Temperature variations on the Tibetan Plateau over the last two millennia

Abstract

The paleoclimate data recovered from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments indicate regional features of climatic change on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the last 2000 years. The composite temperature reconstructions indicate that several main climatic episodes, such as the “Little Ice Age” between 1400 and 1900, the “Medieval Warm Period” in 1150–1400, a less warm period in 800–1100, and an earlier cold period between the 3rd and 5th centuries, occurred in the TP. In addition, temperature varied from region to region. The period from AD 800 to 1100, which was warm in northeastern TP, was contemporaneous with cooling in the western and southern TP. The southern TP experienced warming between 1150 and 1400. For western TP, the δ18O records of the Guliya ice core indicate that the period 1250–1500 witnessed a clear warming. Large-scale trends in the temperature history from northeastern TP are more similar to those in eastern China than are the trends from the Guliya ice cap far to the west and southern TP. The most prominent similarities between the temperature variations of the TP and eastern China are such cold phases as 1100–1150, 1500–1550, 1650–1700 and 1800–1850, and the latter three cold events match with three widespread glacial advances which occurred on the TP during the Little Ice Age.