The ostracod assemblages and their environmental significance in the Chen Co area, southern Tibet in recent 1400 years

The CC1 core, with a length of 216 cm, was drilled in the west part of the Chen Co (Lake) in southern Tibet Plateau. The 210Pb and 137Cs measurement indicated that it was a consecutive sedimentary sequence since ca. 1400 years. The ostracoda and their assemblages under the level of 1 cm samples' cutting interval were finished for this core to reveal the past environmental changes in the lake area. A total of 15 species of ostracods belonging to 7 genera in the core sediments had been identified. According to the ostracod distributions, abundances and preservations in the core, seven ostracod assemblages had been distinguished. The ostracod assemblages and their ecological features, together with the sediments dating decision were used to infer the past ca. 1400 years environmental changes of the Chen Co environmental evolutions in three stages, which had responded to the Medieval Ages Warm-period (MAW), the Little Ice Age (LIA) and modern warm period. The results show that the changes of the Chen Co environment had been mainly influenced by the climatic variations. The trend of the lake level fluctuations had been accorded with that of climatic variation during the past 1400 years.