Seasonal variation of snow microbial community structure in the East Rongbuk glacier, Mt. Everest

Mt. Everest, the zenith of the world, plays an impor- tant role in the global climate change. During the lastdecade, some studies on glacier and snow have been undertaken in this region. The climate and environment changes in the past hundred years have b…     

Evidence for cold events in the early Holocene from the Guliya ice core, Tibetan Plateau, China

Evidence for the “8.2 ka cold event” has been provided mostly from the circum-North Atlantic area. However, whether this cold event occurred in other places is a key to understanding its cause. Here, we provide the evidence for the “8.2 ka cold event” from the Guliya ice core in the northwest Tibetan Plateau, and it was found that the peak cooling (~8.3—8.2 ka) in this ice core was about 7.8—10℃, which was larger than the cooling in the North Atlantic region. The primary causes for this episode were diminished solar activity and weakened thermohaline circulation. Moreover, another weak cold event, centered about 9.4 ka, was also recorded in the Guliya ice core record. These two cold events were concurrent with the ice-rafting episodes in the North Atlantic during the early Holocene, which implies that the millennial-scale climatic cyclicity might exist in the Tibetan Plateau as well as in the North Atlantic.     

Precipitation variability in central Himalayas and its relation to Northern Hemisphere temperature

Agriculture, industry and hydroelectric power in south Asia are heavily dependent on the performance of the summer (June to September) monsoon rainfall, which provides 75—90% of the annual rainwater over most parts of the area. A weak monsoon year generally corresponds to low crop yields. And strong monsoon usually produces abundant crops, although too much rainfall may produce devastating floods. However, modeling efforts to forecast the monsoon have met with only moderate success[1]. Prev…     

Diversity of 16S rDNA and environmental factor influncing microorganisms in Malan ice core

The research on extrempholic microorganisms in glacial low-temperature environment receives more attention than ever before. Due to the successive chronological records in ice core, it is important to initiate microbiological studies on ice core samples. 23 samples from one ice core, drilled from central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, were analyzed. The number of total microorganisms and culturable microorganisms in different layers showed that it related with the content of dust in ice. It is suggested that the distribution of microorganisms in ice depends on the transportation of materials during glacier development. The bacteria diversity in Malan Glacier was analyzed by 16S rDNA sequencing methods, which showed that many sequences were similar to known psychrophilic bacteria.     

Atmospheric Pb variations in Central Asia since 1955 from Muztagata ice core record, eastern Pamirs

Measurements of Pb in the well-preserved and dated snow and ice layers in glaciers can be used to recon- struct the past changes of atmospheric lead concentra- tions and to determine the trends of atmospheric pollu- tion. The lead data obtained from Greenland ice cap revealed severe air pollution in the Northern Hemi- sphere over the past three millennia. This lead pollution started from as early as Rome times[1], and increased remarkably from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the 1960…     

玉龙山温北川浅冰芯内气候环境信息的初步剖析

稳定同位素和离子分析结果表明,我国青藏高原东缘玉龙山温冰川的一支浅冰芯的大部分气候环境信息有良好的对应关系,可揭示近期若干年冰川净积累时期内的气候变化趋势和冰川的净积累量,且与当地实测资料相对应,该线冰芯的研究也揭示出冬夏季风和融水渗浸作用对冰芯气候记录的影响过程,表明温冰川气候环境信息的时间序列有限,温性冰川浅冰芯现代过程的分析为研究西南季风环流的动态变化提供了一个新的重要途径。