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Holocene environmental change at Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province, southwestern China

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Abstract

A Holocene palaeorecord from Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province, southwestern China is dominated by (1) a pronounced basin-wide sedimentary hiatus after ca. 7.2 kcal yr BP, spanning some 4,000 years and (2) significant changes in sediment source/supply and an increase in heavy metal influx coupled with a shift to more eutrophic lake conditions from ca. 0.9 kcal yr BP, lasting ~300 years. The hiatus is most likely a due to a significant and abrupt reduction in sedimentation rates, the driver of which is unclear; although it appears likely to have been climatically driven. The environmental changes captured in the Lake Shudu palaeorecord provide unambiguous evidence of late Holocene anthropogenic activity, most likely linked to mining activity.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following people/organisations for their help to complete this research project; The Royal Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Shen Ji and the Australian Research Council (grant FL100100195) for research funding and support; Alistair Lovell, Jessica Jordan and Kim Deal for technical support; the drawing office at Exeter University and Alan Hogg and staff at the University of Waikato for AMS 14C radiocarbon dating support. The manuscript was greatly improved by the useful comments of the referees.

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  1. Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK

    Richard T. Jones

  2. Climate Change Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Charlotte G. Cook & Chris Turney

  3. Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Enlou Zhang

  4. School of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Peter G. Langdon

  5. Department of Geography, Environment & Disaster Management, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK

    Jason Jordan

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Jones, R.T., Cook, C.G., Zhang, E. et al. Holocene environmental change at Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Hydrobiologia 693, 223–235 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1124-y

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