennial‐scale fluctuations in the EASM. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.