Late Pleistocene palynological records from the Qaidam Basin (North Tibet) and their implications for Qarhan Lake evolution

• Published in: Journal of Asian earth sciences 2025-02, Vol.278, p.106418, Article 106418
• Main Authors: Ke, Xue, Han, Fang, Bai, Xudong, Yang, Tinglu, Song, Taizhong, Zhang, Zongyan, Yang, Wenjun, Zhang, Jinming, Song, Bowen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Late Pleistocene; Paleoclimate; Qaidam Basin; Qarhan paleolake; Sporopollen
• ISSN: 1367-9120
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jseaes.2024.106418

•Reconstruct the paleovegetation and paleoclimatic evolution during the Late Pleistocene using pollen data.•Establish modern pollen-climate transfer functions for the Qaidam Basin and its surrounding areas.•Quantitatively reconstruct the mean annual precipitation in Qarhan Salt Lake for the first time.•Reconstruct the spatial distribution pattern of the lake evolution for Qarhan Lake in the Late Pleistocene with a threefold division. Qarhan Salt Lake was the depocenter of the Qaidam Basin during the Quaternary, with a very thick sequence of lacustrine sediments. Continuous lacustrine sediments provide excellent archives of detailed paleoenvironmental data regarding climatic changes in the Qaidam Basin and northern Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, there isconsiderable controversyconcerning the lake and climatic evolution during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3). In this study, the palynological remains from two drill cores in Qarhan Salt Lake, Qaidam Basin, were analyzed in conjunction with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating, with the aim of reconstructing the vegetation and paleoenvironment changes in the Qarhan Lake area during the Late Pleistocene. In addition, based on modern pollen–climate transfer functions for the Qaidam Basin and its surrounding areas, together with the fossil pollen data from dated sedimentcores, we quantitatively reconstructed the mean annual precipitation in Qarhan Salt Lake area during the Late Pleistocene. By integrating these new data with lithological and palynological records from adjacent cores in Qarhan Salt Lake, the spatial distribution pattern of the lake evolution of Qarhan Lake in the Late Pleistocene was also reconstructed.