Science in China: Series D Earth Sciences 2006 Vol.49 No.1 19 1 www.scichina.com www.springerlink.com DOI: 10.1007/s11430-004-5096-2 δ 18 O record and temperature change over the past 100 years in ice cores on the Tibetan Plateau YAO Tandong 1,2 , GUO Xuejun 2 , Lonnie Thompson 3,1 , DUAN Keqin 2,1 , WANG Ninglian 2,1 , PU Jianchen 2,1 , XU Baiqing 1,2 , YANG Xiaoxin 1 & SUN Weizhen 2 1. Laboratory of Environment and Process on Tibetan Plateau, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; 2. Key Laboratory of Cryosphere and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Meteorological Administration, Lanzhou 730000, China; 3. Byrd Polar Research Center, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Yao Tandong (email: tdyao@itpcas.ac.cn ) Received September 28, 2004; accepted August 2, 2005 Abstract The 213 m ice core from the Puruogangri Ice Field on the Tibetan Plateau facilitates the study of the regional temperature changes with its δ 18 O record of the past 100 years. Here we com- bine information from this core with that from the Dasuopu ice core (from the southern Tibetan Pla- teau), the Guliya ice core (from the northwestern Plateau) and the Dunde ice core (from the north- eastern Plateau) to learn about the regional differences in temperature change across the Tibetan Plateau. The δ 18 O changes vary with region on the Plateau, the variations being especially large between South and North and between East and West. Moreover, these four ice cores present in- creasing δ 18 O trends, indicating warming on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 100 years. A com- parative study of Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature changes, the δ 18 O-reflected temperature changes on the Plateau, and available meteorological records show consistent trends in overall warming during the past 100 years. Keywords: Tibetan Plateau, ice core, temperature. 1 Introduction Meteorological stations on the Tibetan Plateau are few in number and uneven in distribution, with a ma- jority concentrated in the east and south. No stations exist so far within the large expanse in the middle or west of the Plateau. Moreover, most meteorological data only date back to the 1960s. Thus, discovering features of temperature change in the middle and western Plateau has relied mostly on proxy studies. The primary goal in studying past climate has been to discern varying features in the climate composites, with detail ranging from broad regional changes to localized seasonal changes. These proxy studies fo- cused on both the annual climate change at individual stations, and on changes of a broader nature. Scien- tists [13] have used various proxies to discuss tem- perature change of the past 2000 years on the Tibetan Plateau. Temperature changes of the past 100 years over a wider region have also been studied in eastern China [4] . Since the 1980s, scientists have been engaged in identifying important features of regional climate