Late Holocene temperature fluctuations on the Tibetan Plateau

Proxy data of palaeoclimate, like ice cores, tree rings and take sediments, document aspects of climate changes on the Tibetan Plateau during the last 2000 years. The results show that the Tibetan Plateau experienced climatic episodes such as the warm intervals during AD 800-1100 and 1150-1400, the "Little Ice Age" between AD 1400 and 1900, and an earlier cold period between the 4th and 6th centuries. In addition, temperatures varied from region to region across the plateau. A warm period from AD 800 to 1100 in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau was contemporaneous with cooling in the southern Tibetan Plateau, which experienced warming between AD 1150 and 1400. Large-scale trends in the temperature history from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau resemble those in eastern China more than the trends from the southern Plateau. The most notable similarities between the temperature variations of the Tibetan Plateau and eastern China are cold phases during AD 1100-1150, 1500-1550, 1650-1700 and 1800-1850. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.