Last glacial Asian monsoon signatures recorded as 10Be in sediments obtained from Lake Biwa, Japan

The measurement of sedimentary 10 Be from Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, is used to understand monsoon activity from the last glacial period to the Holocene. Compared to the value at the top of the core (ca. 3 × 10 9 atoms/cm 2 /kyr), an increase of approximately 3 to 5 times the 10 Be flux is found in the lake sediments prior to the last glacial maximum (LGM). This value drops to approximately 1.5 times the present value, with significant peaks occurring during Heinrich events (HEs). Comparisons with Chinese speleothem records, an East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) proxy, suggest that variations in the 10 Be flux in the Lake Biwa region of Japan are controlled by changes in precipitation. These results indicate that Japan experienced a relatively wetter climate during the last glacial period, particularly during MIS3.