Meltwater-Induced Lake Freshening and Muted Warming in Northern China Under Contemporary Global Warming

Abstract

Despite clearly documented in instrumental temperature records, the warming amplitude over the current warm period (CWP) inferred from lacustrine archive is very limited. The potential role of meltwater pulses in lake hydrology and their influence on lake water temperature under anthropogenic warming remain poorly investigated. Here we present and summarize lake water temperature and hydrology records in northern China to address potential meltwater effects over the last millennium. Our results show abrupt freshening and muted warming of lake water over the CWP, which appears to have also occurred along with climatic warming previously. Hence, substantial meltwater pulses to lakes, a transient response to climatic warming, could partly account for the muted warming over the CWP as indicated by lake water temperature records.