Beach ridges of Dali Lake in Inner Mongolia reveal precipitation variation during the Holocene

Variability in East Asian summer monsoon precipitation during the Holocene remains of debate. In this study, we use a closed lake with well-dated lake beach ridges located on the margin of the East Asian summer monsoon, a region highly sensitive to monsoon precipitation changes, to obtain a temporal sequence of water volume in North China. The elevation of each beach ridge calibrated to the modern lake level was surveyed. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of undisturbed sediments of beach ridges was performed. The lake area and water volume corresponding to each beach ridge were calculated using a digital elevation model. This study reveals relatively reduced monsoon precipitation from ~12 to 7 ka interrupted by strengthening of the monsoon circulation to a maximum from ~7 to ~5 ka and followed by greatly reduced monsoon intensity until the present day. These results demonstrate that changes in the East Asian summer monsoon precipitation may not be directly driven by global temperature or atmospheric CO₂ content. Rather, we suggest that variation in the the monsoon margin precipitation is probably mainly driven by ice volume and subordinately by the summer solar insolation difference between mid-latitude land and low-latitude ocean.