Quantitative reconstruction of Holocene climate based on pollen data from drill hole QZK6 in Pearl River Delta

Based on the Pearl Delta QZK6 drill hole sporo-pollen assemblage characteristics and AMS 14C dating results, the authors determined four pollen assemblages from A to D by using CONISS software. Moreover, according to the characteristics of the surface-soil pollen composition induced from the 122 existing samples for the native vegetation environment in Guangdong region of the East Asian Pollen Data Bank, the paleoclimate parameters, including paleoannual temperature and paleo-annual precipitation, were quantitatively reconstructed since 10981a cal BP by Polygon 1.5 software. Consequently, Zone D, 10981~8500a cal BP, was warmer and more humid, with annual temperature of 21.7~22.1°C and annual precipitation of 1778~1888mm; Zone C, 8500~8105cal BP, 21.9~22.3°C and 1845~1929mm, was the warmest and most humid among the four zones; Zone B, 8105~4343a cal BP, had the following features: the temperature and precipitation decreased to 20.8~21.7°C and 1595~1806mm with increasing human activity (though such an activity would reach its strongest in Zone A); Zone A, 4343a cal BP to the present, 20.3~21.5°C and 1587~1765mm, has had the lowest temperature and humidity among the four zones.