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Lake ecosystem dynamics and links to climate change inferred from a stable isotope and organic palaeorecord from a mountain lake in southwestern China (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charlotte G. Cook ,
Melanie J. Leng ,
Richard T. Jones ,
Peter G. Langdon  and
Enlou Zhang
Charlotte G. Cook*
Affiliation:
Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK
Melanie J. Leng
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK
Richard T. Jones
Affiliation:
Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK
Peter G. Langdon
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Enlou Zhang
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, PR China
*
*Corresponding author at: Climate Change Research Centre, Level 4 Mathews Building, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Fax: + 61 2 9385 8969. E-mail address:charlotte.cook@unsw.edu.au (C.G. Cook).
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Abstract

A detailed understanding of long-term climatic and environmental change in southwestern China is hampered by a lack of long-term regional palaeorecords. Organic analysis (%TOC, %TN, C/N ratios and δ13C values) of a sediment sequence from Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP) indicates generally low aquatic palaeoproductivity rates over millennial timescales in response to cold, dry climatic conditions. However, the record is punctuated by two marked phases of increased aquatic productivity from ca. 17.7 to 17.1 cal ka BP and from ca. 11.9 to 10.5 cal ka BP. We hypothesise that these shifts reflect a marked, stepwise lacustrine response to Asian summer monsoon strengthening during the last deglaciation.

Keywords

Late PleistoceneAsian MonsoonLake PalaeoproductivityCarbon isotopesC/N ratios
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 132 - 137
Copyright
University of Washington

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