Modest diatom responses to regional warming on the southeast Tibetan Plateau during the last two centuries |
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| Authors: | Juliane Wischnewski Anson W Mackay Peter G Appleby Steffen Mischke Ulrike Herzschuh |
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| Institution: | (1) Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A 43, 14473 Potsdam, Germany;(2) Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;(3) Department of Geography, Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK;(4) Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK |
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| Abstract: | A general mean annual temperature increase accompanied with substantial glacial retreat has been noted on the Tibetan Plateau
during the last two centuries but most significantly since the mid 1950s. These climate trends are particularly apparent on
the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. However, the Tibetan Plateau (due to its heterogeneous mountain landscape) has very complex
and spatially differing temperature and precipitations patterns. As a result, intensive palaeolimnological investigations
are necessary to decipher these climatic patterns and to understand ecological responses to recent environmental change. Here
we present palaeolimnological results from a 210Pb/137Cs-dated sediment core spanning approximately the last 200 years from a remote high-mountain lake (LC6 Lake, working name)
on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Sediment profiles of diatoms, organic variables (TOC, C:N) and grain size were investigated.
The 210Pb record suggests a period of rapid sedimentation, which might be linked to major tectonic events in the region ca. 1950.
Furthermore, unusually high 210Pb supply rates over the last 50 years suggest that the lake has possibly been subjected to increasing precipitation rates,
sediment focussing and/or increased spring thaw. The majority of diatom taxa encountered in the core are typical of slightly
acidic to circumneutral, oligotrophic, electrolyte-poor lakes. Diatom species assemblages were rich, and dominated by Cyclotella sp., Achnanthes sp., Aulacoseira sp. and fragilarioid taxa. Diatom compositional change was minimal over the 200-year period (DCCA = 0.85 SD, p = 0.59); only a slightly more diverse but unstable diatom assemblage was recorded during the past 50 years. The results indicate
that large-scale environmental changes recorded in the twentieth century (i.e. increased precipitation and temperatures) are
likely having an affect on the LC6 Lake, but so far these impacts are more apparent on the lake geochemistry than on the diatom
flora. Local and/or regional peculiarities, such as increasing precipitation and cloud cover, or localized climatic phenomena,
such as negative climate feedbacks, might have offset the effects of increasing mean surface temperatures. |
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