Interpretation of the Paleoclimate Environment using Large Plant Fossil of Peatland in Pyeongtaek, Central Korea

This study was carried out in the peatland for estimating the paleoenvironment based on the analysis from its fossils plant and radiocarbon at the Hwayang-ri, Hyeondeok-myeon, Pyeongtaek-city, South Korea. Variety of fossil was collected from the peatland which could discriminated with naked eye and sorted into seeds, leaves, stems from four-stage of standard sieve. During analysis for the large plant fossil within the peatland, the dead plants were largely divided into 3 fossil zones according to its peatland. In the fossil zone III (the oldest layer; 6,970~6,070 yr $C^{14}$ B.P.), the observation of leaves of hydrophyte such as Trapa sp. and stems of Alnus japonica which appeared in wetland means that the environment was influenced by the climate changes such as rainfall increasing and sea level rise. In the fossil zone II (the middle layer; 6,070~5,800 yr C14 B.P.), the occurrence of Gramineae, Cyperaceae and Fagaceae indicate that the environmental condition might be more or less dry by decreasing rainfall and drop in sea level. The fossil zone I (the recent layer; 5,800~4,540 yr $C^{14}$ B.P.) where lots of herbaceous plants, increasing of Fagaceae, decreasing of A. japonica. and distribution of Pinaceae were showed, was inferred to be repeated both dry and wet environment due to human disturbance.