Palaeolimnological evidence for environmental change over the past millennium from Lake Qinghai sediments: a review and future research prospective

Abstract

Lake Qinghai, on the NE Tibetan Plateau, is China's largest natural lake that lies at a triple junction of major climatic influences, making it sensitive to global climate change. As such, the sediments of Lake Qinghai have been the focus of numerous palaeoenvironmental studies spanning a range of timescales. However, as a result of uncertain age controls, uncertainties over interpretation of the proxies, the relative dearth of proxy calibration and lack of understanding of the modern lake system a coherent picture of climate over the NE Tibetan Plateau has yet to emerge from Lake Qinghai's sediment record. We review the state of knowledge for this important site, focusing on the last millennium. A comparison of the major proxy records show significant variability with a general pattern of change over the last 1000 years, notably those linked to the onset of the Little lee Age, but due to poor chronological constraints a detailed picture of climate change cannot be established. Further, some of the proxy records produced from Lake Qinghai's sediments are open to alternative explanations. This compounds the sediment record as a palaeoenvironmental archive. To fully realise the potential of Lake Qinghai, future research must concentrate on defining a reliable old carbon effect for the lake, calibrating proxy records with climatic processes and understanding spatial variability of proxy records within this large lake. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved