Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Abrupt deglaciation on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau: evidence from Lake Qinghai

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Journal of Paleolimnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We inferred the climate history for Central Asia over the past 20,000 years, using sediments from core QH07, taken in the southeastern basin of Lake Qinghai, which lies at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Results from multiple environmental indicators are internally consistent and yield a clear late Pleistocene and Holocene climate record. Carbonate content and total organic carbon (TOC) in Lake Qinghai sediments are interpreted as indicators of the strength of the Asian summer monsoon. Warm and wet intervals, associated with increased monsoon strength, are indicated by increased carbonate and TOC content. During the glacial period (~20,000 to ~14,600 cal year BP), summer monsoon intensity remained low and relatively constant at Lake Qinghai, suggesting cool, dry, and relatively stable climate conditions. The inferred stable, cold, arid environment of the glacial maximum seems to persist through the Younger Dryas time period, and little or no evidence of a warm interval correlative with the Bølling–Allerød is found in the QH07 record. The transition between the late Pleistocene and the Holocene, about 11,500 cal year BP, was abrupt, more so than indicated by speleothems in eastern China. The Holocene (~11,500 cal year BP to present) was a time of enhanced summer monsoon strength and greater variability, indicating relatively wetter but more unstable climatic conditions than those of the late Pleistocene. The warmest, wettest part of the Holocene, marked by increased organic matter and carbonate contents, occurred from ~11,500 to ~9,000 cal year BP, consistent with maximum summer insolation contrast between 30°N and 15°N. A gradual reduction in precipitation (weakened summer monsoon) is inferred from decreased carbonate content through the course of the Holocene. We propose that changes in the contrast of summer insolation between 30°N and 15°N are the primary control on the Asian monsoon system over glacial/interglacial time scales. Secondary influences may include regional and global albedo changes attributable to ice-cover and vegetation shifts and sea level changes (distance from moisture source in Pacific Ocean). The abruptness of the change at the beginning of the Holocene, combined with an increase in variability, suggest a threshold for the arrival of monsoonal rainfall at the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • An ZS (2000) The history and variability of the East Asian paleomonsoon climate. Quat Sci Rev 19:171–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • An ZS, Wang P, Shen J, Zhang YX, Zhang PZ, Wang SM, Li XQ, Sun QL, Song YG, Al L, Zhang YC, Jiang SR, Liu XQ, Wang Y (2006) Geophysical survey on the tectonic and sediment distribution of Qinghai Lake basin. Sci China Ser D 49:851–861

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • An ZS, Colman SM, Zhou WJ, Li XQ, Brown ET, Jull AJT, Cai YJ, Huang YS, Lu XF, Chang H, Song YG, Sun YB, Xu H, Liu WG, Jin ZD, Liu XD, Cheng P, Liu Y, Ai L, Li XZ, Liu XJ, Yan LB, Shi ZG, Wang XL, Wu F, Qiang XK, Dong JB, Lu FY, Xu XW (2012) Interplay between the Westerlies and Asian summer monsoon recorded in Lake Qinghai sediments since 32 ka. Sci Rep 2:619–622

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quat Geochronol 5:512–518

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M, Christen JA (2005) Radiocarbon peat chronologies and environmental change. J Roy Stat Soc: Ser C (Appl Stat) 54:805–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boos WR, Kuang Z (2010) Dominant control of the South Asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating. Nature 463:218–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett AP, Soreghan MJ, Scholz CA, Brown ET (2011) Tropical East African climate change and its relation to global climate: a record from Lake Tanganyika, Tropical East Africa, over the past 90 + kyr. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 303:155–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen FH, Yu ZC, Yang ML, Ito E, Wang SM, Madsen DB, Huang XZ, Zhao Y, Sato T, Birks HJB, Boomer I, Chen JH, An CB, Wünnemann B (2008) Holocene moisture evolution in arid central Asia and its out-of-phase relationship with Asian monsoon history. Quat Sci Rev 27:351–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen FH, Chen JH, Holmes J, Boomer I, Austin P, Gates JB, Wang NL, Brooks SJ, Zhang JW (2010) Moisture changes over the last millennium in arid central Asia: a review, synthesis and comparison with monsoon region. Quat Sci Rev 29:1055–1068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen FH, Zhang JW, Cheng B, Yang TB (2012) Late quaternary high lake levels and environmental changes since last deglacial in Da Lian Hai, Gonghe Basin in Qinghai Province. Quat Sci 32:122–131 (in Chinese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Colman SM, Yu SY, An Z, Shen J, Henderson ACG (2007) Late Cenozoic climate changes in China’s western interior: a review of research on Lake Qinghai and comparison with other records. Quat Sci Rev 26:2281–2300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Croudace IW, Rindby A, Rothwell RG (2006) ITRAX: description and evaluation of a new multi-function X-ray core scanner. In: Rothwell RG (ed) New techniques in sediment core analysis, London, Geological Society, Special Publications, vol 267, pp 51–63

  • DeNiro M (1987) Stable isotopy and archaeology. Am Sci 75:182–191

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes JM (1993) Factors controlling 13C contents of sedimentary organic-compounds—principles and evidence. Mar Geol 113:111–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson ACG, Holmes JA (2009) Palaeolimnological evidence for environmental change over the past millennium from Lake Qinghai sediments: a review and future research prospective. Quat Int 194:134–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson ACG, Holmes JA, Leng MJ (2010) Late Holocene isotope hydrology of Lake Qinghai, NE Tibetan Plateau: effective moisture variability and atmospheric circulation changes. Quat Sci Rev 29:2215–2223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herzschuh U (2006) Palaeo-moisture evolution in monsoonal Central Asia during the last 50,000 years. Quat Sci Rev 25:163–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou JZ, Huang YS, Brodsky C, Alexandre MR, McNichol AP, King JW, Hu FS, Shen J (2010) Radiocarbon dating of individual lignin phenols: a new approach for establishing chronology of Late Quaternary lake sediments. Anal Chem 82:7119–7126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huybers P (2006) Early Pleistocene glacial cycles and the integrated summer insolation forcing. Science 313:508–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin ZD, You CF, Wang Y, Shi YW (2010) Hydrological and solute budgets of Lake Qinghai, the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau. Quat Int 218:151–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Konert M, Vandenberghe J (1997) Comparison of laser grain size analysis with pipette and sieve analysis: a solution for the underestimation of the clay fraction. Sedimentology 44:523–535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE, Guetter PJ, Ruddiman WF, Prell WL (1989) Sensitivity of climate to Late Cenozoic uplift in southern Asia and the American west—numerical experiments. J Geophys Res Atmos 94:18393–18407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li CF, Yanai M (1996) The onset and interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon in relation to land sea thermal contrast. J Clim 9:358–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Y, Wang N, Li Z, Zhang H (2012) Basin-wide Holocene environmental changes in the marginal area of the Asian monsoon, northwest China. Environ Earth Sci 65:203–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lister GS, Kelts K, Zao CK, Yu JQ, Niessen F (1991) Lake Qinghai, China—closed-basin lake levels and the oxygen isotope record for ostracoda since the Latest Pleistocene. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 84:141–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu XJ (2011) Late Quaternary climate history on the northeast Tibetan Plateau: multi-proxy investigation of Lake Qinghai sediments, China. PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota

  • Liu X, Dong H, Rech JA, Matsumoto R, Bo Y, Wang Y (2008) Evolution of Chaka Salt Lake in NW China in response to climatic change during the Latest Pleistocene-Holocene. Quat Sci Rev 27:867–879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Lai Z, Fan Q, Long H, Sun Y (2010) Timing for high lake levels of Qinghai Lake in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since the Last Interglaciation based on quartz OSL dating. Quat Geochronol 5:218–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Lai Z, Madsen D, Yu L, Liu K, Zhang J (2011) Lake level variations of Qinghai Lake in northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since 3.7 ka based on OSL dating. Quat Int 236:57–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu X, Lai Z, Yua L, Sun Y, Madsen DB (2012) Luminescence chronology of aeolian deposits from the Qinghai Lake area in the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and its palaeoenvironmental implications. Quat Geochronol 10:37–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LZCAS (1994) (Lanzhou branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences) Evolution of recent environments in Qinghai Lake and its prediction. West Center of Resource and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese with English abstract)

  • Madsen DB, Ma H, Rhode D, Brantingham PJ, Forman SL (2008) Age constraints on the late Quaternary evolution of Qinghai Lake, Tibetan Plateau. Quat Res 69:316–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyers PA (1994) Preservation of elemental and isotopic source identification of sedimentary organic-matter. Chem Geol 114:289–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyers PA, Lallier-Verges E (1999) Lacustrine sedimentary organic matter records of Late Quaternary paleoclimates. J Paleolimnol 21:345–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mischke S, Kramer M, Zhang CJ, Shang HM, Herzschuh U, Erzinger J (2008) Reduced early Holocene moisture availability in the Bayan Har Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, inferred from a multi-proxy lake record. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 267:59–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mischke S, Aichner B, Diekmann B, Herzschuh U, Plessen B, Wünnemann B, Zhang CJ (2010a) Ostracods and stable isotopes of a late glacial and Holocene lake record from the NE Tibetan Plateau. Chem Geol 276:95–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mischke S, Zhang CJ, Börner A, Herzschuh U (2010b) Lateglacial and Holocene variation in aeolian sediment flux over the northeastern Tibetan Plateau recorded by laminated sediments of a saline meromictic lake. J Quat Sci 25:162–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mischke S, Weynell M, Zhang C, Wiechert U (2013) Spatial variability of 14C reservoir effects in Tibetan Plateau lakes. Quat Int. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.01.030

    Google Scholar 

  • Molnar P, Boos WR, Battisti DS (2010) Orographic controls on climate and paleoclimate of Asia: thermal and mechanical roles for the Tibetan Plateau. In: Jeanloz R, Freeman KH (eds) Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci, pp 77–102

  • O’Leary MH (1988) Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. Bioscience 38:328–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pausata FSR, Battisti DS, Nisancioglu KH, Bitz CM (2011) Chinese stalagmite δ18O controlled by changes in the Indian monsoon during a simulated Heinrich event. Nat Geosci 4:474–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter SC, An ZS (1995) Correlation between climate events in the north-Atlantic and China during Last Glaciation. Nature 375:305–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rea DK, Snoeckx H, Joseph LH (1998) Late Cenozoic eolian deposition in the North Pacific: Asian drying, Tibetan uplift, and cooling of the northern hemisphere. Paleoceanography 13:215–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhode D, Ma H, Madsen DB, Brantingham PJ, Forman SL, Olsen JW (2010) Paleoenvironmental and archaeological investigations at Qinghai Lake, western China: geomorphic and chronometric evidence of lake level history. Quat Int 218:29–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schecher WD, McAvoy DC (1992) MINEQL+: a software environment for chemical-equilibrium modeling. Comput Environ Urban Syst 16:65–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz HD, Zabel M (2009) Marine geochemistry. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Shen J, Liu XQ, Wang SM, Matsumoto R (2005) Palaeoclimatic changes in the Qinghai Lake area during the last 18,000 years. Quat Int 136:131–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun DP, Tang Y, Xu Z, Han Z (1991) A preliminary investigation on chemical evolution of the Lake Qinghai water. Chin Sci Bull 36:1172–1174 (in Chinese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  • Talbot MR, Kelts K (1986) Primary and diagenetic carbonates in the anoxic sediments of Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana. Geology 14:912–916

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang YJ, Cheng H, Edwards RL, An ZS, Wu JY, Shen CC, Dorale JA (2001) A high-resolution absolute-dated Late Pleistocene monsoon record from Hulu Cave, China. Science 294:2345–2348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang YJ, Cheng H, Edwards RL, Kong XG, Shao XH, Chen ST, Wu JY, Jiang XY, Wang XF, An ZS (2008) Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years. Nature 451:1090–1093

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber SL, Tuenter E (2011) The impact of varying ice sheets and greenhouse gases on the intensity and timing of boreal summer monsoons. Quat Sci Rev 30:469–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werne JP, Hollander DJ (2004) Balancing supply and demand: controls on carbon isotope fractionation in the Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) Younger Dryas to present. Mar Chem 92:275–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao JL, Inouchi Y, Kumai H, Yoshikawa S, Kondo Y, Liu TS, An ZS (1997) Eolian quartz flux to Lake Biwa, central Japan, over the past 145,000 years. Quat Res 48:48–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan JP, Hinderer M, Einsele G (2002) Geochemical evolution of closed-basin lakes: general model and application to Lakes Qinghai and Turkana. Sediment Geol 148:105–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu JQ, Zhang L (2008) Lake Qinghai-paleoenvironment and paleoclimate. Science Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu SY, Shen J, Colman SM (2007) Modelling the radiocarbon reservoir effect in lacustrine system. Radiocarbon 49:1241–1254

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuan DX, Cheng H, Edwards RL, Dykoski CA, Kelly MJ, Zhang ML, Qing JM, Lin YS, Wang YJ, Wu JY, Dorale JA, An ZS, Cai YJ (2004) Timing, duration, and transitions of the Last Interglacial Asian Monsoon. Science 304:575–578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Y, Yu ZC, Chen FH, Ito E, Zhao C (2007) Holocene vegetation and climate history at Hurleg Lake in the Qaidam Basin, northwest China. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 145:275–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Y, Yu ZC, Chen FH, Zhang JW, Yang B (2009) Vegetation response to Holocene climate change in monsoon-influenced region of China. Earth-Sci Rev 97:242–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao C, Yu Z, Zhao Y, Ito E, Kodama KP, Chen F (2010) Holocene millennial-scale climate variations documented by multiple lake-level proxies in sediment cores from Hurleg Lake, Northwest China. J Paleolimnol 44:995–1008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao H, Li GQ, Sheng YW, Jin M, Chen FH (2012) Early-middle Holocene lake-desert evolution in northern Ulan Buh Desert, China. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 331:31–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman SRH, Hemming SR, Hemming NG, Tomascak PB, Pearl C (2011) High-resolution chemostratigraphic record of late Pleistocene lake-level variability, Mono Lake, California. Geol Soc Am Bull 123:2320–2334

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant EAR-0602412 to SMC. In addition, some AMS 14C data were supported by a NERC-RCL allocation (1247.1007) to JAH and ACGH. We thank LacCore (National Lacustrine Core Facility), Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for laboratory assistance. We also thank MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University for field assistance. Helpful reviews were provided by David Madsen, Steffen Mischke, Mark Brenner, and an anonymous reviewer.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Josef P. Werne

    Present address: Department of Geology and Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, 4107 O’Hara St, SRCC 505, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA

    Xiuju Liu, Steven M. Colman, Erik T. Brown & Josef P. Werne

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Xiuju Liu

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA

    Erik T. Brown

  4. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Andrew C. G. Henderson

  5. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA

    Josef P. Werne

  6. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Jonathan A. Holmes

Authors
  1. Xiuju Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steven M. Colman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Erik T. Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrew C. G. Henderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Josef P. Werne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jonathan A. Holmes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiuju Liu.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 9046 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liu, X., Colman, S.M., Brown, E.T. et al. Abrupt deglaciation on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau: evidence from Lake Qinghai. J Paleolimnol 51, 223–240 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9721-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9721-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation