Low- and high-latitude influences have shaped the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau climate over the past 1.74 million years.

The Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratio is assumed to be a useful index for reconstructing moisture changes in arid and semi-arid regions. Thorough modern pollen studies are still lacking to understand the reliability and limitation of A/C ratio as a moisture indicator, however. Here we review how well this ratio can be applied in arid and semi-arid China on the basis of new surface pollen data, previous data synthesis and other publications. Results indicate that variance in the A/C ratio can permit identification of modern vegetation types and that the A/C ratio generally has a positive relationship with annual precipitation. However, soil salinity, vegetation community composition, human activity and sample provenance (e.g. soil and lake sediments) will affect the values of the A/C ratio in different vegetation zones and therefore the A/C ratio is not comparable in different regions. We argue that the A/C ratio can only be used to reconstruct vegetation types and climate change in regions with precipitation <450–500 mm, and in steppe, steppe desert and desert areas. Careful studies should be undertaken to understand the modern pollen–vegetation–climate relationships in various regions before using the A/C ratio to interpret vegetation and climate.

Arid Central Asia (ACA) lies on a major climatic boundary between the mid-latitude westerlies and the northwestern limit of the Asian summer monsoon, yet only a few high-quality reconstructions exist for its climate history. Here we calibrate a new organic geochemical proxy for lake temperature, and present a 45-yr-resolution temperature record from Hurleg Lake at the eastern margin of the ACA in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Combination with other proxy data from the same samples reveals a distinct warm–dry climate association throughout the record, which contrasts with the warm–wet association found in the Asian monsoon region. This indicates that the climatic boundary between the westerly and the monsoon regimes has remained roughly in the same place throughout the Holocene, at least near our study site. Six millennial-scale cold events are found within the past 9000 yr, which approximately coincide with previously documented events of northern high-latitude cooling and tropical drought. This suggests a connection between the North Atlantic and tropical monsoon climate systems, via the westerly circulation. Finally, we also observe an increase in regional climate variability after the mid-Holocene, which we relate to changes in vegetation (forest) cover in the monsoon region through a land-surface albedo feedback.

The Zoige Basin on the eastern Tibetan Plateau has the largest area of highland peatlands in China. However, the development history of these peatlands is still poorly understood. Understanding how these carbon-rich ecosystems responded to change in the Asian summer monsoons during the Holocene will provide insight into the peatland carbon accumulation processes under different climate boundary conditions. Here, we document the timing of initiation and expansion histories of these peatlands using 59 new basal peat ages across the Zoige Basin, with 29 ages for initiation analysis and 30 additional ages for lateral expansion analysis. Also, we synthesized basal ages from 26 sites and carbon accumulation records at four sites from previous studies in this region. The results show that the peatland initiation is widespread at 11.5–10 and 7–6 kyr (1 kyr = 1000 cal. yr BP) and the minimum initiation periods occurred after 5 kyr. Our multiple basal ages along eight transects show that slopes are a dominant control on peatland lateral expansion rates, with very slow and less variable rates at slopes >0.4°. Furthermore, we found a significant relationship between peatland basal ages and peat depths from 85 sites, suggesting relatively uniform peat properties. Carbon accumulation rates from detailed downcore analysis at four sites and on the basis of peat depth–basal age relationship show similar patterns with a peak carbon accumulation at 10–8 kyr. On the basis of estimated mean values of bulk density and carbon content from the region, the Holocene average C accumulation for the Zoige Basin is 31.1 g C/m²/yr. The widespread peatland initiation and rapid accumulation in the early Holocene were likely in response to higher temperature and stronger summer monsoon intensity, while the slowdown of peatland development during the late Holocene might have been caused by climate cooling and drying.