A 1000-year chironomid-based salinity reconstruction from varved sediments of Sugan Lake, Qaidam Basin, arid Northwest China, and its palaeoclimatic significance |
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Authors: | JianHui Chen FaHu Chen EnLou Zhang Stephen J Brooks AiFeng Zhou and JiaWu Zhang |
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Institution: | 1 MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;
2 State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;
3 Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK |
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Abstract: | A 1000-year high-resolution (~10 years) chironomid record from varved sediments of Sugan Lake, Qaidam Basin on the northern
Tibetan Plateau, is presented. The chironomid assemblages are mainly composed of the relatively high-saline-water taxa Psectrocladius barbimanus-type and Orthocladius/Cricotopus, and the relatively low-saline-water taxa Procladius and Psectrocladius sordidellus-type. Variations in the chironomid fauna and inferred salinities suggest that over the last millennium, the Sugan Lake catchment
has alternated between contrasting climatic conditions, having a dry climate during the period 990–1550 AD, a relatively humid
climate during the Little Ice Age (LIA) (1550–1840 AD), and a dry climate again from 1840 AD onwards. At the decadal to centennial
scale, a wet event around 1200–1230 AD, interrupting the generally arid period (990–1550 AD), and a dry event around 1590–1700
AD, punctuating the generally humid period (1550–1840 AD), are clearly documented. Trends in the chironomid-based salinity
time series indicate a highly unstable climate during the LIA when salinity fluctuations were of greater magnitude and higher
frequency. The effective moisture evolution in the Sugan Lake catchment during the last millennium reconstructed by chironomid
analysis is in broad agreement with previous palaeo-moisture data derived from other sites in arid Northwest China (ANC).
The LIA, characterized by generally humid conditions over the westerly-dominated ANC was distinctly different from that in
monsoonal China, implying an “out-of-phase” relationship between moisture evolution in these two regions during the past 1000
years. |
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Keywords: | Sugan Lake arid Northwest China sub-fossil chironomid effective moisture last millennium |
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