Environmental change of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau recorded in the Lake Qinghai sediments

Abstract

Lake Qinghai has thick layers of the sediment over the range of 10,000 years. In order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment around the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, water content, TOC, OC isotopes of the sediment and ion concentration of Na⁺ and Cl^- of the pore water were examined. They show fluctuations which can be interpreted as variations of the past primary products and productivity, salinity change, and perhaps humidity.