PALAEOVEGETATION AND PALAEOCLIMATE DURING THE QUATERNARY PERIOD BASED ON THE LONG CORES FROM LAKE BIWA, CENTRAL JAPAN, AND GLOBAL CORRELATION OF THE PALAEOCLIMATE RECORDS
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Abstract:
Investigation was carried out on the palaeovegetation, stratigraphy and palaeoclimate in the last 3 Ma based onthe long cores from the Lake Biwa, Central Japan. Samples of 200-meter and 1400-meter cores obtained from the bottom of thelake yield nineteen and thirty-seven pollen zones respectively showing the palaeovegetational and palaeoclimatic changes inand around the lake since the late Pliocene period. During the glacial stages or stadials, typical vegetation of the subpolar zoneoccurred in the mountainous area around Lake Biwa. While in the lowland area in and around the lake, characteristic plants ofthe Cool Temperate zone occurred. During the interglacial stages or interstadials the vegetation of the mountainous area wasgenerally characterized by plants of the Temperate zone and/or Cool Temperate zone, while in the lowland area the vegetationwas composed mainly of deciduous and evergreen broad-leaved trees of the Temperate and Warm Temperate zones. In theglobal correlation from the viewpoints of palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate changes during the last 3 Ma since the latePliocene period, the climate history shows remarkable parallel with the palaeotemperature records by oxygen isotope analysesof Caribbean Sea, Western Pacific and Equatorial Pacific Ocean, sedimentary cycles of Mallorca in the western MediterraneanSea, aeolian depositional sequences from Central Europe, the records of sea level changes based on the marine terraces inKanto, Japan and New Guinea, and the palaeoclimate changes based on the palynological analyses in Bogota high plain ofSouth America and Dead Sea Rift of Israel.
