Pollen-inferred Holocene vegetation and climate histories in Taro Co, southwestern Tibetan Plateau

Ma, Qingfeng; Zhu, Liping; Lü, Xianguo; Guo, Yun; Ju, Jianting; Wang, Junbo; Wang, Yong; Tang, Lina

doi:10.1007/s11434-014-0505-1

Cited by 55 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The lack of unconformities in the sediment texture and stable amounts of terrigenous elements such as Ti, Zr, and Hf (Figure , discussed later) prove the reliability of the age model. A previous study also suggested a nearly constant sedimentation rate in the Taro Co catchment during the whole Holocene [ Ma et al ., ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taro Co (31.05°–31.22°N, 83.92°–84.33°E, 4566 m above sea level, Figure a) is a freshwater lake with a surface area and catchment area of about 486.6 km 2 and 6924.4 km 2 , respectively [ Ma et al ., ; Guo et al ., ]. The lake had outflows during the Holocene, whereas it has been a closed lake system since 1200 cal years B.P.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lake itself is densely populated by submerged macrophytes, mainly Potamogeton pectinatus and Batrathium bungei [ Guo et al ., ]. Mudstone, siltstone, conglomerates, marine clastic rocks, siliceous mudstone, and marlstone are distributed in the lake catchment [ Ma et al ., ; Guo et al ., ]. The mean annual temperature in this region is about 0–2°C, and the mean annual precipitation is about 200 mm, mainly falling in the period from June to September [ Wang and Dou , ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid northward shift of the Indian Monsoon on the Tibetan Plateau at the end of the Little Ice Age

Zhang

Günther

et al. 2017

JGR Atmospheres

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Variations in the Indian Monsoon (IM) and Westerlies (WS) significantly affect the climate on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and have widespread ecological and socioeconomic impacts on the whole of Asian society. So far, however, the rate and magnitude of changes in the IM have still remained unclear. Here we report for the first time that the IM rapidly shifted northward at the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA). We used sediment proxies for humidity and moisture sources from the Taro Co Lake, which is located in the transition zone between the WS and IM. Our comprehensive survey of climate records for the TP and its peripheral mountain ranges revealed that the northern boundary of the IM (i.e., the southern boundary of the WS) lay along the southern slope of the Gandise Range (~29.5°N) in the late LIA. In contrast, it passed quickly over the Gandise Range by at least 1.5° in latitude at the end of the LIA. Our results suggest that this rapid climatic shift was potentially triggered by the counteracting effects of blocking by the TP and its marginal orography, which hindered the northward movement of the IM, and the pulling thermal gradient of the TP.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid northward shift of the Indian Monsoon on the Tibetan Plateau at the end of the Little Ice Age

Zhang

Günther

et al. 2017

JGR Atmospheres

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“…Herzschuh (2007) proposed that the A/Cy ratio could serve as a valuable tool for separating high-cold meadow from steppe vegetation in the central and northeastern TP. However, the A/ Cy ratio was used as an indicator of humidity rather than temperature at Lake Naleng Co in the eastern TP (Kramer et al 2010b) and at Lake Taro Co in the southwestern TP (Ma et al 2014). This ratio has also been used as a temperature indicator for palaeoclimate reconstructions at Lake Zigetang Co (Herzschuh et al 2006) and Lake Nam Co in the central TP.…”

Section: Pollen-climate Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A modern pollen training set is crucial for a quantitative reconstruction. Some studies in the southern TP have revealed that steppe or meadow vegetation was present during the Holocene period Ma et al 2014;Miehe et al 2014). However, a large data set potentially increases noise as a result of increased ecological variability not captured in the fossil samples, which will lead to large errors in the reconstruction.…”

Section: Implications Of Modern Pollen Spectra For Palaeoenvironmentamentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern pollen assemblages from surface lake sediments and their environmental implications on the southwestern Tibetan Plateau

Zhu

Lü

et al. 2016

Boreas

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The relationships amongst modern pollen assemblages, vegetation, climate and human activity are the basis for reconstructing palaeoenvironmental changes using pollen records. It is important to determine these relationships at regional scales due to the development of vegetation under different climatic conditions and human activities. In this paper, we report on an analysis of modern pollen assemblages of 31 surface lake samples from 31 lakes (one sample per lake) on the southwestern Tibetan Plateau where the knowledge of modern pollen and their relationships with vegetation, climate and human activities is insufficient. The region includes five vegetation zones: sub‐alpine shrub steppe, alpine steppe, alpine meadow and steppe ecotone, mountain desert and alpine desert. The lakes span a wide range of mean annual precipitation (50–500 mm) and mean annual temperature (−8 to 6 °C). Modern pollen assemblages from our samples mainly consist of herb taxa (Artemisia, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae, etc.) and some tree taxa (Pinus, Fagaceae, Alnus, etc.). The results indicate that modern pollen assemblages are able to reflect the main vegetation distribution. Redundancy analysis for the main pollen types and environmental variables shows that precipitation is the leading factor that influences the pollen distribution in the study area with the first axis capturing 13.7% of the variance in the pollen data set. The Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae ratio is valid for separating the desert component (<2) from the steppe and other vegetation zones (>2) but is unable to distinguish moisture variations. The Artemisia/Cyperaceae ratio is able to identify meadows (<1) and steppes (>1) and can be used as a moisture index on the southwestern Tibetan Plateau. Our results show that an appropriate range is needed for a modern pollen data set in order to perform pollen‐based quantitative climate reconstructions in one region. It is essential to perform modern studies before using pollen ratios to reconstruct palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate at a regional scale.

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State space functional principal component analysis to identify spatiotemporal patterns in remote sensing lake water quality

Gong

Miller

Scott

et al. 2021

Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess

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Satellite remote sensing can provide indicative measures of environmental variables that are crucial to understanding the environment. The spatial and temporal coverage of satellite images allows scientists to investigate the changes in environmental variables in an unprecedented scale. However, identifying spatiotemporal patterns from such images is challenging due to the complexity of the data, which can be large in volume yet sparse within individual images. This paper proposes a new approach, state space functional principal components analysis (SS-FPCA), to identify the spatiotemporal patterns in processed satellite retrievals and simultaneously reduce the dimensionality of the data, through the use of functional principal components. Furthermore our approach can be used to produce interpolations over the sparse areas. An algorithm based on the alternating expectation–conditional maximisation framework is proposed to estimate the model. The uncertainty of the estimated parameters is investigated through a parametric bootstrap procedure. Lake chlorophyll-a data hold key information on water quality status. Such information is usually only available from limited in situ sampling locations or not at all for remote inaccessible lakes. In this paper, the SS-FPCA is used to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns in chlorophyll-a data of Taruo Lake on the Tibetan Plateau, observed by the European Space Agency MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer.

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Pollen-inferred Holocene vegetation and climate histories in Taro Co, southwestern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract: A 310-cm-long sediment core, covering the last 10,

Cited by 55 publications

References 58 publications

Rapid northward shift of the Indian Monsoon on the Tibetan Plateau at the end of the Little Ice Age

Rapid northward shift of the Indian Monsoon on the Tibetan Plateau at the end of the Little Ice Age

Modern pollen assemblages from surface lake sediments and their environmental implications on the southwestern Tibetan Plateau

State space functional principal component analysis to identify spatiotemporal patterns in remote sensing lake water quality

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