No abstract

Quantitative information on vegetation and climate history from the late glacial–Holocene on the Tibetan Plateau is extremely rare. Here, we present palynological results of a 4.30-m-long sediment record collected from Koucha Lake in the Bayan Har Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Vegetation change has been traced by biomisation, ordination of pollen data, and calculation of pollen ratios. The application of a pollen–climate calibration set from the eastern Tibetan Plateau to Koucha Lake pollen spectra yielded quantitative climate information. The area was covered by alpine desert/steppe, characteristic of a cold and dry climate (with 50% less precipitation than today) between 16,700 and 14,600 cal yr BP. Steppe vegetation, warm (∼ 1°C higher than today) and wet conditions prevailed between 14,600 and 6600 cal yr BP. These findings contradict evidence from other monsoon-influenced areas of Asia, where the early Holocene is thought to have been moist. Low effective moisture on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau was likely due to high temperature and evaporation, even though precipitation levels may have been similar to present-day values. The vegetation changed to tundra around 6600 cal yr BP, indicating that wet and cool climate conditions occurred on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau during the second half of the Holocene.

We present a late glacial pollen record (17,700 to 8500 cal yr BP) from a Lake Naleng sediment core. Lake Naleng is located on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (31.10°N 99.75°E, 4200 m) along the upper tree-line. Variations in the summer monsoon are evident from shifts in vegetation that correspond to late glacial climate trends from other monsoon-sensitive regions. Alpine steppe was recorded between 17,700 and 14,800 cal yr BP, indicating low effective moisture at the study site. Expansion of alpine meadows followed by advances in the position of tree-line around Lake Naleng suggest that climate became warmer and wetter between ∼ 14,800 and 12,500 cal yr BP, probably representing an enhancement of the Asian monsoon. Climatic cooling and reduced effective moisture are inferred from multivariate analysis and the upward retreat of tree-line between ∼ 12,500 and 11,700 cal yr BP. The timing and nature of these shifts to warm, wet and then cold, dry climatic conditions suggest that they correspond to the Bølling/Allerød and Younger Dryas intervals. Abies-Betula forests, representing warm and moist conditions, spread during the early Holocene.