Pollen Succession, Absolute Pollen Frequency, and Recurrence Surfaces in Central Japan

Abstract

A generalized pollen diagram, associated with three simplified pollen diagrams from Tsubogakure (1,500 m), Nakatashiro (1,400 m) and Yashima-ga-hara (1,650 m) bogs in central Japan, represents five pollen zones for the last 12,000 years, i.e., L (before 10,500 B.P., pine-boreal); R I (10,500–9,500 B.P., boreal-oak); R II (9,500–4,500 B.P., temperate); R IIIa (4,500–1,500 B.P., temperate-boreal); and R IIIb (after 1,500 B.P., pino-nonarboreal). Absolute pollen frequency is high in well-humified peat, in gyttja (deposited immediately below the first peat formation), and in peat in the part of the R IIIa cooling stage, and it is low in less-humified peat, since the former sediments have slow and the latter rapid rates of accumulation, respectively. Changes of plant communities should affect the absolute pollen frequency, but changes of sedimentation rates are more critical. After a re-examination of Nakatashiro bog, it is hardly possible to recognize a recurrence surface in the European sense, nor can the accumulation of thin tephra on the bog surface be responsible for a temporary halt in peat growth. Nakatashiro bog (like Tsubogakure bog) is a low-moor bog, and true recurrence surfaces would not be expected in it. In a raised Yashima-ga-hara bog, however, there are seven recurrence surfaces without a volcanic ash band; the well-humified horizons correspond to low values of Sphagnum spores and Cyperaceae pollen, and the less-humified horizons to high values of Sphagnum spores and Cyperaceae pollen. Peaks of these species in the upper core correspond to those Cryptomeria pollen, an indicator of the high precipitation (generally >1,800 mm/yr). Regularly interrelated fluctuations among these species, absolute pollen frequency, and peat horizons suggest that the precipitation was low in well-humified peat and was high in less-humified peat.