Potential of pollen and non-pollen palynomorph records from Tso Moriri (Trans-Himalaya, NW India) for reconstructing Holocene limnology and human–environmental interactions

Carbonate isotopes from high altitude Tso Moriri Lake (NW Himalayas) provide clues to late glacial and Holocene moisture source and atmospheric circulation changes

“…8.8 cal ka indicates reduced I/E, this change is not unambiguously reflected in the δ 18 O. The reconstructed MAP (Leipe et al, 2014a), after an initial peak between 11.5 and 9 cal ka, shows a rather gradual reduction until 5.5 cal ka but low values thereafter (Fig. 3).…”

“…Carbonate isotope (this study) (panels a, b), geochemical (c), mineralogical (d) (Mishra et al, in press), reconstructed MAP (e), and pollen (f) data (Leipe et al, 2014a) from the Tso Moriri core. Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) values in arid and semi-arid environments are linked to increased moisture availability (Leipe et al, 2014a). Progressive decrease in I/E results in the formation of evaporative calcite followed by aragonite (panel d) in response to an increase in Mg/Ca of lake waters.…”

“…(I/E)). Leipe et al (2014a) have shown that higher Artemisia percentages in the pollen spectra and higher Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) values in arid and semi-arid environments are linked to the increased moisture availability. Based on this a mean annual precipitation (MAP) curve for the Holocene from the Tso Moriri Lake has been reconstructed by Leipe et al (2014a) using the relationship between the A/C ratio and mean annual precipitation derived from the dataset from New et al (2002) (Fig.…”

“…The situation is particularly complicated in the Himalayan region where some of the largest reservoirs of freshwater are stored. The precipitation in this region is provided by both the winter westerlies and ISM (Benn and Owen, 1998;Anoop et al, 2013a;Leipe et al, 2014a). Though the relative influence of these moisture pathways has shown considerable variations in intensity and spatial extent in the past (e.g., Herzschuh, 2006;Chen et al, 2008;Demske et al, 2009;Mishra et al, in press), the contribution of such fluctuations in the Himalayan region is not yet well documented.…”

“…In this study we explore the possibility of using the isotopic data from the endogenic carbonates found in the upper 4.15 m (ca. 15.5 cal ka) of a 7.28 m long core, in combination with previously available sedimentological, mineralogical (Mishra et al, in press) and pollen data (Leipe et al, 2014a), to infer late glacial and Holocene changes in ISM precipitation in this high altitude cold desert.…”