Climate and environmental change at the end of the Holocene Humid Period: A pollen record off Pakistan

Pollen studies from core SO90-56KA recovered from the Arabian Sea off the Makran Coast (24° 509N, 65° 559E; 695 m depth) show that the end of the Holocene Humid Period, linked to the weakening of Indian monsoon fluxes, took place between 4700 and 4200 BP. Two periods of strong summer monsoon activity are identified between 5400–4200 BP and 2000–1000 BP during which the montane pollen taxa coming from the Himalayas reached the Makran coast due to increased fluvial activity of the Indus River. A contrasting period, dominated by the winter monsoon between 4200 and 2000 BP, is identified based on the presence of pollen taxa from the Baluchistan plateaus. The regional vegetation of the low- and midaltitudes, arid and semiarid, are remarkably stable from 4500 BP to the present.