scholarly journals Sub-recent Ostracoda from Qilian Mountains, NW China

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Mischke ◽  
Ulrike Herzschuh ◽  
Harald Kürschner ◽  
Fahu Chen ◽  
Fei Meng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nw China ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Climatic History ◽  
The Qilian Mountains ◽  
First Time

Abstract. To our knowledge, the Qilian Mountains in NW China have been investigated with respect to Recent or sub-Recent ostracods for the first time. The Qilian Mountains (95–103°E/37–40°N) extend along the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau reaching a maximum altitude of 5826 m above sea-level (m asl).In September 2001, surface mud from the bottom of various water bodies including brooks, rivers and small shallow meadow and oxbow pools were sampled at an altitude ranging from 2900 m to 3570 m asl. In addition, surface mud samples and short cores were obtained from the small (c. 1 km2) and shallow (<0.4 m) freshwater Lake Luanhaizi situated at about 3200 m asl.Ostracod valves were usually abundant in all of the 32 samples and comprised the taxa listed in Table 1, some of which are illustrated in Plate 1.The recorded taxa are mainly distributed in the holarctic realm but Fabaeformiscandona danielopoli and Ilyocypris echinata appear to be restricted to the cold mountainous regions in China (Huang, 1985; Wang &amp; Zhu, 1991; Sun et al., 1995; Yin &amp; Martens, 1997).Following the first survey, a 14 m long core was drilled in Lake Luanhaizi in January 2002 which is currently under multidisciplinary investigation to reconstruct the Holocene vegetation and climatic history of the Qilian Mountains.

Temperature variability and vertical vegetation belt shifts during the last ∼50,000 yr in the Qilian Mountains (NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau, China)

2006 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Herzschuh ◽  
Harald Kürschner ◽  
Steffen Mischke
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Arboreal Pollen ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Alpine Shrub ◽  
Vegetation Belt ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

AbstractA 13.94-m-long sediment core, collected from a medium-sized lake in the Qilian Mountains (NE Tibetan Plateau, China), was analysed palynologically at 81 horizons. The interpretation of indicator taxa yielded various vertical shifts of the vegetation belts. These palaeovegetation results have been checked with lake surface pollen spectra from 8 lakes representing different altitudinal vegetation belts. Our main findings are the following: A short period of the late Marine Isotope Stage 3 (around ∼46,000 yr ago) was characterized by interglacial temperature conditions with a tree line above its present-day altitude. During the LGM, the vicinity of the lake was not covered by ice but by sparse alpine vegetation and alpine deserts, indicating that the climate was colder by ∼4–7°C than today. Markedly higher temperatures were inferred from higher arboreal pollen frequencies between ∼13,000 and ∼7,000 yr ago with a Holocene temperature optimum and a maximal Picea–Betula mixed-forest expansion between ∼9,000 and ∼7000 yr ago, when temperatures exceeded the present-day conditions by at least 1–2°C. Alpine steppes and meadows and sub-alpine shrub vegetation dominated around the lake since the middle Holocene, suggesting that vegetation and climate conditions were exceptionally stable in comparison to previous periods.

The earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau 40 thousand to 30 thousand years ago

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6418) ◽  
pp. 1049-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. L. Zhang ◽  
B. B. Ha ◽  
S. J. Wang ◽  
Z. J. Chen ◽  
J. Y. Ge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and one of the most demanding environments ever inhabited by humans. We investigated the timing and mechanisms of its initial colonization at the Nwya Devu site, located nearly 4600 meters above sea level. This site, dating from 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, is the highest Paleolithic archaeological site yet identified globally. Nwya Devu has yielded an abundant blade tool assemblage, indicating hitherto-unknown capacities for the survival of modern humans who camped in this environment. This site deepens the history of the peopling of the “roof of the world” and the antiquity of human high-altitude occupations more generally.

scholarly journals Late Quaternary paleoclimatic and geomorphological evolution at the interface between the Menyuan basin and the Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 534-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianyan Wang ◽  
Dimitri Vandenberghe ◽  
Shuangwen Yi ◽  
Jef Vandenberghe ◽  
Huayu Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Northeastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Meltwater Runoff ◽  
The Qilian Mountains ◽  
Geomorphological Evolution

The Tibetan Plateau is regarded as an amplifier and driver of environmental change in adjacent regions because of its extent and high altitude. However, reliable age control for paleoenvironmental information on the plateau is limited. OSL appears to be a valid method to constrain the age of deposits of glacial and fluvial origin, soils and periglacial structures in the Menyuan basin on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Dating results show glaciers advanced extensively to the foot of the Qilian mountains at ~ 21 ka, in agreement with the timing of the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) recorded in Northern Hemisphere ice cores. Comparison with results from the eastern Tibetan Plateau suggests that the factor controlling glacial advance in both regions was decreased temperature, not monsoon-related precipitation increase. The areas of the Menyuan basin occupied by glacio-fluvial deposits experienced continuous permafrost during the LGM, indicated by large cryoturbation features, interpreted to indicate that the mean annual temperature was ≥ 7 °C lower than at present. Glacio-fluvial systems in the Menyuan basin aggraded and terraces formed during cold periods (penultimate glaciation, LGM, and possibly the Younger Dryas) as a response to increased glacial sediment production and meltwater runoff then.

Spatial variability of tree growth along a latitudinal transect in the Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eryuan Liang ◽  
Xuemei Shao ◽  
Dieter Eckstein ◽  
Xiaohong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Qilian Mountains ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Northeastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Latitudinal Transect ◽  
The Qilian Mountains

Little is known about the spatial variability in tree growth and its responses to climate on the Tibetan Plateau; however, such information is essential for improving predictions of forest ecosystem response to climatic change. A network of 16 ring width chronologies was developed along a latitudinal transect in the Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. A principal components analysis revealed that the residual chronologies had a positive loading on the first unrotated principal component (PC1). After rotation, PC1 yielded the highest loadings on the driest sites in the northwest and decreased to the south and to the east. PC2 was negatively correlated with altitude. Moisture availability was a dominant limiting factor for tree growth, and this dominance increased northwards and westwards along the precipitation gradient. Loadings of the first two rotated principal components separated the 16 forest sites into three major groups corresponding to the three regions affected by the East Asian Monsoon, Westerlies, and their interaction. Thus, spatial variability in tree growth is an excellent bioindicator of regional climate.

scholarly journals Elevational Movement of Vegetation Greenness on the Tibetan Plateau: Evidence from the Landsat Satellite Observations during the Last Three Decades

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Liheng Lu ◽  
Xiaoqian Shen ◽  
Ruyin Cao
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Vertical Movement ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Upward Movement ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Vegetation Greenness ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Vegetation Activities

The Tibetan Plateau, the highest plateau in the world, has experienced strong climate warming during the last few decades. The greater increase of temperature at higher elevations may have strong impacts on the vertical movement of vegetation activities on the plateau. Although satellite-based observations have explored this issue, these observations were normally provided by the coarse satellite data with a spatial resolution of more than hundreds of meters (e.g., GIMMS and MODIS), which could lead to serious mixed-pixel effects in the analyses. In this study, we employed the medium-spatial-resolution Landsat NDVI data (30 m) during 1990–2019 and investigated the relationship between temperature and the elevation-dependent vegetation changes in six mountainous regions on the Tibetan Plateau. Particularly, we focused on the elevational movement of the vegetation greenness isoline to clarify whether the vegetation greenness isoline moves upward during the past three decades because of climate warming. Results show that vegetation greening occurred in all six mountainous regions during the last three decades. Increasing temperatures caused the upward movement of greenness isoline at the middle and high elevations (>4000 m) but led to the downward movement at lower elevations for the six mountainous regions except for Nyainqentanglha. Furthermore, the temperature sensitivity of greenness isoline movement changes from the positive value to negative value by decreasing elevations, suggesting that vegetation growth on the plateau is strongly regulated by other factors such as water availability. As a result, the greenness isoline showed upward movement with the increase of temperature for about 59% pixels. Moreover, the greenness isoline movement increased with the slope angles over the six mountainous regions, suggesting the influence of terrain effects on the vegetation activities. Our analyses improve understandings of the diverse response of elevation-dependent vegetation activities on the Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Evolutionary history of zoogeographical regions surrounding the Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiekun He ◽  
Siliang Lin ◽  
Jiatang Li ◽  
Jiehua Yu ◽  
Haisheng Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Striking Change ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe Tibetan Plateau (TP) and surrounding regions have one of the most complex biotas on Earth. However, the evolutionary history of these regions in deep time is poorly understood. Here, we quantify the temporal changes in beta dissimilarities among zoogeographical regions during the Cenozoic using 4,966 extant terrestrial vertebrates and 1,278 extinct mammal genera. We identify ten present-day zoogeographical regions and find that they underwent a striking change over time. Specifically, the fauna on the TP was close to the Oriental realm in deep time but became more similar to the Palearctic realms more recently. The present-day zoogeographical regions generally emerged during the Miocene/Pliocene boundary (ca. 5 Ma). These results indicate that geological events such as the Indo-Asian Collision, the TP uplift, and the aridification of the Asian interior underpinned the evolutionary history of the zoogeographical regions surrounding the TP over different time periods.

scholarly journals Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hsu ◽  
Franz K. Huber ◽  
Caroline S. Weckerle
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Regional Culture ◽  
Fault Line

AbstractThe Shuhi of Muli County, Sichuan Province, are one of multiple ethnic groups inhabiting the river gorges of the Qinghai-Gansu-Sichuan corridor between the Tibetan plateau and the Chinese lowlands. The Shuhi have grown paddy rice since times immemorial at an unusually high altitude (ca. 2,300 m above sea level). This article aims to explain this conundrum not merely through the ecology (as is common among Tibetan area specialists), but by researching the cultivation and consumption of rice as a historically-evolved cultural practice. According to a recently formulated agro-archaeological hypothesis regarding the macro-region of Eurasia, it is possible to identify two supra-regional culture complexes distinguished by their respective culinary technologies: rice-boiling versus wheat-grinding-and-baking. The hypothesis posits that the fault line between the two supra-regional cultural complexes is precisely along this river gorges corridor. In this article we provide support for this hypothesis arguing that Shuhi ritual and kinship practices have much affinity with those of other rice-boiling peoples in Southeast Asia, whereas certain of their current religious practices are shared with the wheat-grinding Tibetans.

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