Quaternary climate change in the most continental part of Central Asia
Final Report Abstract
Multi-proxy analyses of the sediment cores from Lake Karakul were used to infer the lake history since 31 cal ka BP, and vegetation and climate change in the region in the Holocene. Relatively low lake levels were recorded before 23 ka and after 6.5 cal ka BP, probably because of cold-dry conditions in the earlier period and due to the middle Holocene temperature decline and reduced moisture availability in the latter phase. Higher lake levels existed after the global LGM, and they culminated ca. 15 cal ka BP with levels ca. 35 m higher than present. The pollen record from Lake Karakul represents local and regional vegetation change and climate conditions only since the beginning of the Holocene due to a very high portion of fardistance transported grains including arboreal taxa in the Late Pleistocene. The early and middle Holocene until ca. 6.7 cal ka BP was characterized by relatively sparse open steppe vegetation, probably as a result of high evapotranspiration during the summer insolation maximum in the lower northern latitudes. Steppe vegetation was denser between 5.4 and 1.0 cal ka BP, when reduced Holocene temperatures caused a higher effective moisture in the region. Alpine steppe and meadows increased since ca. 1.0 cal ka BP, accompanied by evidence for human impact in the region due to grazing. Human impact on the local vegetation is thus traceable only since very recent times although the Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic Markansu Culture existed near the lake in the early and middle Holocene.
Publications
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2017. Macrophyte dynamics in Lake Karakul (Eastern Pamir) over the last 29 cal kyr BP revealed by sedimentary ancient DNA and geochemical analyses of macrofossil remains. Journal of Paleolimnology, 58: 403-417
Heinecke, L., Epp, L.S., Reschke, M., Stoof-Leichsenring, K., Mischke, S., Plessen, B., Herzschuh, U.
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2017. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments from Lake Karakul, Tajikistan. Quaternary Geochronology, 41: 51-61
Mischke, S., Lai, Z., Aichner, B., Heinecke, L., Mahmoudov, Z., Kuessner, M., Herzschuh, U.
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Climatic and limnological changes at Lake Karakul (Tajikistan) during the last 29 cal ka BP. Journal of Paleolimnology, 58: 317-334
Heinecke, L., Mischke, S., Adler, K., Barth, A., Biskaborn, B.K., Plessen, B., Nitze, I., Kuhn, G., Rajabov, I., Kuhn, G., Herzschuh, U.
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2018. Vegetation change in the eastern Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan, inferred from Lake Karakul pollen spectra of the last 28 kyr. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 511: 232-242
Heinecke, L., Tian, F., Mischke, S., Herzschuh, U., Fletcher, W.
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2019. Hydroclimate in the Pamirs was driven by changes in precipitation-evaporation seasonality since the last glacial period. Geophysical Research Letters, 46: 13,972–13,983
Aichner, B., Pausata, F., Zhang, Q., Werner, M., Heinecke, L., Mahmoudov, Z., Rajabov, I., Feakins, S., Sachse, D., Mischke, S.
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2020. Re-examination of Cyclotella lacunarum Hustedt (Bacillariophyta) from lakes in the Pamir Mountains, western China, and description of two similar Lindavia taxa collected from Tajikistan and Nepal. Diatom Research, 35: 63-84
Rioual, P., Pang, Y., Jin, Z., Lami, A., Marchetto, A., Mischke, S., Zhang, F., Zhang, Z., Yang, X.
