Late Glacial-Early Holocene climate evolution on the Tibetan Plateau: a trigger or a response to Northern Hemisphere climate change?

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Herzschuh
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2005 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 16318205

Sporadic palaeoclimatic investigations revealed a strong climate variability during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene an the Tibetan Plateau. According to modelling approaches and modern climate studies, Tibetan Plateau climate variability should have a strong influence an the Northern Hemisphere climate evolution. Despite of its climatic significance, the Tibetan Plateau was rather seldom subject of palaeoclimatic studies. Therefore, this study aims to obtain high-resolution proxy-data an the climate evolution of the Tibetan Plateau during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene (19 - 8 cal. ka. BP) to illuminate how changes an the Tibetan Plateau are linked to the Northern Hemisphere climatic evolution. Preparatory investigations for this study yielded differences in the early Holocene climate evolution an the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. Therefore, this study furthermore aims to test hypotheses an mechanisms causing these spatial differences. Quantitative reconstructions of mean July temperature and annual precipitation will be inferred from fossil pollen spectra using pollen-climate transfer functions. For this purpose, surface samples from -140 lakes (as a modern pollen data calibration set) and sediment cores from four selected lakes have already been obtained and preliminary analyses have been performed. The proposed study was will provide palaeoclimatic analogies whether recent warming an the Tibetan Plateau responses to or rather triggers Northern Hemisphere climate change.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants