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Holocene Monsoon Changes Inferred from Lake Sediment Pollen and Carbonate Records, Northeastern Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Andrew Lee Maxwell
Andrew Lee Maxwell*
Affiliation:
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), P.O. Box 2467, Phnom Penh 3, Cambodia, E-mail: amaxwell@bigpond.com.kh
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Abstract

Major Holocene monsoon changes in continental Southeast Asia are reconstructed from analysis of 14C-dated changes in pollen and organic/inorganic carbon in sediment cores taken from permanent, closed-basin, volcanic lakes in Ratanakiri Province, northeastern Cambodia. Analysis focuses on the nature and timing of monsoon changes, inferred from changes in vegetation and lake conditions. These data provide the first well-dated palynological record, covering most of the Holocene and continuous up to the present, from a terrestrial site in mainland Southeast Asia. The record from a 15-m core retrieved from Kara Lake, representing the last 9300 years, shows that the late Glacial conditions ended about 8500 14C yr B.P., more than 1000 years later than sites in southwest China. Summer monsoon intensity increased over the period ca. 8400–5300 14C yr B.P., similar to most other sites in the Asian monsoon region. A subsequent expansion of secondary forests at the expense of dense semievergreen forests suggest a drier climate leading to more frequent fire disturbance. After ca. 3500 14C yr B.P. disturbance frequency may have increased further with increasing seasonality. From ca. 2500 14C yr B.P. to the present, dense forest has recovered in a mosaic with annually burned dry forest, but climate may not be the main control on local vegetation dynamics in the late Holocene.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , November 2001 , pp. 390 - 400
Copyright
University of Washington

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