The sharp decline of East Asian summer monsoon at mid-Holocene indicated by the lake-wetland transition in the Sanjiang Plain, northeastern China

Abstract. The timing of the waxing and wining of the East Asian summer monsoon during the Holocene is still under debate. In present study, we present the high-resolution grain-size and LOI records from a well-dated mud/peat profile to reveal the lake-wetland transition in the Sanjiang Plain and discuss its significance to Holocene monsoon evolutions. The results show that the shallow-water lakes have developed in low-lying areas of the plain before 4600 yr BP, corresponding to the Holocene monsoon maximum. Thereafter, the wetlands began to initiate with the extinction of the paleolakes, marking a lake-shrinking stage with the relative dry climate. Considering the prevalent monsoon climate in the Sanjiang Plain, we suggest the lake-wetland transition at 4600 yr BP indicate a sharp decline of the summer monsoon rather than the basin infilling process. Such a remarkable monsoon weakening event has been widely documented in northern China, and we associated it with the ocean–atmosphere interacting processes in low-latitude regions.