ALBERT

Description: Event layers in lake sediments are indicators of past extreme events, mostly the results of floods or earthquakes. Detailed characterisation of the layers allows the discrimination of the sedimentation processes involved, such as surface runoff, landslides or subaqueous slope failures. These processes can then be interpreted in terms of their triggering mechanisms. Here we present a 40 kyr event layer chronology from Lake Suigetsu, Japan. The event layers were characterised using a multi-proxy approach, employing light microscopy and µXRF for microfacies analysis. The vast majority of event layers in Lake Suigetsu was produced by flood events (362 out of 369), allowing the construction of the first long-term, quantitative (with respect to recurrence) and well dated flood chronology from the region. The flood layer frequency shows a high variability over the last 40 kyr, and it appears that extreme precipitation events were decoupled from the average long-term precipitation. For instance, the flood layer frequency is highest in the Glacial at around 25 kyr BP, at which time Japan was experiencing a generally cold and dry climate. Other cold episodes, such as Heinrich Event 1 or the Late Glacial stadial, show a low flood layer frequency. Both observations together exclude a simple, straightforward relationship with average precipitation and temperature. We argue that, especially during Glacial times, changes in typhoon genesis/typhoon tracks are the most likely control on the flood layer frequency, rather than changes in the monsoon front or snow melts. Spectral analysis of the flood chronology revealed periodic variations on centennial and millennial time scales, with 220 yr, 450 yr and a 2000 yr cyclicity most pronounced. However, the flood layer frequency appears to have not only been influenced by climate changes, but also by changes in erosion rates due to, for instance, earthquakes.

Description: The Younger Dryas Stadial (YDS) was an episode of northern hemispheric cooling which occurred within the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT). A major driver for the YDS climate was a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). It has been inferred that the AMOC began to strengthen mid-YDS, producing a bipartite structure of the YDS in records from continental Europe. These records imply that the polar front and westerlies shifted northward, producing a warmer second phase of the YDS in Europe. Here we present multi-proxy data from the sediments of Lake Suigetsu (Japan), as evidence that a related bi-partition of the YDS also occurred in East Asia. Besides showing for the first time that the bi-partition was not limited to the North Atlantic/European region, the data also imply a climatic dipole between Europe and East Asia since the cold-warm characteristics are reversed at Lake Suigetsu. We suggest that changes in eastward moisture transport from the North Atlantic are the primary mechanism by which the teleconnection can be explained.

Description: This dataset provides glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) concentrations for the Lateglacial sediment sequence retrieved from Lake Hämelsee (Germany) in 2013. GDGTs concentrations (ng/g) are presented against both depth (m) and age (cal yr. BP). The GDGTs dataset was used to calculate the GDGT-0/crenarchaeol ratio, which was interpreted to represent lake water oxygenation, which, given the local settings, was likely driven by changes in windiness. Additionally, the GDGT dataset was used to calculate the degree of methylation of 5-methyl brGDGTs (MBT'5me), which can be used to reconstruct past temperature change through translation MBT'5me into mean temperature of the months above freezing. As such, the GDGT data provides information on LGIT climate dynamics at lake Hämelsee. Of the 167 samples used for lipid extraction (see https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.964524), the alcohol/fatty acid fraction of 94 samples was further processed to analyse glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs), which are membrane lipids of certain archaea and bacteria (Schouten et al., 2013). In short, a known amount of internal standard was added to each fraction, which was then redissolved in hexane:isopropanol 99:1 and passed over a 0.45 µm PTFE filter prior to injection on a Agilent 1260 Infinity ultra-high performance liquid chromatograph coupled to an Agilent 6130 single quadrupole mass spectrometer following the settings and elution protocol of Hopmans et al. (2016). A minimum peak area of 3000 and a signal-to-noise ratio of 〉3 was maintained as detection limit. Quantification of the GDGTs is based on the assumption that the mass spectrometer equally responds to the GDGTs and the internal standard. All analyses were performed in the laboratories of Utrecht University, the Netherlands.