Late Quaternary environmental changes in Helambu Himal, Central Nepal, recorded in the diatom flora assemblage composition and geochemistry of Lake Panch Pokhari

This study presents changes in diatom flora assemblage composition, TOC, TOC/N and biogenic opal in a 450 cm core of Lake Panch Pokhari, Central Nepal (4,050 m asl), indicating Late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. Four Diatom Zones (DZ) were detected, with two major changes. The first one was found in ~430 cm depth (~14.8 cal. kyr BP), where the original flora characterized by Navicula digitulus Hustedt, Pinnularia rhombarea Krammer, P. aff. viridiformis var. minor Krammer, Encyonema silesiacum (Bleisch) D. G. Mann, Cymbopleura naviculiformis (Auerswald) Krammer and Nitzschia sp. was fully replaced by an assemblage consisting of Aulacoseira alpigena (Grunow) Krammer, Diatoma hyemalis (Roth) Heib., Tabellaria flocculosa (Ehrenberg) Kutzing, Brachysira brebissonii Ross and Pinnularia subgibba Krammer, creating a stable diatom assemblage for ~8 kyr (DZ3). The second change was found at ~70 cm (~2.1 cal. kyr BP) when increased nutrient inputs lead to emergence of new taxa such as Fragilaria construens var. subsalina Hustedt, F. tenera (W. Smith) Lange-Bertalot, Eunotia cf. pseudopapilio Lange-Bertalot and M. Norpel-Schempp and Gomphonema subclavatum Grunow. In order to evaluate the past environmental conditions in the Lake Panch Pokhari, the detected diatom taxa were subjected to analyses of their autecological preferences and dominance within the specific assemblage. We also assumed that TOC/N ratios >10 indicate accelerated erosion due to the strengthening of the Summer Monsoon starting at ~14.8 and between 13.7 and 12.8 cal. kyr BP. Monsoon intensity was most pronounced during the Early Holocene and at the beginning of the Late Holocene. The fluctuations of TOC and TOC/N in the Late Glacial sediments seem to correlate temporally and climatically with oscillations in the Northern Atlantic region.