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| Titel |
Holocene vegetation change in the eastern Pamirs, Tajikistan, inferred from the pollen record of Lake Karakul |
| VerfasserIn |
Liv Heinecke, Ulrike Herzschuh, Steffen Mischke |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250080544
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The topography of Central Asia is characterized by large differences in altitude which
complicates the discussion about regional patterns of climate history. An increasing number
of local studies concerning the Holocene climate changes in this region revealed significant
spatial differences. However, more records are needed to allow for a discussion about
regional patterns of climate history. Here we present the first palynological study from a lake
sediment core of Lake Karakul in the eastern Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan, that reaches back
into the early Holocene.
Lake Karakul is a deep brackish-water lake that lies embedded in a closed basin at ca.
4000 m above sea level. It is regarded as a valuable archive due to its remoteness and almost
absent human impact. In 2012, the short-core KK12-15 was retrieved from 238 m depth in
the center of the deep western sub-basin of the lake and analysed for its pollen
assemblages.
Vegetation changes are well recorded throughout the core and correspond with an earlier
study that was conducted on a late Holocene sediment core from the shallow eastern
sub-basin of Lake Karakul. Although Artemisia is the dominating species (60-80 %) in both
studies, the results show clear changes in the vegetation composition and reflect thereby
variations of climate conditions. In the lower part of core KK12-15, higher percentages of
Ephedra fragilis-type were found. As Ephedra generally represents desert vegetation it
indicates towards drier conditions that were also reconstructed for many regions of Central
Asia during the early Holocene. These findings correspond well with the result of
radiocarbon dating, which indicates an age of 12660 cal. yr BP for the base of core KK12-15. |
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