Katsuya Gotanda

A complete terrestrial radiocarbon record for 11.2 to 52.8 kyr B.P

Dating Carbon Radiocarbon dating is the best way to determine the age of samples that contain carbon and that are younger than ∼50,000 years, the limit of precision for the method. There are several factors that complicate such age determinations, however, some of the most important of which include variability of the 14C production in the atmosphere (which affects organic samples whose radiocarbon inventories are derived from atmospheric CO2), surface ocean reservoir effects (which affect marine samples that acquire their radiocarbon signatures from seawater), and variable dead carbon fraction effects (which affect speleothems that derive their carbon from groundwaters). Bronk Ramsey et al. (p. 370; see the Perspective by Reimer) avoid the need to make such assumptions, reporting the 14C results of sediments from Lake Suigetsu, Japan. Analysis of terrestrial plant macrofossils in annually layered datable sediments yielded a direct record of atmospheric radiocarbon for the entire measurable interval up to 52.8 thousand years ago. Radiocarbon measurements of samples from Lake Suigetsu, Japan, extend the 14C time scale back to more than 50,000 years ago. Radiocarbon (14C) provides a way to date material that contains carbon with an age up to ~50,000 years and is also an important tracer of the global carbon cycle. However, the lack of a comprehensive record reflecting atmospheric 14C prior to 12.5 thousand years before the present (kyr B.P.) has limited the application of radiocarbon dating of samples from the Last Glacial period. Here, we report 14C results from Lake Suigetsu, Japan (35°35′N, 135°53′E), which provide a comprehensive record of terrestrial radiocarbon to the present limit of the 14C method. The time scale we present in this work allows direct comparison of Lake Suigetsu paleoclimatic data with other terrestrial climatic records and gives information on the connection between global atmospheric and regional marine radiocarbon levels.

Seasonally specific responses of the East Asian monsoon to deglacial climate changes

The deglacial meltwater pulse in the North Atlantic that induced the Younger Dryas event also prompted climate cooling in East Asian monsoon regions such as Japan and coastal mid-latitude China. However, very little is understood about the mechanism that can transmit changes in the North Atlantic to the Far East. Here we show that the shutdown of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation brought about significantly lower temperatures and higher precipitation in the Japanese winter, whereas the change in the Japanese summer climate was considerably smaller. The cooling of the Siberian air mass seems to have caused an increased pressure gradient between Siberia and the West Pacific in winter, intensifying the winter monsoon. The Mongolian high-pressure system and the westerly jet stream played an important role in the teleconnection. In contrast, the warming at the onset of the late glacial interstadial (GI-1; Bolling-Allerod) in the West Pacific did not have season-specific features, implying that the principal driving mechanism of this warming event may lie in a pan-hemispheric or global factor, such as insolation changes.

Regulation of the monsoon climate by two different orbital rhythms and forcing mechanisms

The East Asian monsoon is responsible for transferring huge amounts of heat and moisture between the land and the adjacent ocean. Significant changes in its capacity to do this will have direct impacts on regional climatic gradients and global atmospheric circulation. Determining the mechanisms that force long-term variation in monsoon behavior is therefore important for understanding global climate change. Competing theories vary in the degree of importance attached to glacial forcing, other orbital rhythms, and internal feedback mechanisms as primary drivers of change. There is, however, no convincing explanation as to why different proxy records from closely neighboring regions are tuned to different orbital rhythms. Here we present quantitative climatic reconstructions for the past 450 k.y. based on a long pollen record from Lake Biwa in Japan. The data suggest that continental and oceanic air mass temperatures respond predominantly to the 100 k.y. orbital rhythm, whereas the land-ocean temperature gradient and monsoon vigor oscillate mainly at the 23 k.y. insolation cycle. We suggest that the mechanisms for this behavior lie in the differential response of land and ocean to solar forcing, and conclude that the 100 k.y. signal dominates monsoon intensity only when the amplitude of solar forcing falls below a threshold level.

Tracking aquatic change using chlorin‐specific carbon and nitrogen isotopes: The last glacial‐interglacial transition at Lake Suigetsu, Japan

Joint carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements were made from chlorins (chlorophyll a, phaeophytin a and pyrophaeophytin a) extracted from the last glacial-interglacial transition sediments of Lake Suigetsu, central Japan. These data highlight both the potential and difficulty of using chlorin-specific isotopes to track aquatic change from lake sediments. δ13C and δ15N of the three chlorins show coherent patterns with time, supporting the theory that phaeophytin a and pyrophaeophytin a are early diagenetic products of chlorophyll a and that despite this transition, their isotopic signatures remain intact. However, our data suggest that the isotopic composition of phaeophytin a and pyrophaeophytin a can be imprecise proxies for the isotope composition of chlorophyll a, possibly owing to the complex array of factors which affect the synthesis, transformation and sedimentation of these phaeopigments in nature. The total accumulation of organic matter in Lake Suigetsu appears to be controlled by the balance of allocthonous and authocthonous material as reflected by the C/N ratio. However, both bulk organic and chlorin-specific δ13C show similar changes, suggesting that the first order variability in bulk organic δ13C reflects aquatic change. By contrast, there is no similarity between chlorin and bulk δ15N, suggesting that interpretation of bulk δ15N in this setting is compromised by diagenetic alteration. The isotopic composition of chlorins are interpreted to reflect the response of aquatic primary productivity to post-glacial environmental change. However, further research into the synthesis and transformation of chlorins in the modern environment is required in order to facilitate a more rigorous approach to interpreting isotope ratios in chlorins extracted from sediments.

Rapid Prediction of Past Climate Condition from Lake Sediments by Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy

This study explored the feasibility of rapid, nondestructive near-infrared (NIR) reflection spectroscopy for the prediction of conventional physical properties, carbon-nitrogen-sulfur (CNS) analysis, and concentration of inorganic components in sediment cores from a brackish lake. A long core sample, which consisted of well-preserved annually formed lamina from Lake Ogawara along the Pacific coast in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, was used to investigate the past environmental record. The core was previously analyzed for physical properties, CNS, and inorganic components. Calibration models were developed from NIR reflection spectra of 149 core samples. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis provided good regression models between measured and predicted values for water content, total nitrogen (TN), total organic carbon (TOC), total sulfur (TS), Al2O3, S/Al2O3, Fe2O3/Al2O3, Sc/Al2O3, Cu/Al2O3, and Zn/Al2O3 with coefficients of determination (r 2 ) for cross-validation of 0.73, 0.89, 0.88, 0.73, 0.92, 0.81, 0.82, 0.75, 0.82, and 0.82, respectively. The variation of predicted component values as a function of depth showed the same trend as that of conventionally measured values. This study also showed the possibility of NIR spectroscopy as an on-site, rapid analytical tool for the identification of tephra (fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism), which is important for dating.

Climate Deterioration and Angkor’s Demise

Open image in new window Reconstruction of the paleoclimate based on analyses of annually laminated sediments in Japan and moat sediments from Angkor Thom in Cambodia indicates that there had been a period of drastic cooling during AD 1430–1500 accompanied by a weakening of monsoon activity. The annual mean temperatures show that—compared to the peak of medieval warm epoch around AD 1150—the mean temperature dropped by nearly 5°C in AD 1430. The climatic cooling brought about the weakening of the summer monsoon, which in turn would have resulted in the delayed arrival of the wet season. This might have had a catastrophic impact on rice cultivation in Cambodia leading to the decline of the Khmer Civilization.