| Summary: | High-resolution diatom, sediment and pollen analyses of two sections from the annually laminated SG06 core from Lake Suigetsu were used to study the onset and termination of the late-glacial climate reversal in central Japan. It's broadly recognised counterpart is the Younger Dryas or Greenland Stadial-1 (ca. 12.85-11.65 cal. kyr BP based on the NGRIP ice core records). Our study suggests that accumulation of the analysed late-glacial sediments occurred in a deep and relatively cold water meso-eutrophic lake with a strong mixing regime and relatively high silica content. Combining these results together with available pollen-based environmental reconstructions we suggest that climate cooling, together with an intensified winter monsoon and thicker snow cover could influence changes in regional vegetation, sedimentation processes and trophic status of the lake during the transition from the last interstadial to stadial around Lake Suigetsu. A decrease in total pollen concentration and increase in Fagus pollen percentage indicate local vegetation stress/disturbances and suggest that cooling started at least 2-3 decades prior to the major shift in the inorganic sediment (accumulation of detrital layers) and in diatom assemblages (change from Aulacoseira ambigua to Aulacoseira subarctica dominance), which took about 10 years. The transition from the last stadial to the Holocene again shows that vegetation in the lake catchment area reacted first to the regional climate change, i.e. to the weakening of the winter monsoon and decrease in winter snow accumulation. The increase in the vegetation cover density and reduced volume of surface runoff associated with the decrease in melt water supply is likely responsible for the reduced soil erosion activity which caused the cessation in detrital layer accumulation and consequent decrease in the amount of nutrients brought to the lake and lowering of the water nutrient status. The latter process finally influenced changes in the diatom assemblages, including the return to ...
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