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- Title
Tibetan Dust Accumulation Linked to Ecological and Landscape Response to Global Climate Change.
- Authors
Huang, Xianmei; Miao, Xiaodong; Chang, Qiufang; Zhong, Jiemei; Mason, Joseph A.; Hanson, Paul R.; Ou, Xianjiao; Xu, Liubing; Lai, Zhongping
- Abstract
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a hotspot of earth system research, and understanding its landscape and ecosystem evolution has been hampered by the lack of time‐constrained geological records. Geochronological data from 14 loess sites covering a large region in the Tibetan interior show that the TP loess, rather than accumulating during glacial periods, began aggrading at either 13.4 ± 0.4 or 9.9 ± 0.2 ka. An ecological threshold was crossed, when warmer and wetter conditions resulted in increased vegetation cover enabling dust trapping. This dust accumulation model is out of phase with that of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) where high sedimentation rates occurred during the cold/dry glacial stages. The TP loess accumulation is in response to global climate change, at both orbital (glacial/interglacial) and millennial (e.g., Younger Dryas event) time scales, despite more complexity via ecological and landscape processes than the CLP loess. Plain Language Summary: It is very important to understand the processes of landscape and ecosystem evolution in Tibet to adapt to and mitigate the consequences from potential abrupt future climate changes, but not enough well‐dated geological records are available. In this study, we present stratigraphic and numerical age results from 14 loess sites covering a large region in the Tibetan interior. Results show that Tibetan loess began aggrading at either 13.4 ± 0.4 or 9.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago. Tibetan loess accumulated during warm/interglacial conditions of the Holocene and not during the last glacial period when loess aggradation rates in the Chinese Loess Plateau were high. In Tibet, vegetation cover, which was lowered during the last glacial period, increased during Holocene warming allowing for loess accumulation. Key Points: Numerical age results from 14 sites show that Tibetan loess started accumulation at either 13.4 ± 0.4 or 9.9 ± 0.2 kaDust accumulation model of Tibetan landscape response to climate is out of phase with that in the Chinese Loess PlateauWe provide an example of a teleconnection between ecological conditions in Tibet and Northern Hemisphere climate changes
- Subjects
TIBET (China); CLIMATE change; AGGRADATION &; degradation; GLACIATION; DUST; TELECONNECTIONS (Climatology); LOESS
- Publication
Geophysical Research Letters, 2022, Vol 49, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0094-8276
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2021GL096615