A high-resolution history of vegetation and climate history on Sunda Shelf since the last glaciation

This paper presents 16500-year-long high-resolution pollen and spore records from sediments of core 18287 on the continental slope of the southern South China Sea. In the period of 16.5-13.9 ka B.P., the low-mountain rainforest dominated the continental slope of the South China Sea. And in the period of 13.9-10.2 ka B.P., the lowland rainforest and ferns expanded greatly, while the low-mountain rainforest shrank, which indicated a warming at the last deglaciation. Also during this period, the pollen sedimentation rates reduced sufficiently. This might imply a rise of the sea level and therefore the submergence of the shelf, resulting in the broadening of the distance between the source area and the slope. After 10.2 ka B.P, decreasing of the fern indicates the early Holocene (10.2-7 ka B.P.) is a cold period, while the increasing of fern marks the rising temperature (7-3.6 ka B.P.).