Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation and climate history of an alpine wetland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

This study provides a vegetation and climate history of an alpine wetland in the centre of China's Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) over the last 14.8 ka. High reso I u tion climate proxi es include vegetation (pol len), geochem i cal (Ba, Rb, δ13C) and physical (particle size and magnetic susceptibility) data; optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and AMS radiocarbon dating were used to reconstruct the environmental changes in the weti and ecosystem. Based on phys I cal and geochem I cal proxies, the sucession divided into five stratigraphic units encompassing time intervals of 14.76-14.31, 14.31-13.17, 13.17-4.47, 4.47-0.51 and 0.51-0 ka. The average sedimentation rate of all these units was 0.098 mm/a. The study showed that this ecosystem was sensitive to climate change.