Late Holocene Hydroclimatic Variations at Lake Hurleg, Northeastern Tibet Plateau

Abstract

High-resolution, continuous Late Holocene lacustrine records are scarce in the Qaidam Basin, but is of especially important for our understanding the future climate variability in the western China. Here, we use grain size, element content and XRD-identified data from the Lake Hurleg in the eastern Qaidam Basin to present the Late Holocene climate variability, which have been temporally constrained using ²¹⁰Pb-, ¹³⁷Cs- and AMS ¹⁴C dating. Our records demonstrate that decreased precipitation climate occurred at ∼800–1000 yr and ∼1300–1800 yr intervals, and increased precipitation occurred at ∼354–800 yr, ∼1000–1300 yr and ∼1800 yr to the present. The results show that the Qaidam Basin has undergone a process of warming and humidification since the Industrial Revolution, which is consistent with the meteorological records. The climate in the northeastern Qaidam Basin is dominated by the Asian Monsoon.

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