Peopling History of the Tibetan Plateau and Multiple Waves of Admixture of Tibetans Inferred From Both Ancient and Modern Genome-Wide Data

Archeologically attested human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can be traced back to 160 thousand years ago (kya) via the archaic Xiahe people and 30∼40 kya via the Nwya Devu anatomically modern human. However, the history of the Tibetan populations and their migration inferred from the ancient and modern DNA remains unclear. Here, we performed the first ancient and modern genomic meta-analysis among 3,017 Paleolithic to present-day Eastern Eurasian genomes (2,444 modern individuals from 183 populations and 573 ancient individuals). We identified a close genetic connection between the ancient-modern highland Tibetans and lowland island/coastal Neolithic Northern East Asians (NEA). This observed genetic affinity reflected the primary ancestry of high-altitude Tibeto-Burman speakers originated from the Neolithic farming populations in the Yellow River Basin. The identified pattern was consistent with the proposed common north-China origin hypothesis of the Sino-Tibetan languages and dispersal patterns of the northern millet farmers. We also observed the genetic differentiation between the highlanders and lowland NEAs. The former harbored more deeply diverged Hoabinhian/Onge-related ancestry and the latter possessed more Neolithic southern East Asian (SEA) or Siberian-related ancestry. Our reconstructed qpAdm and qpGraph models suggested the co-existence of Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestries in the Neolithic to modern East Asian highlanders. Additionally, we found that Tibetans from Ü-Tsang/Ando/Kham regions showed a strong population stratification consistent with their cultural background and geographic terrain. Ü-Tsang Tibetans possessed a stronger Chokhopani-affinity, Ando Tibetans had more Western Eurasian related ancestry and Kham Tibetans harbored greater Neolithic southern EA ancestry. Generally, ancient and modern genomes documented multiple waves of human migrations in the TP’s past. The first layer of local hunter-gatherers mixed with incoming millet farmers and arose the Chokhopani-associated Proto-Tibetan-Burman highlanders, which further respectively mixed with additional genetic contributors from the western Eurasian Steppe, Yellow River and Yangtze River and finally gave rise to the modern Ando, Ü-Tsang and Kham Tibetans.

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Peopling of Tibet Plateau and multiple waves of admixture of Tibetans inferred from both modern and ancient genome-wide data

10.1101/2020.07.03.185884 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mengge Wang ◽

Xing Zou ◽

Hui-Yuan Ye ◽

Zheng Wang ◽

Yan Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Yellow River ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

East Asian ◽

Yellow River Basin ◽

Modern Human ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Dispersal Pattern ◽

East Asians ◽

Human Movements

AbstractArcheologically attested human occupation on the Tibet Plateau (TP) can be traced back to 160 thousand years ago (kya, Xiahe) via archaic people and 30~40 kya via anatomically modern human in Nwya Devu. However, the past human movements and peopling of the TP keep in its infancy in the modern/ancient DNA studies. Here, we performed the first modern/ancient genomic meta-analysis among 3,017 Paleolithic to present-day eastern Eurasian genomes (2,444 modern individuals from 183 populations (including 98 Ü-Tsang/Ando/Kham Tibetans) and 573 ancients (including 161 Chinese ancients first meta-analyzed here)). Closer genetic connection between ancient-modern highland Tibetans and lowland island/coastal Neolithic northern East Asians was identified, reflecting the main ancestry of high-altitude Tibeto-Burman speakers originated from the ancestors of Houli/Yangshao/Longshan ancients in the middle and lower Yellow River basin, consistent with the common North-China origin of Sino-Tibetan language and dispersal pattern of millet farmers. Although the shared common northern East Asian lineage between Tibetans and lowland East Asians, we still identified genetic differentiation between Highlanders and lowland northern East Asians, the former harboring more deeply diverged Hoabinhian/Onge ancestry and the latter possessing more modern Neolithic southern East Asian and Siberian ancestry, which suggested the co-existence of Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestries in modern and Neolithic East Asian Highlanders. Tibetans from Ü-Tsang/Ando/Kham Tibetan regions showed strong population stratifications consistent with their cultural backgrounds and geographic terrains (showed as barriers for human movements): stronger Chokhopani affinity in Ü-Tsang Tibetans, more western Eurasian ancestry in Ando and greater Neolithic southern East Asian ancestry in Kham Tibetan. Modern combined ancient genomes documented multiple waves of human migrations in TP past: the first layer of local Hunter-Gatherer mixed with Qijia Farmer arose the Chokhopani-associated Proto-Tibetan-Burman, admixture with the additional genetic materials from the western Eurasian steppe, Yellow River and Yangtze River respectively gave rise to modern Ando, Ü-Tsang and Kham Tibetans.

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Late Miocene–Quaternary rapid stepwise uplift of the NE Tibetan Plateau and its effects on climatic and environmental changes

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2014.01.002 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 81 (3) ◽

pp. 400-423 ◽

Cited By ~ 154

Author(s):

Jijun Li ◽

Xiaomin Fang ◽

Chunhui Song ◽

Baotian Pan ◽

Yuzhen Ma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Yellow River ◽

Source Area ◽

Yellow River Basin ◽

Tectonic Geomorphology ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Asian Winter Monsoon ◽

New Findings ◽

Ne Tibetan Plateau

AbstractThe way in which the NE Tibetan Plateau uplifted and its impact on climatic change are crucial to understanding the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau and the development of the present geomorphology and climate of Central and East Asia. This paper is not a comprehensive review of current thinking but instead synthesises our past decades of work together with a number of new findings. The dating of Late Cenozoic basin sediments and the tectonic geomorphology of the NE Tibetan Plateau demonstrates that the rapid persistent rise of this plateau began ~8 ± 1 Ma followed by stepwise accelerated rise at ~3.6 Ma, 2.6 Ma, 1.8–1.7 Ma, 1.2–0.6 Ma and 0.15 Ma. The Yellow River basin developed at ~1.7 Ma and evolved to its present pattern through stepwise backward-expansion toward its source area in response to the stepwise uplift of the plateau. High-resolution multi-climatic proxy records from the basins and terrace sediments indicate a persistent stepwise accelerated enhancement of the East Asian winter monsoon and drying of the Asian interior coupled with the episodic tectonic uplift since ~8 Ma and later also with the global cooling since ~3.2 Ma, suggesting a major role for tectonic forcing of the cooling.

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

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aat8824 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 362 (6418) ◽

pp. 1049-1051 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

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.

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A Tree-Ring-Based Precipitation Reconstruction since 1760 CE from Northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12040416 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 416

Author(s):

Youping Chen ◽

Feng Chen ◽

Heli Zhang

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Yellow River ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Ring Width ◽

Yellow River Basin ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Precipitation Reconstruction ◽

Picea Crassifolia ◽

Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Hydroclimatic conditions and related water resources change in the Tibetan Plateau is one of the main concerns for future sustainable development in China. This study presents a 254-year precipitation reconstruction from August of the previous year to June of the current year for the northeastern Tibetan Plateau based on tree-ring width data of tree-ring cores of Picea crassifolia from three sampling sites. The precipitation reconstruction explained 51.4% of the variance in instrumental precipitation during the calibration period 1958–2013. Dry periods with precipitation below the 254-year average value occurred during 1848–1865, 1873–1887, 1898–1923, and 1989–2003, and wet periods (precipitation above the mean) occurred during 1769–1785, 1798–1833, 1924–1938, 1957–1968, and 2004–2013. Spatial correlation analyses with the precipitation gridded dataset showed that our reconstruction contains some strong regional-scale precipitation signals for the upper Yellow River Basin. Our precipitation reconstruction also agreed in general with other dendroclimatic precipitation reconstructions from surrounding regions. In addition, reconstructed precipitation changes were consistent with the streamflow variation of the Yellow River.

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Extension of the Upper Yellow River into the Tibet Plateau: Review and New Data

Quaternary ◽

10.3390/quat4020014 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 14

Author(s):

Zhengchen Li ◽

Xianyan Wang ◽

Jef Vandenberghe ◽

Huayu Lu

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Yellow River ◽

Google Earth ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

The Yellow River ◽

Published Data ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Large Lakes ◽

River Terraces ◽

The Tibet Plateau

The Wufo Basin at the margin of the northeastern Tibet Plateau connects the upstream reaches of the Yellow River with the lowland catchment downstream, and the fluvial terrace sequence in this basin provides crucial clues to understand the evolution history of the Yellow River drainage system in relation to the uplift and outgrowth of the Tibetan Plateau. Using field survey and analysis of Digital Elevation Model/Google Earth imagery, we found at least eight Yellow River terraces in this area. The overlying loess of the highest terrace was dated at 1.2 Ma based on paleomagnetic stratigraphy (two normal and two reversal polarities) and the loess-paleosol sequence (12 loess-paleosol cycles). This terrace shows the connections of drainage parts in and outside the Tibetan Plateau through its NE margin. In addition, we review the previously published data on the Yellow River terraces and ancient large lakes in the basins. Based on our new data and previous researches, we conclude that the modern Yellow River, with headwaters in the Tibet Plateau and debouching in the Bohai Sea, should date from at least 1.2 Ma. Ancient large lakes (such as the Hetao and Sanmen Lakes) developed as exorheic systems and flowed through the modern Yellow River at that time.

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Impacts of Two East Asian Atmospheric Circulation Modes on Black Carbon Aerosol Over the Tibetan Plateau in Winter

Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres ◽

10.1029/2020jd032458 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 125 (12) ◽

Author(s):

Tiangang Yuan ◽

Siyu Chen ◽

Lin Wang ◽

Yaoxian Yang ◽

Hongru Bi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Black Carbon ◽

Atmospheric Circulation ◽

East Asian ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Black Carbon Aerosol

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Evolutionary history of zoogeographical regions surrounding the Tibetan Plateau

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-020-01154-2 ◽

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.

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Late Cenozoic Denudation and Topographic Evolution History of the Lhasa River Drainage in Southern Tibetan Plateau: Insights From Inverse Thermal History Modeling

Frontiers in Earth Science ◽

10.3389/feart.2021.636459 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Dongxu Cai ◽

Xianyan Wang ◽

Guangwei Li ◽

Wenbin Zhu ◽

Huayu Lu

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Surface Erosion ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Monsoon Precipitation ◽

Late Cenozoic ◽

River Drainage ◽

History Of ◽

Southern Tibetan Plateau ◽

Lhasa River ◽

Topographic Evolution

The interaction of surface erosion (e.g., fluvial incision) and tectonic uplift shapes the landform in the Tibetan Plateau. The Lhasa River flows toward the southwest across the central Gangdese Mountains in the southern Tibetan Plateau, characterized by a low-relief and high-elevation landscape. However, the evolution of low-relief topography and the establishment of the Lhasa River remain highly under debate. Here, we collected thermochronological ages reported in the Lhasa River drainage, using a 3D thermokinematic model to invert both late Cenozoic denudation and relief history of the Lhasa River drainage. Our results show that the Lhasa River drainage underwent four-phase denudation history, including two-stage rapid denudation at ∼25–16 Ma (with a rate of ∼0.42 km/Ma) and ∼16–12 Ma (with a rate of ∼0.72 km/Ma). In the latest Oligocene–early Miocene, uplift of the Gangdese Mountains triggered the rapid denudation and the formation of the current main drainage of the Lhasa River. In the middle Miocene, the second stage of the rapid denudation and the high relief were associated with intense incision of the Lhasa River, which is probably due to the enhanced Asian summer monsoon precipitation. This later rapid episode was consistent with the records of regional main drainage systems. After ∼12 Ma, the denudation rate decreases rapidly, and the relief of topography in the central Gangdese region was gradually subdued. This indicates that the fluvial erosion resulting from Asian monsoon precipitation increase significantly impacts on the topographic evolution in the central Gangdese region.

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Evaluating the streamflow simulation capability of PERSIANN-CDR daily rainfall products in two river basins on the Tibetan Plateau

10.5194/hess-2016-282 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xiaomang Liu ◽

Tiantian Yang ◽

Koulin Hsu ◽

Changming Liu ◽

Soroosh Sorooshian

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

River Basin ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yellow River ◽

Yangtze River Basin ◽

Information Source ◽

Hydrologic Model ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Climate Data ◽

Streamflow Simulation

Abstract. On the Tibetan Plateau, the limited ground-based rainfall information owing to a harsh environment has brought great challenges to hydrological studies. Satellite-based rainfall products, which allow a better coverage than both radar network and rain gauges on the Tibetan Plateau, can be suitable observation alternatives for investigating the hydrological processes and climate change. In this study, a newly developed daily satellite-based precipitation product, termed Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information Using Artificial Neural Networks–Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), is used as input of a hydrologic model to simulate streamflow in the upper Yellow and Yangtze River Basin on the Tibetan Plateau. The results show that the simulated streamflow using PERSIANN-CDR precipitation is closer to observation than that using limited gauge-based precipitation interpolation in the upper Yangtze River Basin. The simulated streamflow using gauge-based precipitation are higher than the streamflow observation during the wet season. In the upper Yellow River Basin, PERSIANN-CDR precipitation and gauge-based precipitation have similar good performance in simulating streamflow. The evaluation of streamflow simulation capability in this study partly indicates that PERSIANN-CDR rainfall product has good potentials to be a reliable dataset and an alternative information source besides the sparse gauge network for conducting long term hydrological and climate studies on the Tibetan Plateau.

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Paleoaltitudinal histories for the northern and southern margins of the Tibetan Plateau during the Late Cenozoic: revealed by GDGTs

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14073 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chihao Chen ◽

Yan Bai ◽

Xiaomin Fang ◽

Haichao Guo ◽

Weilin Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Late Miocene ◽

Global Climate ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Lake Surface ◽

Terrestrial Organic Matter ◽

Plant Fossils ◽

History Of ◽

Monsoon System ◽

Uplift History

As an important driver of global climate change during the Cenozoic, the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has strongly influenced the origination and evolution of the Asian monsoon system, and therefore the aridification of central Asia. Over the last two decades, the application of stable isotope paleoaltimeters and the discoveries of mammal and plant fossils have greatly promoted the understanding of the uplift history of the TP. However, paleoaltitudinal reconstructions based on different paleoaltimeters have suggested differing outcomes and therefore remain controversial. Novel paleoaltimeters have therefore needed to be developed and applied to constrain the uplift history of the TP more accurately and effectively by comparing and verifying multi-proxies. Paleothermometers based on glyceryl dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are widely used in terrestrial and ocean temperature reconstructions. In this study, GDGT-based paleothermometers were tentatively applied to the Gyirong Basin on the southern TP, and the Xining Basins on the northern TP, in an attempt to quantitatively reconstruct their paleoaltitudes.Both soil and aquatic-typed branched GDGTs have been identified from Late Miocene to Mid-Pliocene (7.0-3.2 Ma) samples taken from the Gyirong Basin; their reconstructed paleotemperatures were 7.5&#177;3.3&#176;C and 14.2&#177;4.5&#176;C, respectively. The former temperature may represent the mean temperature of the terrestrial organic matter input area, while the latter may represent the lake surface temperature. The results would suggest that the lake surface of the Gyirong Basin during the Late Miocene to Mid-Pliocene was 2.5&#177;0.8 km and that the surrounding mountains exceeded 3.6&#177;0.6 km, implying that the central Himalayas underwent a rapid uplift of ~1.5 km after the Mid-Pliocene.GDGT-based paleotemperature reconstructions using MBT'5ME values show that the Xining Basin dropped in temperature by ~10&#176;C during the ~10.5-8 Ma period, exceeding that in sea surface temperatures and low-altitude terrestrial temperatures during these periods. By combining these results with contemporaneous tectonic and sedimentary records, we infer that these cooling events signaled the regional uplift with the amplitude of ~1 km of the Xining basins. Our results support that the TP was still growing and uplifting substantially since the Late Miocene, which may provide new evidence for understanding the growth, expansion and uplift patterns of the TP.

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