Vegetation and climate change in West-Java']Java, Indonesia during the last 135,000 years

Sedimentological and palynological analyses of two sediment cores from the intramontane Bandung basin (Java, Indonesia) provide the first palaeoclimatic record for the Indonesian region covering the last 135,000 years. Our data indicate anomalously dry conditions for the penultimate glacial and very warm and humid conditions during the last interglacial. During the last glacial period, fresh water swamp forests of the Bandung plain were replaced by open swamp vegetation, dominated by grasses and sedges, indicating a change to considerably drier climatic conditions, possibly as a consequence of lower sea levels at the onset of glacial conditions. For the Last Glacial Maximum, temperatures 4-7 degrees C lower than at present are recorded. Copyright (C) 1996 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd