ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES DURING LAST 6000 YEARS INFERRED FROM SEDIMENT RECORDS OF DRILLING CORES IN NORTHERN TAIHU LAKE

With the data of magnetic susceptibility, grain size, SCR parameters from the sediments of Hole TH-004 in northern Taihu lake, we recontructed the history of environmental evolution of the lake over the past 8 000 years. The climate has been getting colder and drier since 7 kaBP, excepting a warm and humid stage around 2 kaBP. However, the environmental change was mainly characterized by the rapid warming and cooling cycles, and the changes in effective moisture were not significant since the changes in monsoon precipitation were mainly occurred in the periphery of the monsoon-affected zone, and the Taihu Lake was within the monsoon region, where the effective moisture did not suffer significant changes, regardless the advanceing or retreating of the East Asian summer monsoon. There were small scale abrupt climate events during this period, such as the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age cold weather events.