Lake diatom response to climate change and sedimentary events on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau during the last millennium

Abstract

Climate change on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) is assumed to impact lake ecosystems. However, parallel changes in climate and non-climate factors and mediation of signals by catchment processes complicate the assessment of climate-change effects on lake ecosystems requiring long-term and high resolution multi-variable time-series. Here we present a diatom record from sediments in the lake Basomtso, southeastern TP, covering the period 1083–2012 CE with sub-decadal resolution which we relate to available proxies for potential climate and non-climate factors. The record is dominated by planktonic species and the compositional change is mainly characterized by alternations between big- and small-celled Pantocsekiella ocellata and between planktonic and benthic diatom species. The diatom assemblages show a decrease of P. ocellata (big form) since the end of 17th century and an increase of P. ocellata (small form) as well as an increase in diatom productivity, reflecting changes on a centennial timescale which mainly follow temperature increase. We recorded several changes in the ratio of planktonic to benthic species abundance (P: B) on a sub-decadal or decadal timescale. Noticeable decreases in P: B were a result of rapid sedimentary events caused by high energy flows. Cross-correlation analyses reveal synchronous responses of diatoms and asynchronous responses of terrestrial vegetation to regional temperature change, indicating a higher potential of lake diatoms to detect the timing and magnitude of climate shifts on the southeastern TP. The results imply that aquatic ecosystems in Basomtso, as well as in other mountain lakes on the southeastern TP, are probably subject to a larger risk of regime shift than terrestrial ecosystems under future climate scenarios.