Abstract. During the latter stages of the Holocene, and prior to anthropogenic global
warming, the Earth underwent a period of cooling called the neoglacial. The
neoglacial is associated with declining summer insolation and changes to
Earth's surface albedo. Although impacts varied globally, in China the
neoglacial was generally associated with a cooler climate and an attenuated
Asian summer monsoon. Few studies in central China, however, have explored
the impact of neoglacial cooling on freshwater diversity, especially in
alpine regions. Here we take a palaeolimnological approach to characterise
multi-decadal variability in diatom community composition, ecological guilds,
and compositional turnover over the past 3500 years from the alpine
Yuhuang Chi lake on Mount Taibai in the Qinling mountains. Diatoms in the high-profile guild dominate much of the record from 3500 to 615 cal BP,
which suggests that few nutrients in the lake were limiting overall, and
disturbance and herbivory were likely low. After 615 cal BP, low-profile
and planktic guild diatoms increase, suggesting greater turbulence in the
lake, alongside a decline in available nutrients. Diatom turnover highlights
periods in the lake history when deterministic processes structured diatom
communities. For example, an abrupt decline in turnover is coincident with
the shift from high- to low-profile diatoms at 615 cal BP, and this is likely
due to the onset of the Little Ice Age in the region. We suggest that Yuhuang Chi lake became more shallow during peak regional aridity, which led to
the short-lived community restructuring observed in the record.