Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotope Values and Microfossils at 41.4–4.5 ka BP in Tai Co, Tibet, China, and Their Paleoclimatic Significance

: Two sedimentary sections were measured at Tai Co (Co means lake in Tibetan) in western Tibet, China. The two sections are almost all composed of clay carbonate beds except in their lower parts where there are carbonized plants at >10 cm depths and dark-colored carbonate clay and clay at 50–70 cm depths, yielding abundant gastropods, ostracods, and charophytes. The carbon and oxygen stable isotope values of carbonate, ostracods, and charophytes and ecological features of microfossil communities indicate the following climatic change in the area from 41.4 to 4.5 ka BP: at 41.4–26.2 ka BP, the climate was relatively wet; at 26.2–25.5 ka BP, it was slightly warm-dry; at 25.5–22.5 ka BP, it was warm-wet; at 22.5–21.0 ka BP, it was slightly cold-wet; at 20.5–17.5 ka BP, it became cold abruptly and slightly wet, implying the climate of the last glacial maximum; at 17.5–16.0 ka BP, it was slightly cold-dry; at 16.0–11.8 ka BP, it was slightly warm-wet; at 11.8–10.4 ka BP, it was relatively cold-dry, roughly equivalent to the climate of the Younger Dryas, and at 10.4 ka BP, the temperatures began to rise again; at 10.4–9.4 ka BP, it was slightly warm-wet; at 9.4–8.5 ka BP, there occurred short warm-wet oscillations; at 8.5–7.9 ka BP, it was slightly dry-cold, representing a strong temperature-lowering and drying event in the postglacial stage; at 7.8–6.3 ka BP, it was slightly warm-wet; at 6.3–4.5 ka BP, the climate tended to be cold-dry. 4.5 ka BP recorded the maximum aridity since the late part of the late Pleistocene.