Response of Remote Tropical West Pacific Islands to Climate Variability: A Multiproxy Record From T‐Lake, Palau, Spanning the Early Holocene to Present

ABSTRACT Lake sediments are natural archives of past environmental dynamics and how these systems have responded to past climate variability. Sediment geochemistry, governed by local geology and climate processes, is unique to each lake‐catchment and geochemical proxies must be validated for each study site. The current study utilises a sediment core extruded from T‐Lake, Ngeruktabel, Belau (Palau), to generate a multiproxy record (organic matter %, charcoal accumulation rates and X‐ray fluorescence scanning) for the last ~10,000 years. First, we establish robust geochemical indicators of environmental change within the context of the T‐Lake catchment system. These proxies are then interpreted within the context of regional and, where available, local climate and archaeological records. Our results demonstrate an overall trend toward wetter conditions in the Tropical West Pacific during the Holocene, with significant dry phases identified in the mid and late Holocene associated with changes in ITCZ and ENSO dynamics.