The spatio-temporal structure of the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition reconstructed from the pollen record of Lake Suigetsu and its precise correlation with other key global archives: implications for palaeoclimatology and archaeology

Nakagawa, T. et al. (2021) The spatio-temporal structure of the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition reconstructed from the pollen record of Lake Suigetsu and its precise correlation with other key global archives: implications for palaeoclimatology and archaeology. Global and Planetary Change, 202, 103493. (doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2021.103493)

Abstract

Leads, lags, or synchronies in climatic events among different regions are key to understanding mechanisms of climate change, as they provide insights into the causal linkages among components of the climate system. The well-studied transition from the Lateglacial to early Holocene (ca. 16–10 ka) contains several abrupt climatic shifts, making this period ideal for assessing the spatio-temporal structure of climate change. However, comparisons of timings of past climatic events among regions often remain hypothetical because site-specific age scales are not necessarily synchronised to each other. Here we present new pollen data (n = 510) and mean annual temperature reconstruction from the annually laminated sediments of Lake Suigetsu, Japan. Suigetsu's 14C dataset is an integral component of the IntCal20 radiocarbon calibration model, in which the absolute age scale is established to the highest standard. Its exceptionally high-precision chronology, along with recent advances in cosmogenic isotope studies of ice cores, enables temporally coherent comparisons among Suigetsu, Greenland, and other key proxy records across regions. We show that the onsets of the Lateglacial cold reversal (equivalent to GS-1/Younger Dryas) and the Holocene were synchronous between East Asia and the North Atlantic, whereas the Lateglacial interstadial (equivalent to GI-1/Bølling-Allerød) started ca. two centuries earlier in East Asia than in the North Atlantic. Bimodal migration (or ‘jump’) of the westerly jet between north and south of the Tibetan plateau and Himalayas may have operated as a threshold system responsible for the abruptness of the change in East and South (and possibly also West) Asia. That threshold in Asia and another major threshold in the North Atlantic, associated with switching on/off of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), were crossed at different times, producing a multi-centennial asynchrony of abrupt changes, as well as a disparity of climatic modes among regions during the transitional phases. Such disparity may have disturbed zonal circulation and generated unstable climate during transitions. The intervening periods with stable climate, on the other hand, coincided with the beginnings of sedentary life and agriculture, implying that these new lifestyles and technologies were not rational unless climate was stable and thus, to a certain extent, predictable.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The ‘Suigetsu Varves 2006’ project was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; NE/D000289/1, NE/F003048/1, NE/F003056/1, NE/F004400/1, and NERC Radiocarbon Facility allocation 1219.0410); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; BR-2208/7 and TA-540/3); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology–Japan (MEXT; 21101001, 16K13894, 15H02143, 18H03744); and the John Fell Oxford University Press Research Fund.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Staff, Dr Richard
• Authors: Nakagawa, T., Tarasov, P., Staff, R., Ramsey, C. B., Marshall, M., Schlolaut, G., Bryant, C., Brauer, A., Lamb, H., Haraguchi, T., Gotanda, K., Kitaba, I., Kitagawa, H., van der Plicht, J., Yonenobu, H., Omori, T., Yokoyama, Y., Tada, R., and Yasuda, Y.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
• Journal Name: Global and Planetary Change
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0921-8181
• ISSN (Online): 1872-6364
• Published Online: 01 May 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Global and Planetary Change 202: 103493
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License