Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years

Yan Zhao; Polychronis C. Tzedakis; Quan Li; Feng Qin; Qiaoyu Cui; Chen Liang; John B.H. Birks; Yaoliang Liu; Zhiyong Zhang; Junyi Ge; Hui Zhao; Vivian A. Felde; Chenglong Deng; Maotang Cai; Huan Li; Weihe Ren; Haicheng Wei; Hanfei Yang; Jiawu Zhang; Zicheng Yu; Zhengtang Guo

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aay6193

Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years

Yan Zhao^*, Polychronis C. Tzedakis, Quan Li, Feng Qin, Qiaoyu Cui, Chen Liang, John B.H. Birks, Yaoliang Liu, Zhiyong Zhang, Junyi Ge, Hui Zhao, Vivian A. Felde, Chenglong Deng, Maotang Cai, Huan Li, Weihe Ren, Haicheng Wei, Hanfei Yang, Jiawu Zhang, Zicheng YuZhengtang Guo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Earth and Climate

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau exerts a major influence on Asian climate, but its long-term environmental history remains largely unknown. We present a detailed record of vegetation and climate changes over the past 1.74 million years in a lake sediment core from the Zoige Basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Results show three intervals with different orbital- and millennial-scale features superimposed on a stepwise long-term cooling trend. The interval of 1.74–1.54 million years ago is characterized by an insolation-dominated mode with strong ~20,000-year cyclicity and quasi-absent millennial-scale signal. The interval of 1.54–0.62 million years ago represents a transitional insolation-ice mode marked by ~20,000- and ~40,000-year cycles, with superimposed millennial-scale oscillations. The past 620,000 years are characterized by an ice-driven mode with 100,000-year cyclicity and less frequent millennial-scale variability. A pronounced transition occurred 620,000 years ago, as glacial cycles intensified. These new findings reveal how the interaction of low-latitude insolation and high-latitude ice-volume forcing shaped the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau climate.

Original language	English
Article number	eaay6193
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	Science advances
Volume	6
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay6193
Publication status	Published - May 2020

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge D. Za for logistical support and the villages (Nenwa and Maiqi) that hosted our fieldwork. We thank X. Sun and Y. Tang (field and laboratory assistance); Z. Zheng, X. Xiao, C. Ma, Q. Xu, and U. Herzschuh (access to modern pollen data); B. M. Benito, A. W. R. Seddon, and R. J. Telford (advice on numerical analysis); and D. B. Jiang (plotting the regional airstream map). A. Copley, G. Ramstein, F. Chen, S. Wang, and L. Qin are acknowledged for the discussions. We thank D. Lea and two journal reviewers for their constructive comments and useful suggestions. Financial support of this research was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41690113, 41888101, and 41330105), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2016YFA0600501), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (no. XDA20070101). P.C.T. acknowledges funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R000204/1), H.J.B.B. and V.A.F. from the European Research Council Advanced grant 741413 Humans on Planet Earth (HOPE), and V.A.F. from the VISTA

Funders	Funder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	741413
Natural Environment Research Council	NE/R000204/1
European Research Council
National Natural Science Foundation of China	41330105, 41888101, 41690113
Chinese Academy of Sciences	XDA20070101
National Key Research and Development Program of China	2016YFA0600501

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Zhao, Y., Tzedakis, P. C., Li, Q., Qin, F., Cui, Q., Liang, C., Birks, J. B. H., Liu, Y., Zhang, Z., Ge, J., Zhao, H., Felde, V. A., Deng, C., Cai, M., Li, H., Ren, W., Wei, H., Yang, H., Zhang, J., ... Guo, Z. (2020). Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years. Science advances, 6(19), 1-12. Article eaay6193. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay6193

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title = "Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years",

abstract = "The Tibetan Plateau exerts a major influence on Asian climate, but its long-term environmental history remains largely unknown. We present a detailed record of vegetation and climate changes over the past 1.74 million years in a lake sediment core from the Zoige Basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Results show three intervals with different orbital- and millennial-scale features superimposed on a stepwise long-term cooling trend. The interval of 1.74–1.54 million years ago is characterized by an insolation-dominated mode with strong \textasciitilde{}20,000-year cyclicity and quasi-absent millennial-scale signal. The interval of 1.54–0.62 million years ago represents a transitional insolation-ice mode marked by \textasciitilde{}20,000- and \textasciitilde{}40,000-year cycles, with superimposed millennial-scale oscillations. The past 620,000 years are characterized by an ice-driven mode with 100,000-year cyclicity and less frequent millennial-scale variability. A pronounced transition occurred 620,000 years ago, as glacial cycles intensified. These new findings reveal how the interaction of low-latitude insolation and high-latitude ice-volume forcing shaped the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau climate.",

author = "Yan Zhao and Tzedakis, \{Polychronis C.\} and Quan Li and Feng Qin and Qiaoyu Cui and Chen Liang and Birks, \{John B.H.\} and Yaoliang Liu and Zhiyong Zhang and Junyi Ge and Hui Zhao and Felde, \{Vivian A.\} and Chenglong Deng and Maotang Cai and Huan Li and Weihe Ren and Haicheng Wei and Hanfei Yang and Jiawu Zhang and Zicheng Yu and Zhengtang Guo",

year = "2020",

month = may,

doi = "10.1126/sciadv.aay6193",

language = "English",

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Zhao, Y, Tzedakis, PC, Li, Q, Qin, F, Cui, Q, Liang, C, Birks, JBH, Liu, Y, Zhang, Z, Ge, J, Zhao, H, Felde, VA, Deng, C, Cai, M, Li, H, Ren, W, Wei, H, Yang, H, Zhang, J, Yu, Z & Guo, Z 2020, 'Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years', Science advances, vol. 6, no. 19, eaay6193, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay6193

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AU - Zhao, Yan

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AU - Li, Quan

AU - Qin, Feng

AU - Cui, Qiaoyu

AU - Liang, Chen

AU - Birks, John B.H.

AU - Liu, Yaoliang

AU - Zhang, Zhiyong

AU - Ge, Junyi

AU - Zhao, Hui

AU - Felde, Vivian A.

AU - Deng, Chenglong

AU - Cai, Maotang

AU - Li, Huan

AU - Ren, Weihe

AU - Wei, Haicheng

AU - Yang, Hanfei

AU - Zhang, Jiawu

AU - Yu, Zicheng

AU - Guo, Zhengtang

PY - 2020/5

Y1 - 2020/5

N2 - The Tibetan Plateau exerts a major influence on Asian climate, but its long-term environmental history remains largely unknown. We present a detailed record of vegetation and climate changes over the past 1.74 million years in a lake sediment core from the Zoige Basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Results show three intervals with different orbital- and millennial-scale features superimposed on a stepwise long-term cooling trend. The interval of 1.74–1.54 million years ago is characterized by an insolation-dominated mode with strong ~20,000-year cyclicity and quasi-absent millennial-scale signal. The interval of 1.54–0.62 million years ago represents a transitional insolation-ice mode marked by ~20,000- and ~40,000-year cycles, with superimposed millennial-scale oscillations. The past 620,000 years are characterized by an ice-driven mode with 100,000-year cyclicity and less frequent millennial-scale variability. A pronounced transition occurred 620,000 years ago, as glacial cycles intensified. These new findings reveal how the interaction of low-latitude insolation and high-latitude ice-volume forcing shaped the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau climate.

AB - The Tibetan Plateau exerts a major influence on Asian climate, but its long-term environmental history remains largely unknown. We present a detailed record of vegetation and climate changes over the past 1.74 million years in a lake sediment core from the Zoige Basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Results show three intervals with different orbital- and millennial-scale features superimposed on a stepwise long-term cooling trend. The interval of 1.74–1.54 million years ago is characterized by an insolation-dominated mode with strong ~20,000-year cyclicity and quasi-absent millennial-scale signal. The interval of 1.54–0.62 million years ago represents a transitional insolation-ice mode marked by ~20,000- and ~40,000-year cycles, with superimposed millennial-scale oscillations. The past 620,000 years are characterized by an ice-driven mode with 100,000-year cyclicity and less frequent millennial-scale variability. A pronounced transition occurred 620,000 years ago, as glacial cycles intensified. These new findings reveal how the interaction of low-latitude insolation and high-latitude ice-volume forcing shaped the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau climate.

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JF - Science advances

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Evolution of vegetation and climate variability on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 1.74 million years

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