| Summary: | Climate archives are of greatest significance when it comes to paleoclimate studies, since these types of archives in a natural way have registered and preserved the conditions of the past. There are several types of climate archives, one of the most commonly used are lake sediments, because lakes can reveal different types of information, for example weathering, vegetation and precipitation. Another reason why lakes are important in climate research is because they are widely spread over the world, and therefore they can be chosen depending on where the focus of the study will be. In this study, -the Lake Kuchi in the southern part of Taiwan, situated at the boundary between the Asian Mainland and the Western Pacific, was used. What makes this densely populated region of the world particularly interesting for climate research is because it is affected not only by monsoons, but also by typhoons and earthquakes. In this paleoclimate study, a total 16 core sections from three different coring points in the Kuchi Lake were analyzed. The main goal was to clarify if the lake could be used as a reliable climate archive, and also interpret the depositional environment of the sediment layers in the cores. All core sections were described and analyzed with the ITRAX XRF-scanner, which lead to the conclusion that the cores consist of a sedimentary sequence of alternating gray clay and dark gray gyttja clay layers, capped by peat, gyttja or clayey gyttja at topmost part. By sieving samples from all different layers, it was observed that some dark gyttja clay layers contained terrestrial organic matter, and hard, angular clay clasts that suggest intense rain falls and flash floods as transportation mechanism. The uppermost part of the cores, from 310 cm to the top layers, consist of homogenous clay and in situ organic matter which indicate calmer depositional environments compared to the alternation between dark gyttja clay and homogenous gray clay. LOI-950 data indicate that the carbonate content of the Kuchi Lake is low, since the weight loss during this temperature is insignificant compared to LOI-550, which stood for the majority of the weight loss. Thus, the sediment sequence in the Kuchi Lake consist of alternation of clays deposited in a calm and relatively deep lake, mixed with layers apparently flushed in from land, possibly due to typhoons. This alternation is capped by organic rich layers, including peat, which indicating filling up of the basin, and shallower conditions.
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