Lake Donggi Cona, Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Funding

DFG (2008-2014)

This research work is integrated in the recently established DFG Priority Programme "Tibetan Plateau: Formation - Climate - Ecosystems (TiP)" and will be supported through the bundle project "Landscape and Lake-System Response to Late Quaternary Monsoon Dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau - Northern Transect". The project members are listed below.

Cooperation

• Prof. Dr. Bernd Wünnemann, School of Geography and Oceanography, Nanjing University, Hanko Road 22, 210093 Nanjing, China
• Dr. Kai Hartmann & Prof. Dr. Steffen Mischke
  Geomorphology & Geoecology
  Free University Berlin
  Geography Department
  Berlin, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Frank Lehmkuhl & Dr. Georg Stauch
  RWTH Aachen
  Geography Department
  Aachen, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Shijie Li
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
  NIGLAS
  Nanjing, Peoples Republic of China
• Prof. Dr. Huijun Jin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAREERI, Lanzhou, Peoples Republic of China
• Prof. Dr. Ulrike Herzschuh, AWI Potsdam
• Prof. Dr. Steffen Mischke, University Potsdam

Background

Climate variability on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau mainly depends on changes in monsoon activity and the influence of the westerly wind system, controlled by tropical atmospheric processes in connection with global circulation patterns. Several palaeoenvironmental studies revealed that the periglacial and aquatic geoecosystems of the Tibetan Plateau show complex reactions to climate changes on different time scales.

The overall goal of AWI field work in China is to investigate periglacial and limnogeological processes on the “third pole of the earth” and to decipher the natural causes of climate changes since the last ice age. The outcomes of the research will help to better assess the degree of anthropogenic influences on modern warming and regional environmental changes, such as pedogenic trace-gas relase, permafrost degradation, glacier retreat, and the modification of hydrology and lake settings. The final goal is to compare and understand climatic responses of the subtropical high-altitude permafrost regions of China with those in the periglacial realm of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. The following scientific questions will be addressed:

• Is regional climatic change on the NE Tibetan Plateau correlated with over-regional and global climate signals?
• What are the common and deviant features of climate change on the NE Tibetan Plateau in respect to global climate changes?
• How does the abiotic lacustrine environment (lake level, salinity, nutrient availability) respond to changes in landscape development, catchment hydrology, and variable detrital influxes by glacial, fluvial, aeolian and permafrost dynamics?
• How do terrestrial vegetation and aquatic biotic communities respond to these abiotic environmental changes?
• Are there environmental responses to non-climatic impulses (tectonics, human impact)?
• What is the speciality of the recent warming phase under the consideration of natural and anthropogenic impacts?

Field Work Campaigns

In August 2006 and September 2009, two three-week field trips to Lake Donggi Cona were carried out for geoecological, geomorphological, and seismic/bathymetric surveys of the lake basin and the surrounding catchment area. Sediment-core retrieval was conducted in spring 2007 and 2008. 

The next campaign will take place in summer 2011 and will be devoted to geomorphological and limnogeological field work at Lake Hai Hei, about 300 km west of Lake Donggi Cona.

Outcomes

• Opitz, S., Wünnemann, B., Aichner, B., Dietze, E., Hartmann, K., Herzschuh, U., Ijmker, J., Lehmkuhl, F., Shijie Li, Mischke, S., Plotzki, A., Stauch, G., Diekmann, B. (submitted). Late glacial and Holocene development of Lake Donggi Cona, north-eastern Tibetan Plateau, inferred from sedimentological analysis. - Palaeogeography Palaeoclimaotology Palaeoecology.
• IJmker, J.M., Stauch, G., Hartmann, K., Diekmann, B., Dietze, E., Opitz, S., Wünnemann, B., Lehmkuhl, F. (in press).  Environmental conditions in the Donggi Cona lake catchment, NE Tibetan Plateau, based on factor analysis of geochemical data. - Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, DOI: 10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.04.021.
• Dietze, E., Wünnemann, B., Diekmann, B., Aichner, B., Hartmann, K., Herzschuh, U., IJmker, J., Jin Huijun, Kopsch, C., Lehmkuhl, F., Li Shijie, Mischke, S., Niessen, F., Opitz, S., Stauch, G., Yang Sizhong (2010). Basin Morphology and Seismic Stratigraphy of Lake Donggi Cona, north-eastern Tibetan Plateau, China. - Quaternary International, 218: 131-142.
• Mischke, S., Aichner, B., Diekmann, B., Herzschuh, U., Plessen, B., Wünnemann, B., Zhang, C. (2010). Ostracods and stable isotopes of a late glacial and Holocene lake record from the NE Tibetan Plateau. - Chemical Geology, 276: 95-103.
• Mischke, S., Bößneck, U., Diekmann, B., Herzschuh, U., Jin, H., Kramer, A., Wünnemann, B., Zhang, C. (2010). Quantitative relationship between water-depth and sub-fossil ostracod assemblages in Lake Donggi Cona, Qinghai Province, China. - Journal of Paleolimnology, 43: 589-608, doi:10.1007/s10933-009-9355-2.
• Wünnemann, B., Demske, D., Tarasov, P., Kotlia, B.S., Reinhardt, C., Bloemendal, J., Diekmann, B., Hartmann, K., Krois, J., Riedel, F., Arya, N. (2010). Hydrological evolution during the last 15 kyr in the Tso Kar lake basin (Ladakh, India), derived from geomor-phological, sedimentological and palynological records. - Quaternary Science Reviews, 29 (9-10): 1138-1155.
• Plotzki, Anna (2009): Klimagekoppelte Sedimentationsdynamik im spätquartären Donggi Cona See, nordöstliches Tibetplateau (Diploma Thesis, University Trier/AWI Potsdam). 
• Mühling, Marc (2009): Paläoumweltrekonstruktion des Donggi Cona, Tibet-Plateau, China, anhand von stabilen Isotopen limnischer Karbonate (Diploma Thesis, Free University Berlin).
• Yang, S., Jin, H., Diekmann, B., Wünnemann, B., Mischke, S., Ji, Yanjun, Chen, J., Yang, Q. (2006). Sino-Germany Joint Investigated Environmental Changes in Donggi Cona Lake Area on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology, 28(6): 850-853.