Water is the most precious and conflict-prone natural resource in Central Asia (CA) because water availability has a great impact on both agriculture and economic development and will be especially vulnerable to future climate change. Modern climate in CA is influenced by both the Indian and Asian Monsoons and the mid-latitude Westerlies. In order to make predictions about future climate development, knowledge of past climate is essential. The joint research project "CADY - Central Asian Climate Dynamics" (funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)) thus aims to reconstruct and quantify Holocene climate variability and regional hydrology in CA along two W-E transects sandwiching the Tibetan Plateau, and one N-S transect cutting across the Plateau.
Using a combination of sedimentological, geochemical, mineralogical and micropaleontological (diatoms, ostracods, pollen) data from lake sediments and climate modeling will lead to an improved understanding of the mid-latitude Westerlies and monsoon dynamics during the Holocene.
In our subproject we use diatom and ostracod assemblages in several Kyrgyz lake sediments to obtain information about lake system dynamics and past climate development (e.g. lake level changing caused by drier climate conditions).
Preliminary results and a comparison between Son Kol and Chatyr Kol sediment and ostracods isotope indicate that both systems before 5000 cal yr BP were monsoonal affected, and the Son Kol after a stable transition period of 500 years, since 4500 cal yr BP is under Westerlies influence.