Mid- to late-Holocene Indian winter monsoon variability from a terrestrial record in eastern and southeastern coastal environments of Sri Lanka

The southeastern coastal plain of Sri Lanka contains Holocene sediment archives representing the winter monsoon variability because this region is protected from both summer monsoon and cyclonic rainfall. Chemical, biological, mineralogical, and physical climate proxies were studied in sediment cores extracted from three different coastal estuaries and lagoons situated on the southeastern coast to derive winter monsoon variability. These cores displayed minimum influence of sea level-related changes in sediments. Clay normalized proxy records suggest intervals of aridity from >7300 to ~6750, semi-aridity from ~6250 to 4600 yr BP, and aridity from ~4000 to 3000 and ~1100 to