TY - JOUR
T1 - Pollen-inferred vegetation and environmental changes in the central Tibetan Plateau since 8200 yr BP
AU - Tang, Ling Yu
AU - Shen, Cai Ming
AU - Li, Chun Hai
AU - Peng, Jin Lan
AU - Liu, Hui
AU - Liu, Kam Biu
AU - Morrill, Carrie
AU - Overpeck, Jonathan T.
AU - Coel, Julia E.
AU - Yang, Bao
N1 - Funding Information:
Received September 3, 2008; accepted January 21, 2009 doi: 10.1007/s11430-009-0080-5 †Corresponding author (email: [email protected]) * Equal contributor (email: [email protected]) Supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences 100 Talents Project (Grant No. 29082762), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40671196, 40372085, 49371068, 49871078), and U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. ATM-9410491, ATM-008194)
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The ecotone between alpine steppe and meadow in the central Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to climate changes. Here we used the pollen records from three lakes in this region to reconstruct the evolution of local vegetation and climate since 8200 cal. yr BP. The history of temperature and precipitation was reconstructed quantitatively with multi-bioclimatic indexes and a transfer function from pollen records. Results show that the steppe/meadow dominated during the period of 8200-6500 cal. yr BP, especially 8200-7200 cal. yr BP, indicating the central Tibetan Plateau was controlled by strong monsoon. The steppe dominated during the periods of 6000-4900, 4400-3900, and 2800-2400 cal. yr BP. The steppe decreased gradually and the meadow expanded during the period of 4900-4400 cal. yr BP. Three century-scale drought events occurred during 5800-4900, 4400-3900 and 2800 cal. yr BP, respectively. The first time when the regional climate shifted to the present level was at 6500 cal. yr BP in the central Plateau. Since 3000 cal. yr BP, the temperature and precipitation have decreased gradually to the present level. However, the cold climate between 700-300 cal. yr BP likely corresponds to the Little Ice Age.
AB - The ecotone between alpine steppe and meadow in the central Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to climate changes. Here we used the pollen records from three lakes in this region to reconstruct the evolution of local vegetation and climate since 8200 cal. yr BP. The history of temperature and precipitation was reconstructed quantitatively with multi-bioclimatic indexes and a transfer function from pollen records. Results show that the steppe/meadow dominated during the period of 8200-6500 cal. yr BP, especially 8200-7200 cal. yr BP, indicating the central Tibetan Plateau was controlled by strong monsoon. The steppe dominated during the periods of 6000-4900, 4400-3900, and 2800-2400 cal. yr BP. The steppe decreased gradually and the meadow expanded during the period of 4900-4400 cal. yr BP. Three century-scale drought events occurred during 5800-4900, 4400-3900 and 2800 cal. yr BP, respectively. The first time when the regional climate shifted to the present level was at 6500 cal. yr BP in the central Plateau. Since 3000 cal. yr BP, the temperature and precipitation have decreased gradually to the present level. However, the cold climate between 700-300 cal. yr BP likely corresponds to the Little Ice Age.
KW - Bioclimatic index
KW - Central Tibetan Plateau
KW - Pollen record
KW - The meadow-steppe ecotone (MSE)
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U2 - 10.1007/s11430-009-0080-5
DO - 10.1007/s11430-009-0080-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:68949191167
SN - 1006-9313
VL - 52
SP - 1104
EP - 1114
JO - Science in China, Series D: Earth Sciences
JF - Science in China, Series D: Earth Sciences
IS - 8
ER -