@article{OpitzWuennemannAichneretal.2012,
  author    = {Opitz, Stephan and W{\"u}nnemann, Bernd and Aichner, Bernhard and Dietze, Elisabeth and Hartmann, Kai and Herzschuh, Ulrike and IJmker, Janneke and Lehmkuhl, Frank and Li, Shijie and Mischke, Steffen and Plotzki, Anna and Stauch, Georg and Diekmann, Bernhard},
  title     = {Late Glacial and Holocene development of Lake Donggi Cona, north-eastern Tibetan Plateau, inferred from sedimentological analysis},
  series = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  volume    = {337},
  journal   = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  number    = {23},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0031-0182},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.04.013},
  pages     = {159 -- 176},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Sediments of Lake Donggi Cona on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau were studied to infer changes in the lacustrine depositional environment, related to climatic and non-climatic changes during the last 19 kyr. The lake today fills a 30x8 km big and 95 m deep tectonic basin, associated with the Kunlun Fault. The study was conducted on a sediment-core transect through the lake basin, in order to gain a complete picture of spatio-temporal environmental change. The recovered sediments are partly finely laminated and are composed of calcareous muds with variable amounts of carbonate micrite, organic matter, detrital silt and clay. On the basis of sedimentological, geochemical, and mineralogical data up to five lithological units (LU) can be distinguished that document distinct stages in the development of the lake system. The onset of the lowermost LU with lacustrine muds above basal sands indicates that lake level was at least 39 m below the present level and started to rise after 19 ka, possibly in response to regional deglaciation. At this time, the lacustrine environment was characterized by detrital sediment influx and the deposition of siliciclastic sediment. In two sediment cores, upward grain-size coarsening documents a lake-level fall after 13 cal ka BP, possibly associated with the late-glacial Younger Dryas stadial. From 11.5 to 4.3 cal ka BP, grain-size fining in sediment cores from the profundal coring sites and the onset of lacustrine deposition at a litoral core site (2 m water depth) in a recent marginal bay of Donggi Cona document lake-level rise during the early to mid-Holocene to at least modern level. In addition, high biological productivity and pronounced precipitation of carbonate micrites are consistent with warm and moist climate conditions related to an enhanced influence of summer monsoon. At 4.3 cal ka BP the lake system shifted from an aragonite- to a calcite-dominated system, indicating a change towards a fully open hydrological lake system. The younger clay-rich sediments are moreover non-laminated and lack any diagenetic sulphides, pointing to fully ventilated conditions, and the prevailing absence of lake stratification. This turning point in lake history could imply either a threshold response to insolation-forced climate cooling or a response to a non-climatic trigger, such as an erosional event or a tectonic pulse that induced a strong earthquake, which is difficult to decide from our data base.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{HerzschuhBorkowskiScheweetal.2014,
  author    = {Herzschuh, Ulrike and Borkowski, Janett and Schewe, Jacob and Mischke, Steffen and Tian, Fang},
  title     = {Moisture-advection feedback supports strong early-to-mid Holocene monsoon climate on the eastern Tibetan Plateau as inferred from a pollen-based reconstruction},
  series = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  volume    = {402},
  journal   = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0031-0182},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.02.022},
  pages     = {44 -- 54},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {(Paleo-)climatologists are challenged to identify mechanisms that cause the observed abrupt Holocene monsoon events despite the fact that monsoonal circulation is assumed to be driven by gradual insolation changes. Here we provide proxy and model evidence to show that moisture-advection feedback can lead to a non-linear relationship between sea-surface and continental temperatures and monsoonal precipitation. A pollen record from Lake Ximencuo (Nianbaoyeze Mountains) indicates that vegetation from the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau was characterized by alpine deserts and glacial flora after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (21-15.5 cal kyr BP), by alpine meadows during the Late Glacial (15.5-10.4 cal kyr BP) and second half of the Holocene (5.0 cal kyr BP to present) and by mixed forests during the first half of the Holocene (10.4-5.0 cal kyr BP). The application of pollen-based transfer functions yields an abrupt temperature increase at 10.4 cal kyr BP and a decrease at 5.0 cal kyr BP of about 3 degrees C. By applying endmember modeling to grain-size data from the same sediment core we infer that frequent fluvial events (probably originating from high-magnitude precipitation events) were more common in the early and mid Holocene. We assign the inferred exceptional strong monsoonal circulation to the initiation of moisture-advection feedback, a result supported by a simple model that reproduces this feedback pattern over the same time period. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.},
  language  = {en}
}