THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED: What caused the mid-Holocene forest decline on the eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau?

  1. Ulrike Herzschuh1,*,
  2. H. John B. Birks2,
  3. Xingqi Liu3,
  4. Claudia Kubatzki4,
  5. Gerrit Lohmann4

Article first published online: 27 NOV 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00501.x

Issue

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Volume 19, Issue 2, pages 278–286, March 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Herzschuh, U., Birks, H. J. B., Liu, X., Kubatzki, C. and Lohmann, G. (2010), THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED: What caused the mid-Holocene forest decline on the eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau?. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 19: 278–286. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00501.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegraphenberg A43, D-14473 Potsdam, and Department of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24, D-14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany,

  2. 2

    Department of Biology and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway and Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK,

  3. 3

    Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China,

  4. 4

    Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bussestr. 24, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany

* Ulrike Herzschuh, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegraphenberg A43, D-14473 Potsdam, and Department of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24, D-14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany. E-mail: Ulrike.Herzschuh@awi.de

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 5 FEB 2010
  2. Article first published online: 27 NOV 2009
Corrected by:

Retraction: What caused the mid-Holocene forest decline on the eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau?

Vol. 20, Issue 2, 366, Article first published online: 17 DEC 2010

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Keywords:

  • Climate change;
  • forest decline;
  • general circulation models;
  • Holocene;
  • human activity;
  • oxygen isotopes;
  • pollen;
  • transfer functions;
  • Tibet-Qinghai Plateau;
  • vegetation

ABSTRACT

Aim  Atmospheric CO2 concentrations depend, in part, on the amount of biomass locked up in terrestrial vegetation. Information on the causes of a broad-scale vegetation transition and associated loss of biomass is thus of critical interest for understanding global palaeoclimatic changes. Pollen records from the north-eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau reveal a dramatic and extensive forest decline beginning c. 6000 cal. yr bp. The aim of this study is to elucidate the causes of this regional-scale change from high-biomass forest to low-biomass steppe on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau during the second half of the Holocene.

Location  Our study focuses on the north-eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau. Stratigraphical data used are from Qinghai Lake (3200 m a.s.l., 36°32′–37°15′ N, 99°36′–100°47′ E).

Methods  We apply a modern pollen-precipitation transfer function from the eastern and north-eastern Tibet-Qinghai Plateau to fossil pollen spectra from Qinghai Lake to reconstruct annual precipitation changes during the Holocene. The reconstructions are compared to a stable oxygen-isotope record from the same sediment core and to results from two transient climate model simulations.

Results  The pollen-based precipitation reconstruction covering the Holocene parallels moisture changes inferred from the stable oxygen-isotope record. Furthermore, these results are in close agreement with simulated model-based past annual precipitation changes.

Main conclusions  In the light of these data and the model results, we conclude that it is not necessary to attribute the broad-scale forest decline to human activity. Climate change as a result of changes in the intensity of the East Asian Summer Monsoon in the mid-Holocene is the most parsimonious explanation for the widespread forest decline on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau. Moreover, climate feedback from a reduced forest cover accentuates increasingly drier conditions in the area, indicating complex vegetation–climate interactions during this major ecological change.

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