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Holocene climate change inferred from stratigraphy and OSL chronology of aeolian sediments in the Qaidam Basin, northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

LuPeng Yu  and
ZhongPing Lai
LuPeng Yu
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 81000, China Qinghai Geological Survey Institute, Xining 810012, China State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
ZhongPing Lai*
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 81000, China State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
*
*Corresponding author at: CAS Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 81000, China. E-mail address:[email protected] (Z.P. Lai).
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Abstract

Paleoclimatic reconstruction based on aeolian sediments in the eastern Qaidam Basin (QB) has been hindered by the limited chronological data. Here we present 61 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) ages. On the basis of these OSL ages and the lithologic stratigraphy, we propose the ‘effective moisture index (EMI)’ for aeolian sediments to reconstruct the effective moisture change. Based on the EMI from twelve sections, the effective moisture change, moisture sources and relevant mechanisms for paleoclimatic change in the eastern QB are discussed. The results indicate that (1) aeolian deposition started at least before 12.4 ± 0.7 ka during the deglaciation, the paleosols developed at the early and mid-Holocene, and aeolian sand and loess accumulated at mid- and late Holocene; (2) effective moisture history was: hyper-arid at 12.8–11.6 ka, humid and variable at 11.6–8.3 ka, moderately humid and stable at 8.3–3.5 ka, and increasingly arid at 3.5–0 ka; (3) the effective moisture change was mainly controlled by the Asian summer monsoon (ASM), which mainly followed the change of Northern Hemispheric summer insolation, and the westerlies strengthened and increased the aridity in the QB when the ASM shrank.

Keywords

OSL datingAeolian activityHolocene climate changeAsian summer monsoonQaidam BasinQinghai–Tibetan Plateau
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 488 - 499
Copyright
University of Washington

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