The Asian-Australian monsoon is an important component of the Earth's climate system that influences the societal and economic activity of roughly half the world's population. The past strength of the rain-bearing East Asian summer monsoon can be reconstructed with archives such as cave deposits 1, 2, 3 , but the winter monsoon has no such signature in the hydrological cycle and has thus proved difficult to reconstruct. Here we present high-resolution records of the magnetic properties and the titanium content of the sediments of Lake Huguang Maar in coastal southeast China over the past 16,000 years, which we use as proxies for the strength of the winter monsoon winds. We find evidence for stronger winter monsoon winds before the Bølling-Allerød warming, during the Younger Dryas episode and during the middle and late Holocene, when cave stalagmites suggest weaker summer monsoons 1, 2, 3 . We conclude that this anticorrelation is best explained by migrations in the intertropical convergence zone. Similar migrations of the intertropical convergence zone have been observed in Central America for the period ad 700 to 900 (refs 4-6), suggesting global climatic changes at that time. From the coincidence in timing, we suggest that these migrations in the tropical rain belt could have contributed to the declines of both the Tang dynasty in China and the Classic Maya in Central America.

Chronic inflammation induced by endotoxin from a dysbiotic gut microbiota contributes to the development of obesity-related metabolic disorders. Modification of gut microbiota by a diet to balance its composition becomes a promising strategy to help manage obesity. A dietary scheme based on whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods, and prebiotics (WTP diet) was designed to meet human nutritional needs as well as balance the gut microbiota. Ninety-three of 123 central obese volunteers (BMI ≥ 28 kg m−2) completed a self-controlled clinical trial consisting of 9-week intervention on WTP diet followed by a 14-week maintenance period. The average weight loss reached 5.79 ± 4.64 kg (6.62 ± 4.94%), in addition to improvement in insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles, and blood pressure. Pyrosequencing of fecal samples showed that phylotypes related to endotoxin-producing opportunistic pathogens of Enterobacteriaceae and Desulfovibrionaceae were reduced significantly, while those related to gut barrier-protecting bacteria of Bifidobacteriaceae increased. Gut permeability, measured as lactulose/mannitol ratio, was decreased compared with the baseline. Plasma endotoxin load as lipopolysaccharide-binding protein was also significantly reduced, with concomitant decrease in tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and an increase in adiponectin. These results suggest that modulation of the gut microbiota via dietary intervention may enhance the intestinal barrier integrity, reduce circulating antigen load, and ultimately ameliorate the inflammation and metabolic phenotypes.

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The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) plays a major role in the global climate 63 system (Wang, 2009). In mid-latitude and southern Asia, ecosystems, rain-fed agriculture and 64 economic prosperity critically depend on the amount and distribution of monsoonal 65 precipitation (Yasuda and Shinde, 2004). Therefore, detailed knowledge of the monsoon 66 system variability is essential for understanding global climate processes and is of societal and 67 economic interest, particularly with regard to existing uncertainties in future rainfall 68 projections (Stocker et al., 2013). 69A large number of palaeoenvironmental records have already been generated to better 70 understand the spatio-temporal variability and control mechanisms of the Asian monsoon (e.g. 71 Wang et al., 2010;Cao et al., 2013;Ran and Feng, 2013;An, 2014;Yang et al., 2014). In 72 general, these studies primarily invoke local or regional moisture changes as most indicative 73 of variations in monsoon strength and large-scale circulation patterns. Particularly, oxygen 74 isotope records from speleothems in S/E China have substantially influenced palaeo-monsoon 75 research as they are well dated and widely considered to be high-resolution summer monsoon 76 proxies (e.g., Wang et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2014 suggesting a similar moisture evolution across the monsoon-influenced regions of China 82 (Zhao et al., 2009a; Zhang et al., 2011;Ran and Feng, 2013). 83However, other studies point to much more variability of the summer monsoon in space 84 and time. In particular, towards its northern margin, proxy records reveal region-specific 85 palaeoenvironmental changes, suggesting a complex interplay between the Indian summer 86 monsoon (ISM), the EASM and other major climatic factors, including topography and 87 vegetation (Hu et al., 2003; Maher and Hu, 2006;An et al., 2006;Zhao and Yu, 2012; Ran 88 and Feng, 2013). 89To reveal coherent spatio-temporal patterns of climate evolution in monsoonal Asia and 90 adjacent regions, available proxy data were used for summarizing compilations, over-regional 91 correlations, for constructing 'monsoon/moisture indices' and data-model comparisons (An, 92 2000;Ren and Beug, 2002; Morrill et al., 2003;An et al., 2006;Herzschuh, 2006; Chen et al., 93 2008; Zhao et al., 2009a,b;Cai et al., 2010;Wang et al., 2010; Kleinen et al., 2011; Zhao and 94 Yu, 2012;Cao et al., 2013, Dallmayer et al., 2013 Leipe et al., 2014;Yang et al., 2014). 95However, the regional behaviour of the summer monsoon and its over-regional linkages is far 96 from being well understood. This is reflected in ongoing debates regarding (i) the regional 97 impact of the major atmospheric circulation systems controlling moisture distribution patterns 98 in China (e.g. Clemens et al., 2010;Ran and Feng, 2013), (ii) the phase 99 relationships between these systems (e.g. He et al., 2004;Zhao et al., 2009a; Wang et al., 100 2010;Cai et al., 2010; Clemens et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2011; Ran and 101 Feng, 2013; Li et al., 2014;Yang et al., 2014),...