A general cooling trend on the central Tibetan Plateau throughout the Holocene recorded by the Lake Zigetang pollen spectra

A 741-cm-long laminated sediment core, covering the last 10,800 years was collected from Lake Zigetang, central Tibetan Plateau (90.9°E, 32.0°N, 4560 m a.s.l.), and analysed palynologically at 69 horizons. Biome reconstruction suggests a dominance of temperate steppe vegetation (mainly Artemisia and Poaceae) on the central Tibetan Plateau during the first half of the Holocene (10.8–4.4 cal. ka BP), while alpine steppes with desert elements (mainly Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and characteristic high-alpine herb families) tend to dominate the second half (4.4–0 cal. ka BP). The Artemisia/Cyperaceae ratio—a semi-quantitative measure for summer temperature—indicates a general cooling trend throughout the Holocene. Dense temperate steppe vegetation and maximum desert plant withdrawal, however, indicate that a suitable balance of wet and warm conditions for optimum vegetation growth likely occurred during the middle Holocene (7.3–4.4 cal. ka BP). Severe Early Holocene cold events have been reconstructed for 8.7–8.3 and ∼7.4 cal. ka BP.