Lacustrine record of 800 yr hydrological variations on the central Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Zige Tangco is a meromictic saline lake located on the central Tibetan Plateau. Two parallel cores (ZGTC A-1 and ZGTC A-2) were collected from the lake at a water depth of 25 m during summer 2006. The chronology of core A-1 was reconstructed based on the Constant Initial Concentration (CIC) model of ²¹⁰Pb and three accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ages from the chitin fragments. The hard water effect calibration of the sediment ¹⁴C age showed that the reservoir effect ranged from 1655 yr at 1950 AD to 1540 yr at 1610 AD. The hydrological variation in Zige Tangco during the past 800 yr was reconstructed using multi-proxies, including organic and carbonate content, stable isotopes of fine-grained carbonate minerals (< 38.5 μm) and grain-size distribution of the lake sediments. Our results show that there were strong fluctuations in the lake level between 1200 and 1820 AD, and at least three dry periods were recorded between 1235 and 1315 AD, 1410 and 1580 AD, and 1660 and 1720 AD characterized by high carbonate content, abrupt positive shifts of stable isotopes, and high sand content. The low-lake-level periods during the Little Ice Age (LIA) in Zige Tangco correspond to the lower δ¹⁸O values in the Guliya ice core and the lower precipitation reconstructed from tree rings in Delingha. This demonstrated that the summer monsoon on the central Tibetan Plateau weakened during the dry and cold periods, whereas the winter monsoon strengthened. Relatively wetter periods or higher lake levels in Zige Tangco occurred at 1580–1650 AD and 1820–1900 AD. Negative shifts in stable isotopes were related to increased lake levels between 1800 and 1820 AD. Our results also showed that the summer monsoon precipitation on the central Tibetan Plateau was mainly controlled by solar activity during the past 800 yr.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

hydrological variation / Zige Tangco / stable isotopes / central Tibetan Plateau / lacustrine sediments / LIA

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Enlou Zhang for kind help during the isotope measurements and Dr. Yong Wang for the hard water effect calibration of ¹⁴C. We are also grateful to Drs. Shijie Li, Chunhai Li, Shuchun Yao, Lei Guoliang, Wenxiang Zhang, Lunqing Yang, Huiyan Shen, and Jie Niu for attending the fieldwork. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41971097).

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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