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Central Asia is a large-scale source of dust transport, but it also held a prominent changing hydrological system during the Quaternary. A 223 m long sediment core (GN200) was recovered from the Ejina Basin (synonymously Gaxun Nur Basin) in NW China to reconstruct the main modes of water availability in the area during the Quaternary. The core was drilled from the Heihe alluvial fan, one of the world's largest alluvial fans, which covers a part of the Gobi Desert. Grain-size distributions supported by endmember modelling analyses, geochemical–mineralogical compositions (based on XRF and XRD measurements), and bioindicator data (ostracods, gastropods, pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs, and n -alkanes with leaf-wax δD) are used to infer the main transport processes and related environmental changes during the Pleistocene. Magnetostratigraphy supported by radionuclide dating provides the age model. Grain-size endmembers indicate that lake, playa (sheetflood), fluvial, and aeolian dynamics are the major factors influencing sedimentation in the Ejina Basin. Core GN200 reached the pre-Quaternary quartz- and plagioclase-rich "Red Clay" formation and reworked material derived from it in the core bottom. This part is overlain by silt-dominated sediments between 217 and 110 m core depth, which represent a period of lacustrine and playa-lacustrine sedimentation that presumably formed within an endorheic basin. The upper core half between 110 and 0 m is composed of mainly silty to sandy sediments derived from the Heihe that have accumulated in a giant sediment fan until modern time. Apart from the transition from a siltier to a sandier environment with frequent switches between sediment types upcore, the clay mineral fraction is indicative of different environments. Mixed-layer clay minerals (chlorite/smectite) are increased in the basal Red Clay and reworked sediments, smectite is indicative of lacustrine-playa deposits, and increased chlorite content is characteristic of the Heihe river deposits. The sediment succession in core GN200 based on the detrital proxy interpretation demonstrates that lake-playa sedimentation in the Ejina Basin has been disrupted likely due to tectonic events in the southern part of the catchment around 1 Ma. At this time Heihe broke through from the Hexi Corridor through the Heli Shan ridge into the northern Ejina Basin. This initiated the alluvial fan progradation into the Ejina Basin. Presently the sediment bulge repels the diminishing lacustrine environment further north. In this sense, the uplift of the hinterland served as a tipping element that triggered landscape transformation in the northern Tibetan foreland (i.e. the Hexi Corridor) and further on in the adjacent northern intracontinental Ejina Basin. The onset of alluvial fan formation coincides with increased sedimentation rates on the Chinese Loess Plateau, suggesting that the Heihe alluvial fan may have served as a prominent upwind sediment source for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Asia is a large-scale source of dust transport, but also holds a prominent changing hydrological system during the Quaternary. A 223-m-long sediment core (GN200) was recovered from the Ejina Basin (synonymously Gaxun Nur Basin) in NW China to reconstructing the main transitional modes of water availability in the area during the Quaternary. The core has been drilled from the Heihe alluvial fan, one of the world's largest continental alluvial fan, which covers a part of the Gobi Desert. Grain-size distributions supported by endmember modelling analyses, geochemical-mineralogical compositions (based on XRF and XRD measurements), and bioindicator data (ostracods, gastropods, n-alkanes with leaf-wax δD) are used to infer the main transport processes and related environmental changes during the Pleistocene. Magnetostratigraphy supported by radionuclide dating provides the age model. Grain-size endmembers indicate that lake, playa (sheetflood), fluvial, and aeolian dynamics are the major factors influencing sedimentation in the Ejina Basin. Core GN200 reached the Pre-Quaternary quartz- and plagioclase-rich "Red Clay Formation" and reworked material derived from it in the core bottom. This part is overlain by silt-dominated sediments between 217 and 110 m core depth, which represent a period of lacustrine and playa-lacustrine sedimentation that presumably formed within an endorheic basin. The upper core half between 110 and 0 m is composed of mainly silty to sandy sediments derived from the Heihe River that have accumulated in a giant sediment fan until modern time. Apart from the transition from a siltier to a sandier environment with frequent switches between sediment types upcore, the clay mineral fraction is indicative for different environments. Mixed layer clay minerals (chlorite/smectite) are increased in the basal "Red Clay Formation" and reworked sediments, smectite is indicative for lacustrine-playa deposits, and an increased chlorite content is characteristic of the Heihe river deposits. The sediment succession in core GN200 based on the detrital proxy interpretation demonstrates that lake-playa sedimentation in the Ejina Basin has been disrupted likely due to tectonic events in the southern part of the catchment around 1 Ma BP. At this time Heihe river broke through from the Hexi Corridor through the Heli Shan ridge into the northern Ejina Basin. This initiated the alluvial fan progradation into the Ejina Basin. Presently the sediment bulge repels the diminishing lacustrine environment further north. In this sense, the uplift of the hinterland served as a tipping element that triggered landscape transformation in the Northern Tibetan foreland (i.e., the Hexi Corridor) and further on in the adjacent northern intracontinental Ejina Basin. The onset of alluvial fan formation coincides with increased sedimentation rates on the Chinese loess plateau, suggesting that the Heihe fluvial/alluvial fan may have served as a prominent upwind sediment source for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We present a methodological approach for the characterization of spatial variations of environmental and transport conditions based on geochemical data. We analyzed the geochemical characteristics of terrestrial sediments on an alluvial fan and adjacent areas in the eastern part of the Donggi Cona catchment. The geochemical characteristics of the sediment samples were measured using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. A factor model based on nine elements (Sr, Rb, Zn, Fe, Mn, V, Ti, Ca and K) gave the best results using factor analysis. Our results show that factor analysis of geochemical data can explain spatial variations in the catchment, even within a relatively small area with more or less constant climatological conditions. The four most important factors of our model explain 68.4% of the total variance within the dataset. The four factors represent a carbonate, weathering and two redox condition signals, respectively. The spatial distribution of factor loadings points to regions with specific environmental conditions. These regions show a certain carbonate input or production (factor 1), specific weathering rates (factor 2) or specific redox conditions (factors 3 and 4). The factor loadings of the first and second factor are used to reclassify the data into four groups, being dune, loess, lake and fluvial gravel sediments. This reclassification confirms or improves the prior field classification in 70% of all cases. For 23% of the samples, the model gave a different interpretation. The factor loadings in these cases represent the origin of the material rather than its present sediment type, thereby giving valuable information about sediment provenance. Since the third and fourth factor seem more dependent on location, they do not differentiate between different sediment types. Multivariate statistics of the geochemistry of terrestrial sediments (i) allows the subdivision of samples into different sediment types, (ii) indicates dominant regions for weathering, carbonate production and manganese washout and (iii) gives suggestions about the provenance of the sediments. This is the first detailed study of geochemical parameters on the Tibetan Plateau not focusing on lake cores, resulting in a spatial characterization of the local geochemistry. This gives insight in the sediment transport connections between the catchment and the lake, illustrating the value of terrestrial sediments as additional indicator of environmental variations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lake ecosystems are sensitive recorders of environmental changes that provide continuous archives at annual to decadal resolution over thousands of years. The systematic investigation of land use changes and emission of pollutants archived in Holocene lake sediments as well as the reconstruction of contamination, background conditions, and sensitivity of lake systems offer an ideal opportunity to study environmental dynamics and consequences of anthropogenic impact that increasingly pose risks to human well-being. This paper discusses the use of sediment and other lines of evidence in providing a record of historical and current contamination in lake ecosystems. We present a novel approach to investigate impacts from human activities using chemical-analytical, bioanalytical, ecological, paleolimnological, paleoecotoxicological, archeological as well as modeling techniques. This multi-time slice weight-of-evidence (WOE) approach will generate knowledge on conditions prior to anthropogenic influence and provide knowledge to (i) create a better understanding of the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on biodiversity, (ii) assess water quality by using quantitative data on historical pollution and persistence of pollutants archived over thousands of years in sediments, and (iii) define environmental threshold values using modeling methods. This technique may be applied in order to gain insights into reference conditions of surface and ground waters in catchments with a long history of land use and human impact, which is still a major need that is currently not yet addressed within the context of the European Water Framework Directive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Unmixing of grain-size distributions with multivariate statistical analysis gives indications of the main sediment transport processes and related environmental conditions in an area. We performed end-member mixing analysis (EMMA) of sedimentological data from 912 terrestrial sediment samples collected in the Donggi Cona catchment, north-eastern Tibetan Plateau. Up to the present, this is the largest sedimentological dataset on the Tibetan Plateau. EMMA resulted in the characterisation of three end-members that explain 88% of the variance within the dataset. The end-members all represent aeolian deposits. The first end-member EM 1 represents very fine dune sediments that were deflated from a former lake system. EM 2 represents medium sand deposits that were blown out from playa and alluvial fan sediments. EM 3 represents fine loess(−like) sediments mainly found at higher elevations. Different transformations, adding of a fourth end-member and adding of up to 200 loess samples do not change the composition of the end-members, demonstrating the robustness of the model. EMMA allows the synchronous interpretation of very large datasets, resulting in a general characterisation of sediment transport in a particular area. Performing EMMA on the dataset demonstrates the importance of aeolian transport in this part of the world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aeolian sediments on the Tibetan Plateau are an important archive of palaeoclimatic information. This study presents a detailed analysis of sediments from the Donggi Cona catchment on the north-eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. Long- and short-distance sediment transport leads to a complex pattern of aeolian sediment deposition that depends on climatic changes as well as on the availability of sediments. Based on the largest dataset of OSL datings (51) from a single catchment on the Tibetan Plateau so far, different periods of increased sediment transport have been reconstructed. Increased aeolian deposition in this high elevation environment started in the early Holocene with the accumulation of sands from around 10.5 to 7 ka. Loess sediments have been preserved from a period from 10.5 to 7.5 ka. Both archives are related to the strengthening of the Asian summer monsoons characterized by wetter and warmer climate. This change in climate supported the trapping of aeolian sediments. Under full monsoon conditions from around 9 ka onwards fluvial processes resulted in erosion of the aeolian archives and the formation of colluvial sediments until 6 ka. A dry and cooler climate resulted in the reactivation of dune sands from 3 ka to present, possibly in combination with stronger human influence. Aeolian sediments on the Tibetan Plateau therefore indicate two different climatic modes. During the early Holocene wetter conditions were favourable to retain aeolian sediments. The reactivation of sediment in the late Holocene due to small-scale disturbances in the vegetation cover, points to a cooler and drier climate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sediments of Lake Donggi Cona on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau were studied to infer changes in the lacustrine depositional environment, related to climatic and non-climatic changes during the last 19kyr. The lake today fills a 30×8km big and 95m deep tectonic basin, associated with the Kunlun Fault. The study was conducted on a sediment-core transect through the lake basin, in order to gain a complete picture of spatio-temporal environmental change. The recovered sediments are partly finely laminated and are composed of calcareous muds with variable amounts of carbonate micrite, organic matter, detrital silt and clay. On the basis of sedimentological, geochemical, and mineralogical data up to five lithological units (LU) can be distinguished that document distinct stages in the development of the lake system. The onset of the lowermost LU with lacustrine muds above basal sands indicates that lake level was at least 39m below the present level and started to rise after 19ka, possibly in response to regional deglaciation. At this time, the lacustrine environment was characterized by detrital sediment influx and the deposition of siliciclastic sediment. In two sediment cores, upward grain-size coarsening documents a lake-level fall after 13cal ka BP, possibly associated with the late-glacial Younger Dryas stadial. From 11.5 to 4.3cal ka BP, grain-size fining in sediment cores from the profundal coring sites and the onset of lacustrine deposition at a litoral core site (2m water depth) in a recent marginal bay of Donggi Cona document lake-level rise during the early to mid-Holocene to at least modern level. In addition, high biological productivity and pronounced precipitation of carbonate micrites are consistent with warm and moist climate conditions related to an enhanced influence of summer monsoon. At 4.3cal ka BP the lake system shifted from an aragonite- to a calcite-dominated system, indicating a change towards a fully open hydrological lake system. The younger clay-rich sediments are moreover non-laminated and lack any diagenetic sulphides, pointing to fully ventilated conditions, and the prevailing absence of lake stratification. This turning point in lake history could imply either a threshold response to insolation-forced climate cooling or a response to a non-climatic trigger, such as an erosional event or a tectonic pulse that induced a strong earthquake, which is difficult to decide from our data base. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]