Use of δ18Oatm in dating a Tibetan ice core record of Holocene/Late Glacial climate.

Ice cores from the northwestern Tibetan Plateau (NWTP) contain long records of regional climate variability, but refrozen meltwater and dust in these cores has hampered development of robust timescales. Here, we introduce an approach to dating the ice via the isotopic composition of atmospheric O2 in air bubbles (δ18Oatm), along with annual layer counting and radiocarbon dating. We provide a robust chronology for water isotope records (δ18Oice and d-excess) from three ice cores from the Guliya ice cap in the NWTP. The measurement of δ18Oatm, although common in polar ice core timescales, has rarely been used on ice cores from low-latitude, high-altitude glaciers due to (1) low air pressure, (2) the common presence of refrozen melt that adds dissolved gases and reduces the amount of air available for analysis, and (3) the respiratory consumption of molecular oxygen (O2) by micro-organisms in the ice, which fractionates the δ18O of O2 from the atmospheric value. Here, we make corrections for melt and respiration to address these complications. The resulting records of water isotopes from the Guliya ice cores reveal climatic variations over the last 15,000 y, the timings of which correspond to those observed in independently dated lake and speleothem records and confirm that the Guliya ice cap existed before the Holocene. The millennial-scale drivers of δ18Oice are complex and temporally variable; however, Guliya δ18Oice values since the mid-20th century are the highest since the beginning of the Holocene and have increased with regional air temperature.

Evaporative cooling over the Tibetan Plateau induced by vegetation growth.

In the Arctic, climate warming enhances vegetation activity by extending the length of the growing season and intensifying maximum rates of productivity. In turn, increased vegetation productivity reduces albedo, which causes a positive feedback on temperature. Over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), regional vegetation greening has also been observed in response to recent warming. Here, we show that in contrast to arctic regions, increased growing season vegetation activity over the TP may have attenuated surface warming. This negative feedback on growing season vegetation temperature is attributed to enhanced evapotranspiration (ET). The extra energy available at the surface, which results from lower albedo, is efficiently dissipated by evaporative cooling. The net effect is a decrease in daily maximum temperature and the diurnal temperature range, which is supported by statistical analyses of in situ observations and by decomposition of the surface energy budget. A daytime cooling effect from increased vegetation activity is also modeled from a set of regional weather research and forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model simulations, but with a magnitude smaller than observed, likely because the WRF model simulates a weaker ET enhancement. Our results suggest that actions to restore native grasslands in degraded areas, roughly one-third of the plateau, will both facilitate a sustainable ecological development in this region and have local climate cobenefits. More accurate simulations of the biophysical coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere are needed to help understand regional climate change over the TP, and possible larger scale feedbacks between climate in the TP and the Asian monsoon system.

Distribution and vertical migration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in forest soil pits of southeastern Tibet.

PAHs could be transported to Tibetan Plateau in accompany with atmospheric circulation. The forest regions were found be an important sink for PAHs, while their distributions and migrations in forest are still uncertain. In this study, soil profile samples were collected in southeastern Tibet and the concentrations, distributions, and migration of PAHs in forest region were investigated. The PAHs levels in the forest soils were at the low end of remote sites, ranged from 27.4 to 120.3 ng g-1 on a dry weight based. Due to low ambient temperature and high organic carbon content, enrichment of PAHs was found in higher altitude on north side. According to the soil profiles, the vertical distributions of PAHs in organic layers were mainly influenced by pedogenesis, while the vertical distributions in mineral layers were dominated by downward leaching effect. Enrich factor (EF) of PAHs was estimated, and the values in organic layers were positively correlated with the octanol-air partition coefficients (K OA), but EFs in mineral layers decreased with the K OA values. PAHs in the surface soils on the north side of forest were relatively stable, while the migration of PAHs on the south sides and other clearing sites was more active. The leaching rates of PAHs in clearing site ranged between 1.42 and 29.3%. The results from this study are valuable on the characterization of PAHs in Tibetan Plateau.

Bacterial responses to environmental change on the Tibetan Plateau over the past half century.

Climate change and anthropogenic factors can alter biodiversity and can lead to changes in community structure and function. Despite the potential impacts, no long-term records of climatic influences on microbial communities exist. The Tibetan Plateau is a highly sensitive region that is currently undergoing significant alteration resulting from both climate change and increased human activity. Ice cores from glaciers in this region serve as unique natural archives of bacterial abundance and community composition, and contain concomitant records of climate and environmental change. We report high-resolution profiles of bacterial density and community composition over the past half century in ice cores from three glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau. Statistical analysis showed that the bacterial community composition in the three ice cores converged starting in the 1990s. Changes in bacterial community composition were related to changing precipitation, increasing air temperature and anthropogenic activities in the vicinity of the plateau. Collectively, our ice core data on bacteria in concert with environmental and anthropogenic proxies indicate that the convergence of bacterial communities deposited on glaciers across a wide geographical area and situated in diverse habitat types was likely induced by climatic and anthropogenic drivers.

Polaromonas eurypsychrophila sp. nov., isolated from an ice core.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, beige bacterium, strain B717-2T, was isolated from an ice core drilled from Muztagh Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau, China. According to phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, the novel strain was related most closely to Polaromonas vacuolataand shared 97.7 % similarity with the type strain of this species. It grew optimally at pH 7, at 15 °C and with 2 % (w/v) NaCl. Major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH), summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c, C18 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0. The sole respiratory quinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content was 63.4 mol %. In DNA-DNA hybridization tests, strain B717-2T shared 37.0±1.9, 30.0±1.7, 26.0±0.9, 23.4±0.5 and 18.4±1.9 % DNA-DNA relatedness with Polaromonas jejuensisJS12-13T, P. vacuolata 34-PT, Polaromonas aquatica CCUG 39402T, Polaromonas glacialisCr4-12T and Polaromonas cryoconitiCr4-35T, respectively. Based on the phenotypic, phylogenetic and genetic characteristics, strain B717-2T represents a novel species of the genus Polaromonas, for which the name Polaromonaseurypsychrophila sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B717-2T (=CGMCC 1.15322T=JCM 31171T).

Arcticibacter eurypsychrophilus sp. nov., isolated from ice core.

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, non-flagellated bacterium, strain MJ9-5(T), was isolated from ice core of Muji Glacier. Colonies of strain MJ9-5(T) were pink, convex and round on R2A agar. Strain MJ9-5(T) grew between -1 to 25 °C with an optimum growth temperature of 10-15 °C. The strain tolerated 0-1.2 % (w/v) NaCl with an optimum of 1 %. The major cellular fatty acids of strain MJ9-5(T) were iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C1 6 : 1ω7c). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 38.5 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain MJ9-5(T) was related to members of the genus Arcticibacter. On the basis of the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, a novel species of this genus, Arcticibacter eurypsychrophilus sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is MJ9-5(T) ( = KCTC 42008(T) = JCM 19862(T)).

Genetic diversity of picocyanobacteria in tibetan lakes: assessing the endemic and universal distributions.

The phylogenetic diversity of picocyanobacteria in seven alkaline lakes on the Tibetan Plateau was analyzed using the molecular marker 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer sequence. A total of 1,077 environmental sequences retrieved from the seven lakes were grouped into seven picocyanobacterial clusters, with two clusters newly described here. Each of the lakes was dominated by only one or two clusters, while different lakes could have disparate communities, suggesting low alpha diversity but high beta diversity of picocyanobacteria in these high-altitude freshwater and saline lakes. Several globally distributed clusters were found in these Tibetan lakes, such as subalpine cluster I and the Cyanobium gracile cluster. Although other clusters likely exhibit geographic restriction to the plateau temporally, reflecting endemicity, they can indeed be distributed widely on the plateau. Lakes with similar salinities may have similar genetic populations despite a large geographic distance. Canonical correspondence analysis identified salinity as the only environmental factor that may in part explain the diversity variations among lakes. Mantel tests suggested that the community similarities among lakes are independent of geographic distance. A portion of the picocyanobacterial clusters appear to be restricted to a narrow salinity range, while others are likely adapted to a broad range. A seasonal survey of Lake Namucuo across 3 years did not show season-related variations in diversity, and depth-related population partitioning was observed along a vertical profile of the lake. Our study emphasizes the high dispersive potential of picocyanobacteria and suggests that the regional distribution may result from adaptation to specified environments.

Resonance between projected Tibetan Plateau surface darkening and Arctic climate change.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) exerts a profound influence on global climate over million-year timescales due to its past uplift. However, whether the ongoing climate changes over the TP, particularly the persistent reduction in its local albedo (referred to as "TP surface darkening"), can exert global impacts remains elusive. In this study, a state-of-the-art coupled land-atmosphere global climate model has been employed to scrutinize the impact of TP darkening on polar climate changes. Results indicate that the projected TP darkening has the potential to generate a stationary Rossby wave train, thereby modulating the atmospheric circulation in the high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and instigating a dipole-like surface air temperature anomaly pattern around the Arctic region. An additional experiment suggests that the projected Arctic warming may in return warm the TP, thus forming a bi-directional linkage between these two climate systems. Given their association with vast ice reservoirs, the elucidation of this mechanism in our study is crucial in advancing our comprehension of Earth system climate projections.

Westerly-triggered lake-effect snowfall enhanced with climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau.

Lake-effect snowfall (LES) occurs when cold air moves across open lakes. LES is expected to occur more frequently over the TP, due to the intensified lake expansion caused by intensified global warming. Thus, there is an urgent need to comprehensively assess the LES over the TP. Here, we revealed that the LES is triggered by westerly southward shift leading to the drop in air temperature and is positively correlated with lake area, wind speed and longitude across 12 large lakes (>300 km2) based on satellite observations and reanalysis data. Using a sensitivity model simulation, we determined that large lakes in the southern TP contributed to more than 50% of the snowfall in the downwind area in 2013. Projections indicate that the westerly-triggered LES will increase under the future RCP4.5 climate warming scenario, highlighting the importance of developing adaptive policies to address the growing risks associated with future LES.

The impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

With a pace of about twice the observed rate of global warming, the temperature on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (Earth's 'third pole') has increased by 0.2 °C per decade over the past 50 years, which results in significant permafrost thawing and glacier retreat. Our review suggested that warming enhanced net primary production and soil respiration, decreased methane (CH(4)) emissions from wetlands and increased CH(4) consumption of meadows, but might increase CH(4) emissions from lakes. Warming-induced permafrost thawing and glaciers melting would also result in substantial emission of old carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and CH(4). Nitrous oxide (N(2)O) emission was not stimulated by warming itself, but might be slightly enhanced by wetting. However, there are many uncertainties in such biogeochemical cycles under climate change. Human activities (e.g. grazing, land cover changes) further modified the biogeochemical cycles and amplified such uncertainties on the plateau. If the projected warming and wetting continues, the future biogeochemical cycles will be more complicated. So facing research in this field is an ongoing challenge of integrating field observations with process-based ecosystem models to predict the impacts of future climate change and human activities at various temporal and spatial scales. To reduce the uncertainties and to improve the precision of the predictions of the impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles, efforts should focus on conducting more field observation studies, integrating data within improved models, and developing new knowledge about coupling among carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles as well as about the role of microbes in these cycles.

Mycetocola zhadangensis sp. nov., isolated from snow.

A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, short rod-shaped bacterium, strain ZD1-4(T), was isolated from the Zhadang Glacier snow pit. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate showed highest similarity (98.8%) to that of Mycetocola manganoxydans MB1-14(T). The major fatty acids of strain ZD1-4(T) were anteiso-C(15 : 0), C(16 : 0), C(18 : 0) and anteiso-C(17:0). It possessed diphosphatidylglycerol as one of the major polar lipids, and MK-10 and MK-11 as the predominant isoprenoid quinones. The DNA G+C content of strain ZD1-4(T) was 63.8 ± 0.2 mol% (T(m)). A number of phenotypic characteristics distinguished this bacterium from the type strains of other species of the genus Mycetocola. Moreover, the novel isolate showed only approximately 50% DNA-DNA relatedness with M. manganoxydans MB1-14(T). According to these genotypic and phenotypic data, it is evident that strain ZD1-4(T) represents a novel species of the genus Mycetocola, for which the name Mycetocola zhadangensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZD1-4(T) ( =KACC 16570(T) =CGMCC 1.12042(T)).

Massilia yuzhufengensis sp. nov., isolated from an ice core.

A gram-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, motile bacterium, strain Y1243-1(T), was isolated from an ice core drilled from Yuzhufeng Glacier, Tibetan Plateau, China. Cells had polar flagella. The novel strain shared 94.7-97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strains of species of the genus Massilia. The novel isolate is thus classified in the genus Massilia. The major fatty acids of strain Y1243-1(T) were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH) (43.98 %), C16 : 0 (27.86 %), C10 : 0 3-OH (7.10 %), C18 : 0 (6.95 %) and C18 : 1ω7c (5.01 %). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content of strain Y1243-1(T) was 65.7 mol% (Tm). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. A number of phenotypic characteristics distinguished the novel isolate from the type strains of recognized Massilia species. Furthermore, in DNA-DNA hybridization tests, strain Y1243-1(T) shared 45 % relatedness with its closest phylogenetic relative, Massilia consociata CCUG 58010(T). From the genotypic and phenotypic data, it is evident that strain Y1243-1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia yuzhufengensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Y1243-1(T) ( = KACC 16569(T) = CGMCC 1.12041(T)).

Dyadobacter tibetensis sp. nov., isolated from glacial ice core.

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, non-motile bacterium, designated Y620-1(T), was isolated from a glacier on the Tibetan Plateau, China. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the novel isolate shared 93.6-95.1 % similarity with type strains of species of the genus Dyadobacter. The major fatty acids of strain Y620-1(T) were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH), iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1ω5c and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. The predominant isoprenoid quinone and polar lipid were MK-7 and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), respectively. The DNA G+C content was 44.4±0.3 mol% (Tm). Flexirubin-type pigment was produced. The novel isolate was classified in the genus Dyadobacter, but a number of phenotypic characteristics distinguished the novel isolate from type strains of species of the genus Dyadobacter. From these genotypic and phenotypic data, it is evident that strain Y620-1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Dyadobacter, for which the name Dyadobacter tibetensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Y620-1(T) ( = JCM 18589(T) = CGMCC 1.12215(T)).

Monsoon-driven transport of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls to the Tibetan Plateau: three year atmospheric monitoring study.

Due to the influence of the Indian monsoon system, air mass transport in and to the Tibetan Plateau shows obvious seasonality. In order to assess the responses of atmospheric concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to the Indian Monsoon fluctuation patterns, a three year air monitoring program (2008-2011) was conducted in an observation station close to the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The air concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) are generally comparable to those of other remote regions, whereas the concentrations of DDTs are much higher than reported for the polar regions, the North American Rocky Mountains, and the European Alps. The concentrations of DDTs and PCBs were strongly linked to the cyclic patterns of the Indian monsoon, displaying higher values in the monsoon season (May-September) and lower values in the nonmonsoon season (November-March). A "bimodal" pattern was observed for α- and γ-HCH, with higher concentrations in spring and autumn and lower concentrations in the summer (monsoon season). Rain scavenging in the monsoon season likely resulted in the lower HCH concentrations in the atmosphere. This paper sheds lights on the role the Indian monsoon plays on the atmospheric transport of POPs to the Tibetan Plateau.

Regional and tele-connected impacts of the Tibetan Plateau surface darkening.

Despite knowledge of the presence of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in reorganizing large-scale atmospheric circulation, it remains unclear how surface albedo darkening over TP will impact local glaciers and remote Asian monsoon systems. Here, we use a coupled land-atmosphere global climate model and a glacier model to address these questions. Under a high-emission scenario, TP surface albedo darkening will increase local temperature by 0.24 K by the end of this century. This warming will strengthen the elevated heat pump of TP, increasing South Asian monsoon precipitation while exacerbating the current "South Flood-North Drought" pattern over East Asia. The albedo darkening-induced climate change also leads to an accompanying TP glacier volume loss of 6.9%, which further increases to 25.2% at the equilibrium, with a notable loss in western TP. Our findings emphasize the importance of land-surface change responses in projecting future water resource availability, with important implications for water management policies.

Diversity and function of mountain and polar supraglacial DNA viruses.

Mountain and polar glaciers cover 10% of the Earth's surface and are typically extreme environments that challenge life of all forms. Viruses are abundant and active in supraglacial ecosystems and play a crucial role in controlling the supraglacial microbial communities. However, our understanding of virus ecology on glacier surfaces and their potential impacts on downstream ecosystems remains limited. Here, we present the supraglacial virus genome (SgVG) catalog, a 15-fold expanded genomic inventory of 10,840 DNA-virus species from 38 mountain and polar glaciers, spanning habitats such as snow, ice, meltwater, and cryoconite. Supraglacial DNA-viruses were highly specific compared to viruses in other ecosystems yet exhibited low public health risks. Supraglacial viral communities were primarily constrained by habitat, with cryoconite displaying the highest viral activity levels. We observed a prevalence of lytic viruses in all habitats, especially in cryoconite, but a high level of lysogenic viruses in snow and ice. Additionally, we found that supraglacial viruses could be linked to ∼83% of obtained prokaryotic phyla/classes and possessed the genetic potential to promote metabolism and increase cold adaptation, cell mobility, and phenolic carbon use of hosts in hostile environmental conditions using diverse auxiliary metabolic genes. Our results provide the first systematic characterization of the diversity, function, and public health risks evaluation of mountain and polar supraglacial DNA viruses. This understanding of glacial viruses is crucial for function assessments and ecological modeling of glacier ecosystems, especially for the Tibetan Plateau's Mountain glaciers, which support ∼20% of the human populations on Earth.

Geographic distance and pH drive bacterial distribution in alkaline lake sediments across Tibetan Plateau.

Continent-scale biogeography has been extensively studied in soils and marine systems, but little is known about biogeographical patterns in non-marine sediments. We used barcode pyrosequencing to quantify the effects of local geochemical properties and geographic distance for bacterial community structure and membership, using sediment samples from 15 lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (4-1670 km apart). Bacterial communities were surprisingly diverse, and distinct from soil communities. Four of 26 phyla detected were dominant: Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, albeit 20.2% of sequences were unclassified at the phylum level. As previously observed in acidic soil, pH was the dominant factor influencing alkaline sediment community structure, phylotype richness and phylogenetic diversity. In contrast, archaeal communities were less affected by pH. More geographically distant sites had more dissimilar communities (r=0.443, P=0.030). Variance partitioning analysis showed that geographic distance (historical contingencies) contributed more to bacterial community variation (12.2%) than any other factor, although the environmental factors explained more variance when combined (28.9%). Together, our results show that pH is the best predictor of bacterial community structure in alkaline sediments, and confirm that both geographic distance and chemical factors govern bacterial biogeography in lake sediments.

Black soot and the survival of Tibetan glaciers.

We find evidence that black soot aerosols deposited on Tibetan glaciers have been a significant contributing factor to observed rapid glacier retreat. Reduced black soot emissions, in addition to reduced greenhouse gases, may be required to avoid demise of Himalayan glaciers and retain the benefits of glaciers for seasonal fresh water supplies.

An integrative method for identifying potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the Himalayas.

Glacial lakes in the Himalayas are widely distributed. Since 1900, more than 100 glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have originated in the region, causing approximately 7000 deaths and considerable economic losses. Identifying potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs) is considered the first step in assessing GLOF risks. In this study, a more thorough inventory of PDGLs was presented that included numerous small-sized glacial lakes (<0.1 km2) that were generally neglected in the Himalayas for decades. Moreover, the PDGL evaluation system was improved in response to several deficiencies, such as the selection of assessment factors, which are sometimes arbitrary without a solid scientific basis. We designed an optimality experiment to select the best combination of assessment factors from 57 factors to identify PDGLs. Based on the experiments on both drained and non-drained glacial lakes in the Sunkoshi Basin, eastern Himalayas, five assessment factors were determined to be the best combination: the mean slope of the parent glacier, the potential for mass movement into the lake, the mean slope of moraine dams, the watershed area, and the lake perimeter, corresponding to the GLOF triggers for ice avalanches, rockfalls and landslides, dam instability, heavy precipitation or other liquid inflows, and lake characteristics, respectively. We then applied the best combination of assessment factors to the 1650 glacial lakes with an area greater than 0.02 km2 in the Himalayas. We identified 207 glacial lakes as very high-hazard and 345 as high-hazard. It is noteworthy that in various GLOF susceptibility evaluation scenarios with different assessment factors, weighting schemes, and classification approaches, similar results for glacial lakes with high outburst potential have been obtained. The results provided here can be used as benchmark data to assess the GLOF risks for local communities.