Holocene lake carbon sequestration,hydrological status and vegetation change,China

Lakes have received considerable attention as long-term sinks for organic carbon(C) at regional and global scales. Previous studies have focused on assessment and quantification of carbon sinks, and few have worked on the relationship between millennial-scale lake C sequestration, hydrological status and vegetation, which has important scientific significance in improving our understanding of lake C stocks and storage mechanisms. Here, we present a comprehensive study of pollen records, organic geochemical proxies, lake-level records, sediment accumulation rate(SAR) and organic C accumulation rate(CAR) in China since the Holocene. We also include numerical climate classification and lake-level simulations, to investigate variations of lake C sequestration, hydrological status and vegetation during the Holocene. Results indicate that the evolution of lake C accumulation showed an out-of-phase relationship with hydrological status and vegetation in China. Lake C accumulation exhibited an overall trend of increasing from the early to late Holocene in response to gradually increasing terrestrial organic matter input. However, China as a whole experienced the densest vegetation cover in the middle Holocene, corresponding to the mid-Holocene optimum of a milder and wetter climate. Optimal hydrological conditions were asynchronous in China; for example, early Holocene in Asian monsoon dominated areas, and middle Holocene in westerlies controlled regions. Our synthesis indicated that climate change was the main factor controlling the long-term variability in lake C accumulation, hydrologic conditions, as well as vegetation, and human influences were usually superimposed on the natural trends.