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Chapter 06
Climate and Study of Glaciers
Tip is the first concerted, multidisciplinary and holistic approach dealing with processes, interactions and feedbacks in the framework of Tibetan Plateau uplift and the related evolution of climate and ecosystems, including the impact of man. Proposals addressing the following topics are invited: • Plateau formation and environmental impacts 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 will be deduced from geodynamic processes and proxies of elevation history. TiP will use lacustrine and terrestrial archives to reconstruct the palaeo-environmental evolution and relate these results to the evolution of the plateau. • Late Cenozoic climate evolution and environmental response 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. • Phase of human impact and Global Change Tip aims to clarify the role of geological and anthropogenic factors for the development of the existing Earth system. TiP will investigate which unique regional climatic features exist at the formed plateau, and how they feed back to the global climate system. TiP aims to clarify if the plateau formation was driving the development of the major Tibetan ecosystems by selection of pre-existing species or displacement with invaders that were better adapted to the new environment. Finally TiP will investigate how the appearance of man and Global Change will affect the Tibetan ecosystem and how this might feed back to the global system. TiP is based on a close Sino-German collaboration, systematically prepared and established during the past years. The Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP-CAS) will be the main partner institution on the Chinese side and the presented science plan was jointly developed with ITP, but cooperation with other Chinese partner institutions is also welcome. TiP will run for six years, subdivided into two three-year-periods. Each individual proposal within TYPmust be based on interdisciplinary cooperation of at least two German Pis plus at least one Chinese PI. Joint field work campaigns will be obligatory and there will be training for young researchers for the specific requirements. TiP promotes inter- and trans-disciplinary networking on national and international levels. Data will be provided internally and externally by a database system and via web page. TiP will actively support and organise education of interdisciplinary working young scientists with mandatory elements of education involving also bilateral Sino-German exchange.
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Tibetan Plateau: Formation-Climate-Ecosystems
