Evaluation of the realism of climate reconstruction using the Coexistence Approach with modern pollen samples from the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Zhang, Zhi Yong; Harrison, Sandy P.; Mosbrugger, Volker; Ferguson, David K.; Paudayal, Khum N.; Trivedi, Anjali; Li, Cheng Sen

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2015.03.011

Cited by 9 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Here we revisit the pollen data published by Zhang et al (2015). They collected forty-four surface soil samples along a transect from Qinghai Lake, across the central part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau towards Lhasa (Fig.…”

Section: Modern Pollen Data and Methods Of Climate Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mosbrugger and Utescher 1997;Gebka et al 1999;Pross et al 2000;Bruch et al 2006;Böhme et al 2007;Erdei et al 2007;Yang et al 2007;Li et al 2009;Xia et al 2009;Yao et al 2009;Hao et al 2010;Grein et al 2011;Jacques et al 2011;Qin et al 2011;Quan et al 2011;Utescher et al 2014;Zhang et al 2016;Wu et al 2018), except for mountainous areas of China and the Himalaya. There are great complexities for palaeoclimate reconstructions in these high altitudinal regions as pointed out by previous studies (Mosbrugger and Utescher 1997;Song et al 2010;Grimm and Denk 2012;Zhang et al 2015), due to a variety of reasons. For instance, water availability for plant growth may vary considerably over a very short distance by reason of partitions of precipitation and groundwater.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For above reasons, the application of CA on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is in urgent need of thoughtful consideration before a reasonable palaeoclimate reconstruction is made. Zhang et al (2015) is the first study to evaluate the realism of climate reconstructions using the method of CA with modern pollen samples from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. They found that precipitation reconstructions are better than temperature reconstructions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the presence of arboreal pollen, most of which is derived from outside the region, distorts all of the reconstructions; and more reliable climate reconstructions can be made by excluding possible arboreal contaminants. Although three different ways of CA application for climate reconstructions have been explored and the potential reasons of why the reconstructed climates were not in agreement with the observed values were discussed (Zhang et al 2015), reconsiderations on this problem of disagreements are forming some new insights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we revisit the paper of Zhang et al (2015) and discuss some possible factors affecting climate reconstructions for CA application on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The discussion is in a more qualitative way because the detailed mechanism for those influential factors is too complicated, such as the dynamic interactions among precipitation, snowmelt and permafrost thaw.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The complexity of climate reconstructions using the coexistence approach on Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Zhang

Cheng

et al. 2019

J. Palaeogeogr.

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Quantifying the palaeoclimates of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is vital for understanding the uplift history of plateau and the evolution of Asian monsoon since Cenozoic. Recently, the Coexistence Approach (CA) has been employed to reconstruct the palaeoelevation and palaeoclimate of the plateau by several studies. However, the application of CA in mountainous areas and the realism of climate reconstructions via this method are seldom discussed, although the complexity of reconstructions is speculated. Here we reevaluated the realism of climate reconstruction using the CA with modern pollen samples from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and try to explore the possible factors influencing the precipitation and temperature reconstructions by CA. We suggest that the long-distance transport pollen as a result of the Asian summer monsoon potentially significantly affects the reconstructions both for precipitation and temperature. The precipitation complexly interacting with snowmelt and permafrost thaw leads to the discrepancy between the reconstructed precipitation and the real value. The response temperature for blossoming of dwarfed plants on the plateau is mostly likely higher than the air temperature (usually measured at 1.5 m above ground) due to energy flux or morphological adaptation of inflorescences during the growing season, causing the distortion of temperature reconstructions. Precipitation reconstruction is notoriously difficult as the establishers of CA have already suggested, but reconstructing the low temperatures may be even more challenging on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Though all of the explorations in current paper are in a qualitative way, it offers an inspiration of how appropriately interpret the disagreements between CA results and the observations, and of how to obtain a reasonable reconstruction of palaeoclimate of the plateau.

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Section: Modern Pollen Data and Methods Of Climate Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%