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Late Pleistocene lake and glaciation evolution on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau: a review

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Abstract

Late Pleistocene paleoclimatic history on northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) has been reconstructed mainly from lake sediments; however, data regarding dry–wet climate changes reported in this region are still not clear and controversial. Based on shoreline features and highstand lacustrine sediments around lakes on the QTP, high lake level histories in this paper were summarized and compared with paleoclimatic records from lake sediments, ice core and glaciation evolution surrounding mountains on the NE QTP during late Pleistocene. The results indicate that periods of high lake level occurred at MIS 5, MIS 3 and early-middle Holocene and most likely corresponding to warm and wet climate periods, while periods of low lake level existed in intervening intervals, corresponding to cold and dry climate periods, which most likely coincide with glacial advances surrounding high mountains. With an exception, no wide glacial advance in study area was found during MIS 3, possibly suggesting that effective moisture is lower than that in the other region of NE QTP in this period.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Hao Long, Dr. LvPeng Yu and Kai Liu for their help in field work. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41002060) and West Light Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant to QS Fan).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China

    QiShun Fan & HaiZhou Ma

  2. School of Life and Geographic Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, 810008, China

    GuangLiang Hou

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  1. QiShun Fan
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  2. HaiZhou Ma
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Correspondence to QiShun Fan.

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Fan, Q., Ma, H. & Hou, G. Late Pleistocene lake and glaciation evolution on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau: a review. Environ Earth Sci 66, 625–634 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1271-x

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