Project Details
Projekt
SPP 1372: Tibetan Plateau: Formation - Climate - Ecosystems (TiP)
Subject Area
Geosciences
Term
from 2008 to 2016
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 58017702
The Tibetan Plateau is a determining factor for the Asian monsoon system. A major part of Asia's water supply is dependent on the hydrological cycle related to the plateau. Human impacts on it may have far reaching consequences. The formation of the plateau, especially its tectonic uplift, is still an enigma in Earth science. The Priority Programme TiP researches processes, interactions and feedbacks of the driving forces plateau formation, climate and human impact and their effect on ecosystems on three different time scales:
(1) Plateau formation and related climate change of the past ca 70 million years: TiP aims to reveal the impact of plateau formation on climate and ecosystems on a time-scale of millions to several tens of millions of years. The plateau formation is deduced from geodynamic processes and proxies of elevation history. TiP uses lacustrine and terrestrial archives to reconstruct the palaeo-environmental evolution and relate these results to the evolution of the plateau. (2) Late Cenozoic climate evolution and environmental response during the last hundred thousand years: TiP aims to better understand the natural variability of monsoonal precipitation and melt water production. Therefore, TiP proposes to discern the influence of specific monsoonal air masses whose interaction causes a distinct spatial and temporal pattern of precipitation. The impact of precipitation and melt water production on sediment routing (sediment cascades) within lake catchments from different monsoonal regimes is proposed to serve for characterisation of the environmental responses to monsoon dynamics during the Late Cenozoic. (3) Human impact and global change on ecosystems during the past ca 8000 years and future perspectives: TiP aims to clarify the role of geological and anthropogenic factors for the development of the existing Earth system. TiP investigates which unique regional climatic features exist at the formed plateau, how they developed and how they feed back to the global climate system. TiP investigates how the appearance of man and global change affected the Tibetan ecosystem and how this might feed back to the global system.
(1) Plateau formation and related climate change of the past ca 70 million years: TiP aims to reveal the impact of plateau formation on climate and ecosystems on a time-scale of millions to several tens of millions of years. The plateau formation is deduced from geodynamic processes and proxies of elevation history. TiP uses lacustrine and terrestrial archives to reconstruct the palaeo-environmental evolution and relate these results to the evolution of the plateau. (2) Late Cenozoic climate evolution and environmental response during the last hundred thousand years: TiP aims to better understand the natural variability of monsoonal precipitation and melt water production. Therefore, TiP proposes to discern the influence of specific monsoonal air masses whose interaction causes a distinct spatial and temporal pattern of precipitation. The impact of precipitation and melt water production on sediment routing (sediment cascades) within lake catchments from different monsoonal regimes is proposed to serve for characterisation of the environmental responses to monsoon dynamics during the Late Cenozoic. (3) Human impact and global change on ecosystems during the past ca 8000 years and future perspectives: TiP aims to clarify the role of geological and anthropogenic factors for the development of the existing Earth system. TiP investigates which unique regional climatic features exist at the formed plateau, how they developed and how they feed back to the global climate system. TiP investigates how the appearance of man and global change affected the Tibetan ecosystem and how this might feed back to the global system.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
International Connection
China, United Kingdom, USA
Projects
- Age, development and limnology of extant Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau lakes: A reconstruction based on phylogeography and palaeoecology of the gastropod genus Radix (Applicants Mischke, Steffen ; Riedel, Frank ; Wiechert, Uwe ; Wilke, Thomas )
- Bridging Timescales of Tibetan Plateau Environmental Change: An Integration of Earth System Modeling with Modern and Paleo- environmental Proxies (Applicants Ehlers, Todd Alan ; Paeth, Heiko )
- Carbon pools in spruce forests of the Qilian Mountains (north-eastern Tibetan Plateau under the influence of global warming and land use (Applicant Hauck, Markus )
- Determination of the age of lake terraces, the last glacial advance, and rates of normal faulting in the Tangra Yum Co graben using 10Be exposure and optically stimulated luminescence dating (Applicants Frechen, Manfred Anton ; Hetzel, Ralf )
- Development and degradation of Kobresia root mats and their effects on C and N turnover and C sequestration (Applicants Guggenberger, Georg ; Kuzyakov, Yakov )
- Dynamic Response of Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau to Climate Change - Phase III (DynRG-TiP-III) (Applicants Buchroithner, Manfred F. ; Scherer, Dieter ; Schneider, Christoph )
- Formation and erosional decay of peneplains in the northern Gandise belt, Tibetan Plateau, revealed by low-temperature thermochronology and cosmogenic nuclides (Applicants Dunkl, István ; Hetzel, Ralf )
- India-Eurasia plate convergence and environmental consequences (Applicants Appel, Erwin ; Willems, Helmut )
- Integrated System Analysis to Understand the Implications of the Asian Monsoon System on the Tibetan Hydrology with Focus on Nam Co Basin (Applicants Flügel, Wolfgang-Albert ; Hochschild, Volker )
- Landscape and Lake-System Response to Late Quaternary Monsoon Dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau - Northern Transect - (Applicants Diekmann, Bernhard ; Lehmkuhl, Frank ; Wünnemann, Bernd )
- Late Neogene environmental evolution of the Tibetan Plateau recorded in long-term lacustrine archives (Applicants Appel, Erwin ; Pross, Jörg )
- Mesoscale circulations and Energy and gaS exchange Over the Tibetan Plateau (Applicant Foken, Thomas )
- Microfossils as indicators of aquatic ecosystem evolution and monsoon dynamics (Applicants Frenzel, Peter ; Mischke, Steffen ; Schwalb, Antje )
- Microfossils as indicators of aquatic ecosystem evolution and monsoon dynamics (Applicants Frenzel, Peter ; Mischke, Steffen ; Schwalb, Antje )
- Monsoonal variations and climate change during the late Holocene derived from tree rings and glacier fluctuations (Applicants Bräuning, Achim ; Lehmkuhl, Frank )
- Persistent organic pollutants as proxies for the quantification of glacier melting on the Tibetan Plateau (Applicant Gocht, Tilman )
- Reconstruction of Asian monsoon using compound-specific isotope signals of terrestrial an aquastic biomarkers in Tibetan lake systems "Western lakes" (Applicant Gleixner, Gerd )
- Reconstruction of the Hydrological Cycle in the Southern Transect of the Tibetan Plateau Utilizing Sediment Records (Applicant Mäusbacher, Roland )
- Reconstructionof Asian monsoon using compound-specific isotope signals of terrestrial and aquativ biomarkers in Tibetan lake systems (Applicant Gleixner, Gerd )
- The Making of a Tibetan Landscape: Identification of Parameters, Actors and Dynamics of the Kobresia pygmaea pastoral ecosystems - Module 4 and 5: Vegetation dynamics, biomass allocation and water consumption of Kobresia as a function of grazing and environmental conditions (Applicants Leuschner, Christoph ; Miehe, Sabine ; Wesche, Karsten )
- Tibetan Plateau: Formation - Climate - Ecosystems - Project Coordination (Applicants Appel, Erwin ; Mosbrugger, Volker )
- Tibetan Plateau Formation: tracing material flow around the East-Himalayan syntaxis (Applicants Appel, Erwin ; Dunkl, István ; Ratschbacher, Lothar )
- Vegetation-based climate reconstruction for the Tibetan Plateau: integrating vegetation modelling and pollen data reanalyses (Applicants Herzschuh, Ulrike ; Jeltsch, Florian )
Spokespersons
Professor Dr. Erwin Appel; Professor Dr. Volker Mosbrugger
