Tibetan Plateau Lakes Research Articles

Response, adaptation, and sustainability of fish in two changing and diverse global environments — Asian Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and North American Great Lakes

Response, adaptation, and sustainability of fish in two changing and diverse global environments — Asian Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and North American Great Lakes

A chironomid-based salinity inference model from lakes on the Tibetan Plateau

Previous studies have shown chironomids to be excellent indicators of environmental change and training sets have been developed in order to allow these changes to be reconstructed quantitatively from subfossil sequences. Here we present the results of an investigation into the relationships between surface sediment subfossil chironomid distribution and lake environmental variables from 42 lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that of the 11 measured environmental variables, salinity (measured as total dissolved solids TDS) was most important, accounting for 10.5% of the variance in the chironomid data. This variable was significant enough to allow the development of quantitative inference models. A range of TDS inference models were developed using Weighted Averaging (WA), Partial Least Squares (PLS), Weighted Averaging–Partial Least Squares (WA–PLS), Maximum Likelihood (ML), Modern Analogues Technique (MAT) and Modern Analogues Techniques weighted by similarity (WMAT). Evaluation of the site data indicated that four lakes were major outliers, and after omitting these from the training set the models produced jack-knifed coefficients of determination (r2) between 0.60 and 0.80, and root-mean-squared errors of prediction (RMSEP) between 0.29 and 0.44 log10 TDS. The best performing model was the two-component WA–PLS model with r2jack = 0.80 and RMSEPjack = 0.29 log10 TDS. The model results were similar to other chironomid-salinity models developed in different regions, and they also showed similar ecological groupings along the salinity gradient with respect to freshwater/salinity thresholds and community diversity. These results therefore indicate that similar processes may be controlling chironomid distribution across salinity gradients irrespective of biogeographical constraints. The performance of the transfer functions illustrates that chironomid assemblages from the Tibetan Plateau lakes are clearly sensitive indicators of salinity. The models will therefore allow the quantification of long-term records of past water salinity for lacustrine sites across the Tibetan Plateau, which has important implications for future hydrological research in the region.

Diatom assemblages and quantitative reconstruction for paleosalinity from a sediment core of Chencuo Lake, southern Tibet

Combining with the diatom-based conductivity transfer function from Qing-hai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau lakes, the lake salinity for the past 300 years was quantitatively reconstructed based on the analysis of diatom assemblages from a sediment core in Chencuo Lake, southern Tibet. The distinct negative relationship between inferred conductivity and recorded lakelevels in recent years suggests that the lake salinity can reflect the fluctuations of effective moisture of climate in lake area. The salinity inferred from diatoms reveals several major hydrological episodes. An obvious desalination of lake water occurred during the last cold interval of the Little Ice Age (about 1845–1885 AD), indicating a cold and moist climate. The lake salinity presented a rapid increase trend since the middle 1960s, with a peak value and high amplitude of salinity variability in the whole past 300 years. The low effective moisture inferred from the lake salinity may have contributed to the enhanced evaporation by the continuous increase of temperature in recent years.

Quantitative reconstruction of the paleosalinity at Qinghai Lake in the past 900 years

Based on the function relationship between the shell length ofLimnocythere inopinata and the salinity of its living water in Tibetan Plateau lakes, the paleosalinty of Qinghai Lake in the past 900 years was reconstructed through the measurement of the adult body length ofLimnocythere inopinata. Meanwhile, the paleosalinity sequence of Qinghai Lake during the same period was rebuilt by the Sr/Ca ratio of the shell ofEucypris inflata combined with the Sr/Ca ratio of living ostracod valves from the species of genusEucypris inflata and the host water. The paleosalinity results obtained by two different methods were compared and assessed in this paper. To check the result, it was also contrasted with other historical climatic sequences of this area including tree ring and ice core. It was shown that the paleosalinity sequence rebuilt by adult ostracod body length had high reliability, and the paleosalinity reconstruction method by trace elements of ostracod shells was not suitable for Qinghai Lake. From the reconstructed paleosalinty sequence of Qinghai Lake, it can be found that low salinity during 1160–1290 AD showed the humid climate condition on the Mediaeval Warm Period in this area, while the high salinity during 1410–1540 AD, 1610–1670 AD and 1770–1850 AD which was corresponding to the three cold pulses of the Little Ice Age with a dry climate condition. And the high salinity in the latest several decades was consistent with recent warm and dry trends of the climate in this area. The good consistency of the reconstructed palaeosalinity sequence and the precipitation sequence in this area rebuilt by tree ring proves the reconstruction of past lake salinity is reliable.

Diatom-based conductivity and water-level inference models from eastern Tibetan (Qinghai-Xizang) Plateau lakes

Climate in central Asia is dominated by the Asian monsoon. The varying impact of the summer monsoon across the Tibetan (Qinghai-Xizang) Plateau provides a strong gradient in precipitation, resulting in lakes of different salinity. Diatoms have been shown to indicate changes in salinity. Thus, transfer functions for diatoms and salinity or related environmental variables represent an excellent tool for paleoclimatic reconstructions in the Tibetan Plateau. Forty freshwater to hypersaline lakes (salinity: 0.1 to 91.7 g l−1) were investigated in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The relationship between 120 diatom taxa and conductivity, maximum water depth and major ions were analyzed using an indicator value approach, ordination and taxon response models. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that conductivity was the most important variable, accounting for 10.8% of the variance in the diatom assemblages. In addition water depth and weathering were influential. Weighted Averaging (WA) and Weighted Averaging Partial Least Square (WA-PLS) regression and calibration models were used to establish diatom-conductivity and water depth transfer functions. An optimal two-component WA-PLS model provided a high jack-knifed coefficient of prediction for conductivity (r2jack = 0.92), with a moderate root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEPjack = 0.22), a very low mean bias (0.0003), and a moderate maximum bias (0.26). A WA model with tolerance downweighting resulted in a slightly lower r2jack (0.89) for water depth, with RMSEPjack= 0.26, mean bias = −0.0103 and maximum bias = 0.26.