Yoshida, A. and Takeuti, S. 2009. Quantitative reconstruction of palaeoclimate from pollen profiles in northeastern Japan and the timing of a cold reversal event during the Last Termination.ABSTRACT: We reconstructed quantified palaeoclimate changes within two Japanese pollen profiles spanning the Last Termination (LT; 18-10 cal. ka) in an attempt to better understand past monsoon activity. The reconstructed winter climate at the Tashiro mire, which is strongly influenced by the Siberian air mass, showed a weak and a short-lived cooling event at 11.8-10.6 cal. ka. This event spans part of the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling event in the North Atlantic region, suggesting the latter influenced the Siberian high-pressure system. In contrast, the summer climate at the Komado mire, which is more influenced by the Pacific air mass, experienced a strong and a prolonged cooling event at 15.5-13.0 cal. ka. The latter event is broadly synchronous with the Antarctica Cold Reversal (ACR) event, and suggests that the Pacific high-pressure system weakened during this period. The pattern of climate change across East Asia shows that the YD event did not extend beyond the East Asian monsoon front, while the ACR event strongly affected the Pacific high-pressure system during the LT. We suggest the East Asian monsoon front is an important geo-climatic boundary between YD-like and ACR-like deglacial climate changes.

This paper analyzed forest land use change in Trans-Boundary Laos-China Biodiversity Conservation Area which is called Namha National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (Namha NBCAs), with 1992 and 2002 TM (ETM). Based on GIS and statistical methods, the intensity, state index of land use change and transfer matrix were used to study spatio-temporal land use change in the region. The results showed that the area of forest land decreased greatly, also the area of bamboo and grassland decreased. The other way round, the area of unstocked forest, slash and burn and rice paddy land increased. As a whole, the intensity of forest land change was higher, but others were lower. From the transfer matrix, most of the forest land changed into unstocked forest and urban area, some to slash and burn. The grassland and bamboo were mainly transferred to forest and unstocked forest. The unstocked forest land mostly came from forest land and grassland. It was showed there were three main causes of the land use change namely: opium poppy cultivation, rubber plantation and also ecotourism activities and finally some policies were developed in order to address the land use change in the study areas.

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