Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-5r2nc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T18:16:13.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene temperature fluctuations in the northern Tibetan Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Cheng Zhao ,
Zhonghui Liu ,
Eelco J. Rohling ,
Zicheng Yu ,
Weiguo Liu ,
Yuxin He ,
Yan Zhao  and
Fahu Chen
Cheng Zhao*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Zhonghui Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Eelco J. Rohling
Affiliation:
School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Zicheng Yu
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Weiguo Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Science, Xi'an 710075, China
Yuxin He
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Yan Zhao
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Fahu Chen
Affiliation:
MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental System, Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. E-mail address:[email protected] (C. Zhao).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Arid Central Asia (ACA) lies on a major climatic boundary between the mid-latitude westerlies and the northwestern limit of the Asian summer monsoon, yet only a few high-quality reconstructions exist for its climate history. Here we calibrate a new organic geochemical proxy for lake temperature, and present a 45-yr-resolution temperature record from Hurleg Lake at the eastern margin of the ACA in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Combination with other proxy data from the same samples reveals a distinct warm–dry climate association throughout the record, which contrasts with the warm–wet association found in the Asian monsoon region. This indicates that the climatic boundary between the westerly and the monsoon regimes has remained roughly in the same place throughout the Holocene, at least near our study site. Six millennial-scale cold events are found within the past 9000 yr, which approximately coincide with previously documented events of northern high-latitude cooling and tropical drought. This suggests a connection between the North Atlantic and tropical monsoon climate systems, via the westerly circulation. Finally, we also observe an increase in regional climate variability after the mid-Holocene, which we relate to changes in vegetation (forest) cover in the monsoon region through a land-surface albedo feedback.

Keywords

HoloceneClimate variabilityArid Central AsiaAlkenones
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , July 2013 , pp. 55 - 65
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, Z., Porter, S.C., Kutzbach, J.E., Wang, X., Wang, S., Liu, X., Li, X., Zhou, W., (2000). Asynchronous Holocene optimum of the East Asian monsoon. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 743–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, G.G., McCave, I.N., (1999). Holocene periodicity in North Atlantic climate and deep-ocean flow south of Iceland. Nature 397, 515–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, G., Kromer, B., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Evans, M.N., Showers, W., Hoffmann, S., Lotti-Bond, R., Hajdas, I., Bonani, G., (2001). Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science 294, 2130–2136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, F., (2008). Holocene moisture evolution in arid central Asia and its out-of-phase relationship with Asian monsoon history. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 351–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, F., Chen, J., Holmes, J., Boomer, I., Austin, P., Gates, J.B., Wang, N., Brooks, S.J., Zhang, J., (2010). Moisture changes over the last millennium in arid Asia: a review, synthesis and comparison with monsoon region. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1055–1068.Google Scholar
Chu, G., Sun, Q., Li, S., Zheng, M., Jia, X., Lu, C., Liu, J., Liu, T., (2005). Long-chain alkenone distributions and temperature dependence in lacustrine surface sediments from China. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 69, 4985–5003.Google Scholar
Chu, G., Sun, Q., Wang, X., Liu, M., Lin, Y., Xie, M., Shang, W., Liu, J., (2012). Seasonal temperature variability during the past 1600 years recorded in historical documents and varved lake sediment profiles from northeastern China. The Holocene 22, 785–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COHMAP Members, , (1998). Climate changes of the last 18,000 years: observations and model simulation. Science 241, 1043–1052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.E., Thompson, L.G., Yao, T.D., Wang, N.L., (2005). Forcing of the Asian monsoon on the Tibetan Plateau: evidence from high-resolution ice core and tropical coral records. Journal of Geophysical Research 110, D0410110.1029/2004JD004933.Google Scholar
deMenocal, P., Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Sarnthein, M., (2000). Coherent high- and low-latitude climate variability during the Holocene warm period. Science 288, 2198–2202.Google Scholar
Feng, S., Hu, Q., (2008). How the North Atlantic multidecadal oscillation may have influenced the Indian summer monsoon during the past two millennia. Geophysical Research Letters 35, L0170710.1029/2007GL032484.Google Scholar
Gupta, A.H., Anderson, D.M., Overpeck, J.T., (2003). Abrupt changes in the Asian southwest monsoon during the Holocene and their links to the North Atlantic Ocean. Nature 421, 354–357.Google Scholar
Herzschuh, U., Birks, H.J.B., Liu, X., Kubatzki, C., Lohmann, G., (2010). Retracted: what caused the mid-Holocene forest decline on the eastern Tibet–Qinghai Plateau?. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19, 278–286.Google Scholar
Hong, Y.T., (2003). Correlation between Indian Ocean Summer monsoon and North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 211, 371–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, J., D'Andrea, W.J., Liu, Z., (2012). The influence of 14C reservoir age on interpretation of paleolimnological records from the Tibetan Plateau. Quaternary Science Reviews 48, 67–79.Google Scholar
Huang, Y., Street-Perrott, F.A., Perrott, R.A., Metzger, P., Eglinton, G., (1999). Glacial–interglacial environmental changes inferred from molecular and compound-specific δ13C analyses of sediments from Sacred Lake, Mt. Kenya. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 63, 1383–1404.Google Scholar
Jiang, Q., Shen, J., Liu, X., Zhang, E., (2008). Holocene climate reconstructions of Ulungur Lake (Xinjiang, China) inferred from ostracod species assemblages and stable isotopes. Frontiers of Earth Science in China 2, 31–40.Google Scholar
Kim, J.H., Rimbu, N., Lorenz, S.J., Lohmann, G., Nam, S.O., Schouten, S., Ruhlemann, C., Schneider, R.R., (2004). North Pacific and North Atlantic sea-surface temperature variability during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 171–187.Google Scholar
Köhler, P., Bintanja, R., Fischer, H., Joos, F., Knutti, R., Lohmann, G., Masson-Delmotte, V., (2010). What caused Earth's temperature variations during the last 800,000 years? Data-based evidence on radiative forcing and constraints on climate sensitivity. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 129–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Street-Perrott, F.A., (1985). Milankovitch forcing of fluctuations in the level of tropical lakes. Nature 317, 130–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laskar, J., Robutel, P., Joutel, F., Gastineau, M., Correia, A.C.M., Levrard, B., (2004). A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth. Astronomy and Astrophysics 428, 261–285.Google Scholar
Lehmkuhl, F., Haselein, F., (2000). Quaternary paleoenvironmental change on the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas (Western China and Western Mongolia). Quaternary International 65, 66 121–145.Google Scholar
Liu, K.B., Yao, Z., Thompson, L.G., (1998). A pollen record of Holocene climatic from the Dunde ice cap, Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Geology 26, 135–138.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Z., Henderson, A.C.G., Huang, Y.S., (2006). Alkenone-based reconstruction of late-Holocene surface temperature and salinity changes in Lake Qinghai, China. Geophysical Research Letters 33, L0970710.1029/2006GL026151.Google Scholar
Liu, W., Liu, Z., An, Z., Wang, X., Chang, H., (2010). Wet climate during the ‘Little Ice Age’ in the arid Tarim Basin, northwestern China. The Holocene 21, 409–416.Google Scholar
Liu, W., Liu, Z., Wang, H., He, Y., Wang, Z., Xu, L., (2011). Salinity control on long-chain alkenone distributions in lake surface waters and sediments of the northern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75, 1693–1703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, J.A., Lu, H., Zhou, Y., Miao, X., Swinehart, J.B., Liu, Z., Goble, R.J., Yi, S., (2009). Dune mobility and aridity at the desert margin of northern China at a time of peak monsoon strength. Geology 37, 947–950.Google Scholar
Mayewski, P.A., (2004). Holocene climate variability. Quaternary Research 62, 243–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, P.A., Ishiwatari, R., (1993). Lacustrine organic geochemistry — an overview of indicators of organic-matter sources and diagenesis in lake-sediments. Organic Geochemistry 20, 867–900.Google Scholar
Mischke, S., Wünnemann, B., (2006). The Holocene salinity history of Bosten Lake (Xinjiang, China) inferred from ostracode species assemblages and shell chemistry: possible palaeoclimatic implications. Quaternary International 154–155, 100–112.Google Scholar
Mischke, S., Demske, D., Wünnemann, B., Schudack, M.E., (2005). Groundwater discharge to a Gobi desert lake during Mid and Late Holocene dry periods. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 225, 157–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, S.R., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Meese, D.A., Twickler, M.S., Whitlow, S.I., ('Brien et al., 1995). Complexity of Holocene climate as reconstructed from a Greenland ice core. Science 270, 1962–1964.Google Scholar
Rhodes, T.E., (1996). A Late Pleistocene–Holocene lacustrine record from Lake Manas, Zunggar (northern Xinjiang, western China). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 120, 105–121.Google Scholar
Roberts, A.P., Rohling, J.E., Grant, K.M., Larrasoana, J.C., Liu, Q., (2011). Atmospheric dust variability from Arabia and China over the last 500,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3537–3541.Google Scholar
Rohling, E.J., Medina-Elizalde, M., Shepherd, J.G., (2012). Sea surface and high-latitude temperature sensitivity to radiative forcing of climate over several glacial cycles. Journal of Climate 25, 1635–1656.Google Scholar
Sato, T., Kimura, F., (2005). Impact of diabatic heating over the Tibetan Plateau on subsidence over northeast Asian arid region. Geophysical Research Letters 32, L0580910.1029/2004gl022089.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shao, X., Liang, E., Huang, L., Wang, L., (2005). A 1437-year precipitation history from Qilian Juniper in the Northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. PAGES News 13, 14–15.Google Scholar
Shen, J., Liu, X., Wang, S., Matsumoto, R., (2005). Palaeoclimatic changes in the Qinghai Lake area during the last 18,000 years. Quaternary International 136, 131–140.Google Scholar
Sheppard, P.R., Tarasov, P.E., Graumlich, L.J., Heussner, K.U., Wagner, M., Österle, H., Thompson, L.G., (2004). Annual precipitation since 515 BC reconstructed from living and fossil juniper growth of northeastern Qinghai Province, China. Climate Dynamics 23, 869–881.Google Scholar
Shindell, D.T., Schmidt, G.A., Mann, M.E., Rind, D., Waple, A., (2001). Solar forcing of regional climate change during the Maunder Minimum. Science 294, 2149–2152.Google Scholar
Steig, E.J., (1999). Mid-Holocene climate change. Science 286, 1485–1486.Google Scholar
Sun, Q., Chu, G., Liu, G., Li, S., Wang, X., (2007). Calibration of alkenone unsaturation index with growth temperature for a lacustrine species, Chrysotila lamellosa (Haptophyceae). Organic Geochemistry 38, 1226–1234.Google Scholar
Sun, Y., Clemens, S.C., Morrill, C., Lin, X., Wang, X., An, Z., (2012). Influence of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the East Asian winter monsoon. Nature Geoscience 5, 46–49.Google Scholar
Tian, L., Masson-Delmotte, V., Stievenard, M., Yao, T., Jouzel, J., (2001). Tibetan Plateau summer monsoon northward extent revealed by measurements of water stable isotopes. Journal of Geophysical Research 106, 28,018–28,088.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tian, L., Yao, T., Schuster, P.F., White, J.W.C., Ichiyanagi, K., Pendall, E., Pu, J., Yu, W., (2003). Oxygen-18 concentrations in recent precipitation and ice cores on the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, D9 429310.1029/2002JD002173.Google Scholar
Toney, J.L., Theroux, S., Andersen, R.A., Coleman, A., Amaral-Zettler, L., Huang, Y., (2012). Culturing of the first 37:4 predominant lacustrine haptophyte: geochemical, biochemical, and genetic implications. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 78, 51–64.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., He, Y., Kong, X., An, Z., Wu, J., Kelly, M.J., Dykoski, C.A., Li, X., (2005). The Holocene Asian monsoon: links to solar changes and North Atlantic climate. Science 308, 854–857.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Scuderi, L., (2010). Hydrological and climatic changes in deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene. Quaternary Research 73, 1–9.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Zhu, Z., Jaekel, D., Owen, L., Han, J., (2002). Late Quaternary palaeoenvironment change and landscape evolution along the Keriya River, Xinjiang, China: the relationship between high mountain glaciation and landscape evolution in foreland desert regions. Quaternary International 97, 98 155–166.Google Scholar
Yang, X., Rost, K.T., Lehmkuhl, F., Zhu, Z., Dodson, J., (2004). The evolution of dry lands in northern China and in the Republic of Mongolia since the last glacial maximum. Quaternary International 118–119, 69–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Ma, N., Dong, J., Zhu, B., Xu, B., Ma, Z., Liu, J., (2010). Holocene hydrological and climatic changes in the Badain Jaran Desert, western China. Quaternary Research 73, 10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, X., Scuderi, L., Paillou, P., Liu, Z., Li, H., Ren, X., (2011). Quaternary environmental changes in the drylands of China — a critical review. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3219–3233.Google Scholar
Yi, X., Yang, D., and Xu, W. (1992). China regional hydrogeology survey report-Toson Lake map (J-47-[25]) 1:200,000, Qaidam integrative geology survey. Golmud, Qinghai, China (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhao, Y., Yu, Z., Chen, F., Ito, E., Zhao, C., (2007). Holocene vegetation and climate history at Hurleg Lake in the Qaidam Basin, northwest China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 145, 275–288.Google Scholar
Zhao, C., Yu, Z., Zhao, Y., Ito, E., (2009). Possible orographic and solar controls of Late Holocene centennial-scale moisture oscillations in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Geophysical Research Letters 36, L2170510.1029/2009GL040951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, C., Yu, Z., Zhao, Y., Ito, E., Kodama, K.P., Chen, F., (2010). Holocene millennial-scale climate variations documented by multiple lake-level proxies in sediment cores from Hurleg Lake, Northwest China. Journal of Paleolimnology 44, 995–1008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, Y., Yu, Z., Zhao, W., (2011). Holocene vegetation and climate histories in the eastern Tibetan Plateau: controls by insolation-driven temperature or monsoon-derived precipitation changes?. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 1173–1184.Google Scholar