Climate reconstructions based on GDGTs and pollen surface datasets from Mongolia and Siberia: Calibrations and applicability to extremely dry and cold environments

Abstract. Our understanding of climate and vegetation changes throughout the Holocene is hampered by biases in the proxy representativeness in sedimentary archives. Such potential biases are identified by comparing proxies to modern environments. Consequently, it becomes important to conduct multi-proxy studies and robust calibrations. The taiga-steppes of the Mongolian plateau, ranging from the extremely cold-dry Baikal basin to the Gobi desert, are characterized by low annual precipitation and continental annual air temperature as well as livestock grazing. The characterization of the climate system of this area is crucial for the understanding of Holocene Monsoon Oscillations. This study focuses on the calibration of proxy-climate relationships for pollen and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) by comparing large published Eurasian calibrations with a set of 53 new surface samples (moss, soil and surface sediments). We show that: (1) preserved pollen assemblages are clearly imprinted on the extremities of the ecosystem range but mitigated and unclear on the ecotones; (2) for both proxies, inferred relationships depend on the geographical range covered by the calibration database as well as on the sample nature; (3) local calibrations, even those derived to the low range of climate parameters encompassed in the study area, better reconstruct climatic parameters than the global ones by reducing the limits for saturation impact, and (4) a bias in climatic reconstructions is induced by the over-parameterization of the models by addition of artificial correlation. We encourage the application of this surface calibration method to consolidate our understanding of the Holocene climate and environment variations.

[1]  J. S. Sinninghe Damsté,et al.  BayMBT: A Bayesian calibration model for branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils and peats , 2020, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

[2]  J. Rethemeyer,et al.  Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) in high latitude Siberian permafrost: Diversity, environmental controls, and implications for proxy applications , 2019, Organic Geochemistry.

[3]  A. Timmermann,et al.  Mediterranean winter rainfall in phase with African monsoons during the past 1.36 million years , 2019, Nature.

[4]  D. Sauer,et al.  Spatial pattern of Late Glacial and Holocene climatic and environmental development in Western Mongolia - A critical review and synthesis , 2019, Quaternary Science Reviews.

[5]  M. Słowakiewicz,et al.  Depth-dependent variation of archaeal ether lipids along soil and peat profiles from southern China: Implications for the use of isoprenoidal GDGTs as environmental tracers , 2019, Organic Geochemistry.

[6]  Yanyan Lei,et al.  Distribution of glycerol ethers in Turpan soils: implications for use of GDGT-based proxies in hot and dry regions , 2018, Frontiers of Earth Science.

[7]  R. Pancost,et al.  Different Temperature Dependence of the Bacterial Brgdgt Isomers in 35 Chinese Lake Sediments Compared to that in Soils , 2018, 29th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry.

[8]  E. Bard,et al.  The importance of mass accuracy in selected ion monitoring analysis of branched and isoprenoid tetraethers , 2018 .

[9]  S. Erasmi,et al.  Climate effects on vegetation vitality at the treeline of boreal forests of Mongolia , 2018 .

[10]  Stephen E. Fick,et al.  WorldClim 2: new 1‐km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas , 2017 .

[11]  K. Acharya,et al.  How reliable are non-pollen palynomorphs in tracing vegetation changes and grazing activities? Study from the Darjeeling Himalaya, India , 2017 .

[12]  M. Bunting,et al.  Relation between modern pollen rain, vegetation and climate in northern China: Implications for quantitative vegetation reconstruction in a steppe environment. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[13]  N. Combourieu-Nebout,et al.  Precipitation changes in the Mediterranean basin during the Holocene from terrestrial and marine pollen records: a model–data comparison , 2017 .

[14]  S. Clemens,et al.  Midlatitude land surface temperature impacts the timing and structure of glacial maxima , 2017 .

[15]  P. Podwojewski,et al.  Consideration of soil types for the calibration of molecular proxies for soil pH and temperature using global soil datasets and Vietnamese soil profiles , 2016 .

[16]  Limin Hu,et al.  Ubiquitous production of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers(brGDGTs) in global marine environments: a new source indicator for brGDGTs , 2016 .

[17]  K. Wesche,et al.  The Palaearctic steppe biome: a new synthesis , 2016, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[18]  R. Pancost,et al.  Evidence of moisture control on the methylation of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in semi-arid and arid soils , 2016 .

[19]  J. Damsté,et al.  Spatial heterogeneity of sources of branched tetraethers in shelf systems : The geochemistry of tetraethers in the Berau River delta (Kalimantan, Indonesia) , 2016 .

[20]  Weiguo Liu,et al.  Appraisal of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether-based indices for North China , 2016 .

[21]  G. Jia,et al.  Warm season bias of branched GDGT temperature estimates causes underestimation of altitudinal lapse rate , 2016 .

[22]  S. Xie,et al.  Absence of a significant bias towards summer temperature in branched tetraether-based paleothermometer at two soil sites with contrasting temperature seasonality , 2016 .

[23]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  The effect of improved chromatography on GDGT-based palaeoproxies , 2016 .

[24]  Jinsheng He,et al.  Distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in surface soils of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau: implications of brGDGTs-based proxies in cold and dry regions , 2015 .

[25]  J. Ni,et al.  A modern pollen–climate dataset from China and Mongolia: Assessing its potential for climate reconstruction , 2014 .

[26]  R. Cheddadi,et al.  East Asian pollen database: modern pollen distribution and its quantitative relationship with vegetation and climate , 2014 .

[27]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Occurrence and abundance of 6-methyl branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils : Implications for palaeoclimate reconstruction , 2014 .

[28]  U. Herzschuh,et al.  What drives the recent intensified vegetation degradation in Mongolia – Climate change or human activity? , 2014 .

[29]  R. Evershed,et al.  Correlations between microbial tetraether lipids and environmental variables in Chinese soils: Optimizing the paleo-reconstructions in semi-arid and arid regions , 2014 .

[30]  E. Hopmans,et al.  In situ produced branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in suspended particulate matter from the Yenisei River, Eastern Siberia , 2014 .

[31]  Zhaodong Feng,et al.  Pollen–climate transfer functions intended for temperate eastern Asia , 2013 .

[32]  Zhaodong Feng,et al.  Holocene moisture evolution across the Mongolian Plateau and its surrounding areas: A synthesis of climatic records , 2013 .

[33]  A. Lücke,et al.  Reconstruction of palaeoprecipitation based on pollen transfer functions – the record of the last 16 ka from Laguna Potrok Aike, southern Patagonia , 2013 .

[34]  N. Combourieu-Nebout,et al.  Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data , 2013 .

[35]  S. Derenne,et al.  Effects of a short-term experimental microclimate warming on the abundance and distribution of branched GDGTs in a French peatland , 2013 .

[36]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids in the water column of Lake Tanganyika , 2012 .

[37]  R. B. Jackson,et al.  Revised calibration of the MBT-CBT paleotemperature proxy , 2012 .

[38]  Yan Zhao,et al.  Evaluation of climate models using palaeoclimatic data , 2012 .

[39]  F. Lehmkuhl,et al.  Late Quaternary climate and landscape evolution in arid Central Asia: A multiproxy study of lake archive Bayan Tohomin Nuur¢, Gobi desert, southern Mongolia , 2012 .

[40]  R. Evershed,et al.  Microbial lipid records of highly alkaline deposits and enhanced aridity associated with significant uplift of the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Miocene , 2012 .

[41]  Christian Ohlwein,et al.  Review of probabilistic pollen-climate transfer methods , 2012 .

[42]  J. Protze,et al.  Holocene geomorphological processes and soil development as indicator for environmental change aroun , 2011 .

[43]  R. S. Thompson,et al.  Pollen-based continental climate reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: a global synthesis , 2011 .

[44]  Qinghai Xu,et al.  Pollen–vegetation–climate relationships in some desert and desert-steppe communities in northern China , 2011 .

[45]  Cécile Brun.  Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams in eastern France: a critical review , 2011 .

[46]  Xiaohua Wang,et al.  Distributions and temperature dependence of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in recent lacustrine sediments from China and Nepal , 2011 .

[47]  U. Herzschuh,et al.  Asynchronous evolution of the Indian and East Asian Summer Monsoon indicated by Holocene moisture patterns in monsoonal central Asia , 2010 .

[48]  K. Hjelle,et al.  Effect of vegetation data collection strategies on estimates of relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) and relative pollen productivity estimates (relative PPE) for non-arboreal taxa , 2010 .

[49]  L. Marquer,et al.  A neotaphonomic experiment in pollen oxidation and its implications for archaeopalynology , 2010 .

[50]  T. Arnold.  Uninformative Parameters and Model Selection Using Akaike's Information Criterion , 2010 .

[51]  Stephen J. Brooks,et al.  Moisture changes over the last millennium in arid central Asia: a review, synthesis and comparison with monsoon region , 2010 .

[52]  Richard J. Telford,et al.  Evaluation of transfer functions in spatially structured environments , 2009 .

[53]  M. Gaillard,et al.  Relevant Source Area of Pollen in patchy cultural landscapes and signals of anthropogenic landscape disturbance in the pollen record: A simulation approach , 2009 .

[54]  Fahu Chen,et al.  Holocene climate variability in arid Asia: Nature and mechanisms , 2009 .

[55]  F. Mazier,et al.  Estimating the Relevant Source Area of Pollen in the past cultural landscapes of southern Sweden -- A forward modelling approach , 2009 .

[56]  Fahu Chen,et al.  Holocene environmental changes in Mongolia: A review , 2008 .

[57]  Kam‐biu Liu,et al.  A survey of modern pollen and vegetation along a south–north transect in Mongolia , 2008 .

[58]  R. Cheddadi,et al.  Comparison of climatic threshold of geographical distribution between dominant plants and surface pollen in China , 2008 .

[59]  B. Rumes,et al.  Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years , 2008, Science.

[60]  Anne-Béatrice Dufour,et al.  The ade4 Package: Implementing the Duality Diagram for Ecologists , 2007 .

[61]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Warm arctic continents during the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum , 2007 .

[62]  Q. Wei-hong,et al.  Identifying the northernmost summer monsoon location in East Asia , 2007 .

[63]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Environmental controls on bacterial tetraether membrane lipid distribution in soils , 2007 .

[64]  D. Thompson,et al.  An improved method to determine the absolute abundance of glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether lipids , 2006 .

[65]  Hongyan Liu,et al.  Climatic and anthropogenic control of surface pollen assemblages in East Asian steppes , 2006 .

[66]  Qinghai Xu,et al.  Pollen‐vegetation relationship and pollen preservation on the Northeastern Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau , 2005 .

[67]  D. Demske,et al.  Late glacial and Holocene vegetation and regional climate variability evidenced in high-resolution pollen records from Lake Baikal , 2005 .

[68]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Water table related variations in the abundance of intact archaeal membrane lipids in a Swedish peat bog. , 2004, FEMS microbiology letters.

[69]  V. Mosbrugger,et al.  Eemian to early Würmian climate dynamics: history and pattern of changes in Central Europe , 2004 .

[70]  U. Herzschuh,et al.  Holocene vegetation and climate of the Alashan Plateau, NW China, reconstructed from pollen data , 2004 .

[71]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  A novel proxy for terrestrial organic matter in sediments based on branched and isoprenoid tetraether lipids , 2004 .

[72]  Stephen T. Jackson,et al.  MODERN ANALOGS IN QUATERNARY PALEOECOLOGY: Here Today, Gone Yesterday, Gone Tomorrow? , 2004 .

[73]  S. Hicks,et al.  Pollen deposition in mosses and in a modified ‘Tauber trap’ from Hailuoto, Finland: what exactly do the mosses record? , 2004 .

[74]  H. Birks,et al.  A modern pollen–climate calibration set from northern Europe: developing and testing a tool for palaeoclimatological reconstructions , 2004 .

[75]  U. Herzschuh,et al.  The surface pollen and relative pollen production of the desert vegetation of the Alashan Plateau, western Inner Mongolia , 2003 .

[76]  J. Guiot,et al.  Continental European Eemian and early Würmian climate evolution: comparing signals using different quantitative reconstruction approaches based on pollen , 2003 .

[77]  Andreas Hense,et al.  Probability Density Functions as Botanical-Climatological Transfer Functions for Climate Reconstruction , 2002, Quaternary Research.

[78]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Analysis of intact tetraether lipids in archaeal cell material and sediments by high performance liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry. , 2000, Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM.

[79]  K. Hjelle.  Relationships between pollen and plants in human-influenced vegetation types using presence-absence data in western Norway , 1997 .

[80]  B Huntley,et al.  Reconstructing biomes from palaeoecological data: a general method and its application to European pollen data at 0 and 6 ka , 1996 .

[81]  Steve Juggins,et al.  Weighted averaging partial least squares regression (WA-PLS): an improved method for reconstructing environmental variables from species assemblages , 1993, Hydrobiologia.

[82]  H. Birks,et al.  The use of Rarefaction Analysis for Estimating Palynological Richness from Quaternary Pollen-Analytical Data , 1992 .

[83]  J. Guiot,et al.  Methodology of the last climatic cycle reconstruction in France from pollen data , 1990 .

[84]  B Huntley,et al.  July Temperatures in Europe from Pollen Data, 6000 Years Before Present , 1988, Science.

[85]  J. Overpeck,et al.  Quantitative Interpretation of Fossil Pollen Spectra: Dissimilarity Coefficients and the Method of Modern Analogs , 1985, Quaternary Research.

[86]  I. Prentice.  Pollen Representation, Source Area, and Basin Size: Toward a Unified Theory of Pollen Analysis , 1985, Quaternary Research.

[87]  J. A. Goss,et al.  EFFECT OF SALINITY ON POLLEN I. POLLEN VIABILITY AS ALTERED BY INCREASING OSMOTIC PRESSURE WITH NACL, MGCL2, AND CACL2 , 1971 .

[88]  M. Symonds,et al.  A brief guide to model selection, multimodel inference and model averaging in behavioural ecology using Akaike’s information criterion , 2010, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[89]  Qinghai Xu,et al.  Pollen assemblages of tauber traps and surface soil samples in steppe areas of China and their relationships with vegetation and climate , 2009 .

[90]  under a Creative Commons License. Climate of the Past Historical droughts in Mediterranean regions during the last 500 years: a data/model approach , 2007 .

[91]  R. Ahmad,et al.  EFFECT OF SALINITY ON POLLEN VIABILITY OF DIFFERENT CANOLA (BRASSICA NAPUS L.) CULTIVARS AS REFLECTED BY THE FORMATION OF FRUITS AND SEEDS , 2006 .

[92]  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/joc.1276 VERY HIGH RESOLUTION INTERPOLATED CLIMATE SURFACES FOR GLOBAL LAND AREAS , 2005 .

[93]  N. Sharkhuu,et al.  Recent changes in the permafrost of Mongolia , 2002 .

[94]  Stefan Schouten,et al.  Newly discovered non-isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids in sediments , 2000 .

[95]  E. Grimm.  CONISS: a FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares , 1987 .

[96]  Patrick J. Bartlein,et al.  Climatic response surfaces from pollen data for some eastern North American taxa , 1986 .

[97]  Liu Xinwu.  This is How the Discussion Started , 1981 .