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Determining the provenance of Cenozoic strata in the Qaidam Basin is key to understanding the basin-mountain coupling history in the northern Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, the specific source areas of Cenozoic strata in the northern Qaidam Basin remain highly debated. Here, we combine analyses of detrital zircons U Pb geochronology for recent and ancient fluvial sediments from the northern Qaidam Basin to trace source areas of Cenozoic strata and reconstruct related mountain-building processes. The results indicate that the diagnostic 270–240 Ma zircon U Pb peak, which was previously recognized as the unique input of a southern source area, is widespread in the recent fluvial sediments of the northern Qaidam Basin. Given our new zircon U Pb data, the source-to-sink transport processes of Cenozoic sediments in the northern Qaidam Basin can be summarized as follows. (1) The northern Qaidam Basin has received the eroded detrital material from a dominantly northern source throughout the Cenozoic. (2) The Qaidam BeiShan was uplifted already at least by the early Eocene and served as the single contributor of detritus to the Dahonggou (DHG) region, suggesting that far-field stress due to the India-Asia collision had been propagated to this region as early as the early Eocene. (3) An abrupt change in provenance is observed in the DHG region during 46.5–43.7 Ma. We interpret this middle Eocene source change as reflecting the onset of growth of the North Altyn Tagh Range, implying that the North Altyn Tagh Range was already serving as an important source area for the DHG region by the middle Eocene. (4) The South Qilian Range served again as the dominant source area for the DHG region after 24.6 Ma. The shift in provenance from the North Altyn Tagh Range to the South Qilian Range can be attributed to the uplift of the Saishiteng Shan. • Cenozoic detritus in northern Qaidam Basin exclusively from northward source • 270–240 Ma zircon U Pb peak widely seen in recent fluvial sediments in north basin • The Qaidam BeiShan had uplifted already at least in the early Eocene. • North Altyn Tagh and South Qilian ranges provide dominant sources. • Multiple source-to-sink stages of northern Qaidam Basin from ~>50.4 to 10.8 Ma [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freeze-up period is the pentad average temperature below or equal to 0 °C (≤0 °C), which belong to extreme low temperature events but more rigorous. And analyzing it will contribute to the sparse knowledge of the freeze-up period in the Tibetan Plateau and provide scientific base for animal husbandry production in pastoral area of Northern Tibet and agricultural production in Qaidam Oasis. This paper based on the daily average temperature from a 0.5° × 0.5° gridded data range from 1961 to 2015, the beginning pentad, the ending pentad and the pentads of freeze-up period over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were calculated. In order to investigate the temporal–spatial variations of the freeze-up period, some methods were applied such as climatic trend rate, the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test, Kriging Interpolation method, wavelet transform and Power Spectrum, etc. The main results were as follows: the annual average beginning pentad had a delaying trend at the rate of 0.24 pentad/decade, the ending pentad was advanced at the rate of 0.35 pentad/decade, but the pentads of freeze-up period had a significant decreasing trend of 0.64 pentad/decade in recent 54 years, additionally, the most remarkable period appeared in 1990s when the freeze-up period shorten. The abrupt change revealed that the year of abrupt change for the beginning pentad and the pentads of freeze-up period was in 1994, and the year of abrupt change for the ending pentad was in 1994, 1995 and 1996. There existed significant regional differences for the freeze-up period, it is noteworthy that the freeze-up period showed a decreasing trend from northwest to southeast over the study region. The significant wavelet power spectra of the beginning pentad were 3.77 years, 4.57 years and 7.14 years and there were obvious periodic oscillations of 3.39 years, 6.49 years for the ending pentad, and the pentads of freeze-up period varied with period of 3.34 years, 4.57 years and 5.46 years, which were consistent with the atmospheric circulation quasi-period of 2–4 years. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient analysis presented that the freeze-up period were mainly controlled by the circulation factors, including the TPI, NHSHII, WPSHII, NHPVAI, NHPVII and APVAI. Moreover, altitude, latitude and longitude were the main influencing factors to the freeze-up period in the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on climate data from 68 meteorological stations over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) observed by the China Meteorological Administration in 1960–2012, temporal and spatial variations in aridity index (AI) and reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) were comprehensively investigated. The abrupt change and the period in AI and ET 0 were characterized using a comprehensive time series analysis conducted with Mann–Kendall test and Morlet wavelet. The results indicated that the regionally averaged value of AI significantly decreased by 0.04/decade during 1960–2012 period, with the maximum observed in 1972. Similarly, the regional trend for ET 0 was at the rate of −9.6 mm/decade with statistically significant at the 0.01 level. Most of these stations with positive value for AI were primarily distributed at the northern southwestern TP. Moreover, a majority of stations with low values of ET 0 were substantially distributed at the central and eastern TP, and amounts of the stations with high values of ET 0 were mainly located at a lower elevation. Abrupt changes of both AI and ET 0 primarily happened in 1980s. The major cycles of AI and ET 0 were 15 y and 17 y scale over the study period with apparent periodic oscillation characteristics, respectively, and together with other different scale cycles co-existing. The significant correlations between AI and East Asian Summer Monsoon Index (EASMI) indicated that AI over the TP was related to the EASMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]