scholarly journals Salinity drives archaeal distribution patterns in high altitude lake sediments on the Tibetan Plateau

2016 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongqin Liu ◽  
John C. Priscu ◽  
Jinbo Xiong ◽  
Ralf Conrad ◽  
Trista Vick-Majors ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Altitude Lake

scholarly journals Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hsu ◽  
Franz K. Huber ◽  
Caroline S. Weckerle
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Regional Culture ◽  
Fault Line

AbstractThe Shuhi of Muli County, Sichuan Province, are one of multiple ethnic groups inhabiting the river gorges of the Qinghai-Gansu-Sichuan corridor between the Tibetan plateau and the Chinese lowlands. The Shuhi have grown paddy rice since times immemorial at an unusually high altitude (ca. 2,300 m above sea level). This article aims to explain this conundrum not merely through the ecology (as is common among Tibetan area specialists), but by researching the cultivation and consumption of rice as a historically-evolved cultural practice. According to a recently formulated agro-archaeological hypothesis regarding the macro-region of Eurasia, it is possible to identify two supra-regional culture complexes distinguished by their respective culinary technologies: rice-boiling versus wheat-grinding-and-baking. The hypothesis posits that the fault line between the two supra-regional cultural complexes is precisely along this river gorges corridor. In this article we provide support for this hypothesis arguing that Shuhi ritual and kinship practices have much affinity with those of other rice-boiling peoples in Southeast Asia, whereas certain of their current religious practices are shared with the wheat-grinding Tibetans.

Metabarcoding of modern sedimentary DNA from the Tibetan Plateau and Siberia as a training dataset for vegetation reconstructions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihan Jia ◽  
Kathleen Stoof-Leichsenring ◽  
Sisi Liu ◽  
Kai Li ◽  
Sichao Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Aquatic Plant ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plant Dna ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Dna Metabarcoding

<p>Lake sedimentary DNA (<em>sed</em>DNA) is an established tool to trace past changes in vegetation composition and plant diversity. However, little is known about the relationships between sedimentary plant DNA and modern vegetational and environmental conditions. In this study, we investigate i) the relationships between the preservation of sedimentary plant DNA and environmental variables, ii) the modern analogue of ancient plant DNA assemblages archived in lake sediments, and iii) the usability of sedimentary plant DNA for characterization of terrestrial and aquatic plant composition and diversity based on a large dataset of PCR-amplified plant DNA data retrieved from 259 lake surface sediments from the Tibetan Plateau and Siberia. Our results indicate the following: i) Lake-water electrical conductivity and pH are the most important variables for the preservation of plant DNA in lake sediments. We expect the best preservation conditions for sedimentary plant DNA in small deep lakes characterized by high water conductivities (≥100 μS cm<sup>-1</sup>) and neutral to slightly alkaline pH conditions (7–9). ii) Plant DNA metabarcoding is promising for palaeovegetation reconstruction in high mountain regions, where shifts in vegetation are solely captured by the <em>sed</em>DNA-based analogue matching and fossil pollen generally has poor modern analogues. However, the biases in the representation of some taxa could lead to poor analogue conditions. iii) Plant DNA metabarcoding is a reliable proxy to reflect modern vegetation types and climate characteristics at a sub-continental scale. However, the resolution of the <em>trn</em>L P6 loop marker, the incompleteness of the reference library, and the extent of <em>sed</em>DNA preservation are still the main limitations of this method. iv) Plant DNA metabarcoding is a suitable proxy to recover modern aquatic plant diversity, which is mostly affected by July temperature and lake-water conductivity. Ongoing warming might decrease macrophyte richness in the Tibetan Plateau and Siberia, and ultimately threaten the health of these important freshwater ecosystems. To conclude, sedimentary plant DNA presents a high correlation with modern vegetation and may therefore be an important proxy for reconstruction of past vegetation.</p>

scholarly journals Early evidence for the use of wheat and barley as staple crops on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (18) ◽  
pp. 5625-5630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jade A. d’Alpoim Guedes ◽  
Hongliang Lu ◽  
Anke M. Hein ◽  
Amanda H. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
East Asia ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Niche Modeling ◽  
Western China ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Thermal Niche ◽  
Early Evidence ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Staple Crops

We report directly dated evidence from circa 1400 calibrated years (cal) B.C. for the early use of wheat, barley, and flax as staple crops on the borders of the Tibetan Plateau. During recent years, an increasing amount of data from the Tibetan Plateau and its margins shows that a transition from millets to wheat and barley agriculture took place during the second millennium B.C. Using thermal niche modeling, we refute previous assertions that the ecological characteristics of wheat and barley delayed their spread into East Asia. Rather, we demonstrate that the ability of these crops to tolerate frost and their low growing degree-day requirements facilitated their spread into the high-altitude margins of western China. Following their introduction to this region, these crops rapidly replaced Chinese millets and became the staple crops that still characterize agriculture in this area today.

scholarly journals Ancient mitogenomes show plateau populations from last 5200 years partially contributed to present-day Tibetans

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1923) ◽  
pp. 20192968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manyu Ding ◽  
Tianyi Wang ◽  
Albert Min-Shan Ko ◽  
Honghai Chen ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Complete Continuity ◽  
Genetic Origins ◽  
Low Altitude

The clarification of the genetic origins of present-day Tibetans requires an understanding of their past relationships with the ancient populations of the Tibetan Plateau. Here we successfully sequenced 67 complete mitochondrial DNA genomes of 5200 to 300-year-old humans from the plateau. Apart from identifying two ancient plateau lineages (haplogroups D4j1b and M9a1a1c1b1a) that suggest some ancestors of Tibetans came from low-altitude areas 4750 to 2775 years ago and that some were involved in an expansion of people moving between high-altitude areas 2125 to 1100 years ago, we found limited evidence of recent matrilineal continuity on the plateau. Furthermore, deep learning of the ancient data incorporated into simulation models with an accuracy of 97% supports that present-day Tibetan matrilineal ancestry received partial contribution rather than complete continuity from the plateau populations of the last 5200 years.

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