Palaeoenvironmental changes from pollen record in deep sea core PC-1 from northern Okinawa Trough, East China Sea during the past 24 ka

A pollen record of core PC-1 from the northern Okinawa Trough, East China Sea （ECS）, provides information on vegetation and climate changes since 24 cal. kaBP. A total of 103 samples were palynologically analyzed at 8 cm intervals with a time resolution of 230 a. Four pollen zones are recognized： zone Ⅰ （812-715 cm, 24.2-21.1 cah kaBP）, zone Ⅱ （715-451 cm, 21.1-15.2 cah kaBP）, zone Ⅲ （451-251 cm, 15.2-0.8 cah kaBP）, zone Ⅳ （251-0 cm, 10.8-0.3 cal. kaBP）, corresponding to Late MIS 3, Last Glacial Maximum （LGM）, deglaciation and Holocene, respectively. The LGM is characterized by the dominance of herbs, mainly Artemisia, and high pollen influx, implying an open vegetation on the ex- posed continental shelf and a cool and dry climate. The deglaciation is a climate warming stage with Pinus percentage increased and Artemisia percentage decreased and a rapid sea-level rise. The Holocene is characterized by predominance of tree pollen with rapid increase in Castanea-Castanopsis indicating the development of mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest and a warm, humid climate. Low pollen influx during the Holocene probably implies submergence of the continental shelf and retreat of the pollen source area. The vegetation indicated by pollen assemblage found in this upper zone is consistent with the present vegetation found in Kyushu, Japan. Originating from the humid mountain area of North Luzon of the Philippines, Tasmania and New Zealand, Phyllocladus with sporadic occurrence throughout PC-1 core probably suggests the influence of Palaeo-Kuroshio Current or intense summer monsoon. The observed changes in Pinus and Herbs percentage indicate fluctuations of the sea level, and high Pinus percentage corresponds to high sea level. Spectrum analysis of the pollen percentage record reveals many millennial-scale periodicities, such as periodicities of 6.8, 3.8, 2.2, 1.6 ka.     

Geological records of marine environmental changes in the southern Okinawa Trough

Indexes of sediment grain size,sedimentation rates,geochemical composition,heavy,minerals,benthic foraminiferal fauna,indicator species of the Kuroshio Current,paleo-SST and carbonate dissolution of core E017 conformably suggest a great marine environmental change occurring at about 10.1-9.2cal.kaBP in the southern Okinawa Trough,which may correspond to the strengthening of the Kuroshio Warm Current and re-entering the Okinawa Trough through the sea area off northeast Taiwan.The invasion of Kuroshio current has experienced a process of gradual strengthening and then weakening,and its intensity became more fluctuation during the last 5000 years.Compared to the transition of sediment grain size,geochemical composition and heavy minerals,the foraminiferal faunas show a 900-year lag,which may indicate that the invasion of Kuroshio Current and the consequent sea surface and deep-water environmental chanages is a gradual process,and fauna has an obvious lag compared to environment altering.The carbonate dissolution of the Okinawa Trough has had an apparent strengthening since 9.2cal.kaBP,and reached a maximum in the late 3000 years,which may be caued by the deep-water environmental changes due to the invasion of Kuroshio Current.     

Paleoproductivity variations in the southern Okinawa Trough since the middle Holocene: Calcareous nannofossil records

Based on 17 AMS 14 C age data,we reconstructed high-resolution records of sea surface primary productivity(PP) in the southern Okinawa Trough(MD05-2908) over the last 6.8 ka BP using the calcareous nannofossil carbon isotope and the relative percentage contents of Florisphaera profunda indexes.The underlying mechanism controlling the sea surface PP was then discussed.The sea surface PP,indicated by the coccolith δ 13 C and %Fp conversional equations,decreased with some fluctuations since 6.8 ka BP.This decrease may be connected to the decreased terrigenous input resulting from the reduced East Asian Summer Monsoon(EASM) precipitation.Both the periods of 4-2 ka BP(PME) and 6.8-4.8 ka BP were characterized by relatively higher PP.The former was mainly controlled by the weakening of the Kuroshio Current,whereas the latter mainly resulted from the greater terrigenous input associated with the stronger EASM.     

冲绳海槽南部表层沉积物中放射虫的初步研究

通过对冲绳海槽南部４６个站位表层沉积物中的放射虫研究，初步鉴定９６个种，其中泡沫虫目在种和个休数量上均占绝对优势，与国内外有８在资料对照，冲绳海槽南部表层沉积物中放射虫组合属热带暖水动物群，根据定量统计资料，将表层沉积物中的放射虫分布四个分布区，探讨了沉积物类型，沉积物化学性质，海水温度，盐度，深度以及海流等地放射虫数量分布的影响。     

东海陆架与冲绳海槽晚第四纪沉积硅藻的对比研究

通过对东海陆架DG9617孔以及冲绳海槽A孔和B孔岩芯沉积硅藻进行高分辨率的采样分析,总共鉴定出166种和变种,其中有近14个主要硅藻种在3个钻孔中都连续分布,且有较高的含量,而其余种类含量较低或分布不连续或仅零星检出.根据3个钻孔岩芯中产出硅藻属种组成、含量变化及热带远洋种丰度等特征建立起各自的硅藻组合带.通过对比分析,表明硅藻植物群在东海陆架及冲绳海槽不同沉积环境条件下均记录了自晚第四纪以来古海洋、古气候的变化.     

Biomarker reconstruction of phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes in the middle Okinawa Trough during the last 15 ka

Biomarkers have been widely used to reconstruct phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes, and this method has been applied for the first time in the middle Okinawa Trough during the transition from the last deglaciation to the Holocene. The total content of all marine phytoplankton biomarkers, used as a total productivity indicator, reveals higher productivity during the deglaciation. The ratios of the biomarkers are used as community structure indicators which show that, compared with the Holocene, the contribution from haptophytes decreased while the contributions from diatoms and dinoflagellates increased during the deglaciation. The increased productivity during the deglaciation was likely caused by the stronger winter monsoon. Also increased nutrient supply from terrestrial sources contributes to the higher productivity due to lower sea-level, which is consistent with higher terrestrial biomarker （long-chain n-alkanols） content. These changes in the nutrient supply also con- tributed to the community structure changes in the Okinawa Trough.     

A broad deglacial δ13C minimum event in planktonic foraminiferal records in the Okinawa Trough

The equatorial Pacific upwelling zone has been suspected of playing an important role in the global atmospheric CO2 changes associated with glacial-interglacial cycles.In order to assess the influencing scope of the surface water deglacial δ13C minimum in the tropical Iow-latitude Pacific,the core DGKS9603, collected from the middle Okinawa Trough, was examined for δ13C records of planktonic foraminifera N. dutertrei and G. ruber. The planktonic foraminiferal δ13C records show a clear decreasing event from 20 to 6 cal. kaBP., which is characterized by long duration of about 14 ka and amplitude shift of 0.4 × 10-3. Its minimum value occurred at 15.7 cai kaBP. The event shows fairly synchrony with the surface water deglacial δ13C minimum identiffed in the tropical Pacific and its marginal seas. Because there is no evidence in planktonic foraminiferal fauna and δ18O records for upwelling and river runoff enhancement,the broad deglacial δ13C minimum event in planktonic foraminiferal records revealed in core DGKS9603 might have been the direct influencing result of the deglacial surface water of the tropical Pacific. The identification for the event in the Okinawa Trough provides new evidence that the water evolution in the tropical low-latitude Pacific plays a key role in large regional, even global carbon cycle.     

Sedimentation rates and provenance analysis in the Southwestern Okinawa Trough since the mid-Holocene

As a high-sedimentation rate depocenter along the path of the Kuroshio Current, the southwesternmost part of the Okinawa Trough is a key area to understand the Kuroshio history and sediments transpor-tation. A 34.17-m-long sediment core was obtained by the advanced piston corer of Marco Polo/IMAGES XII MARION DUFRESNE during the May 2005 from the Southern Okinawa Trough at site MD05-2908. The recovered sediments were analyzed by AMS ¹⁴C dating, coarse size fraction (>63 μm) extraction and moisture content determination in order to study its sedimentation flux and provenance. The depth-age relationship of core MD05-2908 was well constrained by 17 ¹⁴C dating points. The sediments span across the mid-Holocene (6.8 ka B.P.) and have remarkablely high sedimentation rates between 1.8 and 21.2 m ka^-1, which is well consistent with the modern observations from sediment traps. We identified five 70―200 a periods of abnormally rapid sedimentation events at 6790―6600 a B.P., 5690―5600 a B.P., 4820―4720 a B.P., 1090―880 a B.P., and 260―190 a B.P., during which the highest sedimentation rate is up to 21.2 m/ka. In general, the lithology of the sediments were dominated by silt and clay, associated with less than 5% coarse size fraction (>63 μm). As the most significant sediment source, the Lanyang River in northeastern Taiwan annually deliver about 10Mt materials to the coastal and offshore region of northeast Taiwan, a portion of which could be carried northward by currents toward the study area. Therefore, we concluded that the 5 abnormally rapid sedimentation events may be related to intensified rainfall in Taiwan and thus increased materials to our study area at that time. However, a few ex-treme-rapid sedimentation events cannot be explained by normal river runoff alone. The large earth-quakes or typhoons induced hyperpycnal discharge of fluvial sediment to the ocean may also act as a potential source supply to the Okinawa Trough.     

The paleoclimatic events and cause in the Okinawa Trough during 50 kaBP

Planktonic foraminiferal δ ¹⁸O record for core DGKS9603 from the Okinawa Trough shows a series of climatic fluctuations and sudden cooling events in short time scale during 50 kaBP, which appear to correlate closely to the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events H1-5 recorded in Chinese loess, the South China Sea, the North Atlantic cores and the Greenland ice cores. Three polarity reversal events, correlating to Gothenburg, Mungo and Laschamp events, approximately correspond to Heinrich events H1, H3 and H5 respectively, which could be a cause of global climate changes. The δ ¹⁸O curve of the Okinawa Trough is well associated with the grain size record of the Lijiayuan loess profile in northwestern China and is somewhat different from the climate fluctuations documented in the Greenland ice cores. These correlation results indicate that regional factors play an important role in controlling the climate changes in the East Asia, and the East Asian Monsoon could be the prominent regional controlling factor.     

Two possible hydrothermal vents in the northern Okinawa Trough

As the Okinawa Trough is a back-arc basin in early spreading, modern submarine hydrothermal activity and minerallization have many characteristics which have aroused wide attention. Up to now, three well-known hydrothermal venting areas are all located in the middle part of the trough. During two cruise investigations to map and sample the seafloor, numbers ofCalyptogena sp. shells were dredged at two sites in the northern trough with comparatively thicker crust and numerous submarine volcanoes. Based on the fact thatCalyptogena sp. is only observed around the hydrothermal vents and lives on hydrothermal activities, it is predicted that there is the possibility of modern hydrothermal activities in the northern part of the trough. In this note, the shell is carefully characterized and the sample locations with possible hydrothermal activity are given. It is pointed out that the research of biogenic fossils to trace hydrothermal activity changes in venting time, strength fluctuations, evolution in chemical compositions and so on should be stressed in the future in addition to the study of the ecological characteristics of hydrothermal organisms.     

冲绳海槽火山岩同位素特征及铀系组分法测年

借助多种分析方法,对采自冲绳海槽北段和中段的火山岩进行了常量元素、稀土元素、Sr-Nd同位素组成分析及铀系组分法年龄测定,在此基础上对此地区的海槽岩浆的起源、演化及岩石类型进行了研究。结果表明:(1)海槽晚更新世(大约10万年)以来有一期广泛的酸性火山喷发活动;(2)受板块俯冲的控制,此期火山活动年龄按照与琉球岛弧距离的由近到远而由新到老;(3)海槽北、中段岩浆演化过程相似,其下很可能存在有巨大的、统一的岩浆房,但与海槽南段岩浆作用差异明显,岩浆物质很可能来源于PREMA地幔源区;(4)此地区的黑色浮岩为钙碱性系列流纹岩,岩石化学组成与海槽产出的白色浮岩相似,形成年代为17.7±2.1 ka。     

Long-term trend and abrupt events of the Holocene Asian monsoon inferred from a stalagmite δ18O record from Shennongjia in Central China

The middle-Holocene was a period of profound cul- ture transitions: the Neolithic culture around Central China[1], Mesopotamia[2] and India[3] all mysteriously collapsed around 4 ka . It is plausible that this civiliza-tion collapse can be contributed to …     

Magnetic properties of different grain-sized particles of sediments from the Okinawa Trough and their relationships to sedimentary environment

Multiple magnetic parameters were measured for nine different grain-sized fractions separated from the sediment samples that are representatives of four different sedimentary environments of the Okinawa Trough. Based on the measured results, the contributions of different grain-sized particles to total magnetic susceptibility of bulk sediments, the magnetic mineral assemblage and magnetic domain state as well as their relationships to sedimentary environment were discussed. Our research shows that the magnetic mineral is dominated by magnetite with a small amount of hematite and is primarily in pseudo-single-domain state. That indicates that the different sedimentary environments in the Okinawa Trough have certain correlation in material provenance. The magnetic minerals enrich in different grain-sized particles in response to different sedimentary environments. The contribution of the grain sizes from coarse to fine to coarse and fine to the magnetic susceptibility from the west to the east is in accordance with terrigenous material transportation from continental shelf of the East China Sea to the Okinawa Trough. It also shows difference in magnetic properties as a result of some environmental factors.     

The spring soil moisture and the summer rainfall in eastern China

The relation between the soil moisture in spring and the rainfall in summer in eastern China is investi- gated. Results show that the summer rainfall in eastern China is closely related to the spring soil moisture in the area from North China to the lower reaches of Yangtze River (NCYR). When spring soil moisture anomalies over NCYR are positive, the summer precipitation exhibits positive anomalies in Northeast China and the lower reaches of Yangtze River, and negative anomalies in southern China and North China. The higher soil moisture over NCYR cools land surface and reduces the land-sea tem- perature gradient, which weakens East Asian summer monsoon. The western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) is located to the south and shifts westward, resulting in more rainfall in the lower reaches of Yangtze River and less in southern China and North China.     

The early Holocene optimum inferred from a hish-resolution pollen record of Husuansyan Maar Lake in southern China

A high-resolution pollen record of the past 13000 a from Huguangyan Maar Lake reveals the vegetation and environment changes in southern China during the Holocene. It shows that （i） pollen percentage of trees and shrubs reached 56% during the early Holocene （11600-7800 cal a BP）, of which the pollen percentage of tropical trees reached a maximum at 9500-8000 cal a BP, reflecting a hot and wet environment; （ii） during the mid-Holocene （7800-4200 cal a BP）, the pollen percentage of montane coniferous trees and herbs increased, while the percentage of tropical-subtropical trees decreased, indicating lower temperature and humidity; （iii） in the late Holocene spanning from 4200 to 350 cal a BP, the pollen percentage of herbs and montane conifer increased significantly, indicating a marked decrease of temperature and humidity. Our pollen data reveal that the time period 9500-8000 cal a BP in southern China represents a climatic optimum for the Holocene characterized by hot and wet conditions. This is consistent with the Holocene optimum found in lower latitude regions globally. We speculate that strong insolation might cause the northward migration of the ITCZ and subtropical summer monsoon front, which resulted in an early Holocene optimum in the Huguangyan area. The dry tendency and climate fluctuations of the middle and late Holocene could be associated with a decrease in solar insolation and frequent ENSO event.     

The early Holocene optimum inferred from a high-resolution pollen record of Huguangyan Maar Lake in southern China

A high-resolution pollen record of the past 13000 a from Huguangyan Maar Lake reveals the vegetation and environment changes in southern China during the Holocene. It shows that (i) pollen percentage of trees and shrubs reached 56% during the early Holocene (11600―7800 cal a BP), of which the pollen percentage of tropical trees reached a maximum at 9500―8000 cal a BP, reflecting a hot and wet envi- ronment; (ii) during the mid-Holocene (7800―4200 cal a BP), the pollen percentage of montane conif- erous trees and herbs increased, while the percentage of tropical-subtropical trees decreased, indi- cating lower temperature and humidity; (iii) in the late Holocene spanning from 4200 to 350 cal a BP, the pollen percentage of herbs and montane conifer increased significantly, indicating a marked decrease of temperature and humidity. Our pollen data reveal that the time period 9500―8000 cal a BP in south- ern China represents a climatic optimum for the Holocene characterized by hot and wet conditions. This is consistent with the Holocene optimum found in lower latitude regions globally. We speculate that strong insolation might cause the northward migration of the ITCZ and subtropical summer mon- soon front, which resulted in an early Holocene optimum in the Huguangyan area. The dry tendency and climate fluctuations of the middle and late Holocene could be associated with a decrease in solar insolation and frequent ENSO event.     

Stalagmite-inferred Holocene precipitation in northern Guizhou Province,China, and asynchronous termination of the Climatic Optimum in the Asian monsoon territory

An absolute-dated, bi-decadal-resolution, stalagmite oxygen-isotopic time series from Shigao Cave reveals the evolution of summer monsoon precipitation over the past 9.9 ka BP in northern Guizhou Province, Southwest China. The  18O-inferred climate conditions are divisible into three distinct stages: (1) a maximum humid era from 9.9-6.6 ka BP; (2) a gradual declining precipitation interval between 6.6-1.6 ka BP; and (3) a relatively low precipitation time window after 1.6 ka BP. Consistency of contemporaneous stalagmite Holocene 18O records between Shigao and other caves in the Indian and East Asian monsoon realms support the effect of primary orbital solar forcings on monsoonal precipitation. However, statistical analysis shows a significant spatial asynchroneity of the Holocene Optimum termination in the Asian monsoon territory. The Holocene Optimum ended at 7.2-7.4 ka BP in Oman, located in the Indian monsoon region, and at 5.6-5.8 ka BP in Central China, in the East Asian monsoon zone. In Southwest China, the termination occurred between these periods, at 6.6-7.0 ka BP, and was influenced by both monsoon systems. We propose that this spatially asynchronous ending of Holocene Optimum in Asia may be attributed to sea surface temperature changes in the western tropical Pacific, which is a primary moisture source for the East Asian monsoon.