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A record of late Holocene precipitation on the Central Tibetan Plateau inferred from varved lake sediments

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Abstract

Lake sediments on the Tibetan Plateau are important natural archives for studying past climate and environment changes. A precise sediment core chronology is a fundamental prerequisite for reconstructing past climate and environment changes. However, radiocarbon dates on bulk carbon in lake sediment cores are subject to “old carbon” reservoir effects, which can cause problems when trying to establish depth-age relations for sediment cores, especially those from the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Here we present a varve chronology that spans the last ~ 2000 years, from Jiang Co, on the central TP. Clastic-biogenic varves in Jiang Co sediments are comprised of two laminae, a coarse-grain and a fine-grain layer, observed by petrographic microscope and Electron Probe Micro Analyzer. The varve chronology is supported by 210Pb and 137Cs dating and was used to estimate the radiocarbon reservoir ages for the past ~ 2000 years. The thickness percentage of the coarse-grain layer within a single varve was used as a proxy for summer precipitation amount, as coarse grains are transported mainly by runoff. During the past 2000 years, the precipitation record inferred from Jiang Co sediments shows centennial-scale fluctuations that are consistent with other records from the region. The varve chronology from Jiang Co provided a valuable opportunity to estimate the “old carbon” reservoir effect in Jiang Co and reconstruct past precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41772178, 91747207), the National Key Research & Development Program of China (2018YFA0606400), and the Basic Science Center for Tibetan Plateau Earth System (BSCTPES, NSFC project No. 41988101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Group of Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Kejia Ji, Erlei Zhu & Juzhi Hou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Kejia Ji

  3. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Guoqiang Chu

  4. Mathematics Research Centre CIMAT, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Marco A. Aquino-López

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  1. Kejia Ji
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Correspondence to Juzhi Hou.

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Ji, K., Zhu, E., Chu, G. et al. A record of late Holocene precipitation on the Central Tibetan Plateau inferred from varved lake sediments. J Paleolimnol 66, 439–452 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00215-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00215-8

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