A 794-cm section was collected from Tengger Nuur in the Inner Mongolian Plateau. Accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C data were determined to set an age-depth model after removing about 1920 years of the carbon reservoir effect. Based on the multiproxies grain size, carbonate-content, total organic carbon-content, ratio of C/N, ratios of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca, and carbonate carbon and oxygen isotopes, paleoenvironmental changes since the last deglaciation were reconstructed. Tengger Nuur was very shallow during the last deglaciation under a cool and wet climate, especially during the interval of the cold Younger Dryas event. Although, temperature and humidity increased from the early Holocene (∼10,450-8750 cal a BP), low lake levels indicated that the summer monsoon was not sufficiently strong to reach the modern monsoon boundary in Inner Mongolia. High monsoon precipitation caused lake expansion during 8750-5000 cal a BP, but the lake level oscillated in a shallow state under high evaporation. A low lakelevel event occurred with the interval of a cold-wet climate during 5450-5100 cal a BP. The summer monsoon receded gradually to maintain a deep lake under high effective humidity during 5000-2000 cal a BP, punctuated by low lake-level events at intervals of 4300-3980 cal a BP and 3700-2750 cal a BP. With the arrival of the cold and dry westerly after 2000 cal a BP, lakes shrank gradually to become salinized or completely desiccated, but their levels oscillated at shallow depths during the four periods of 1900-1800 cal a BP, 1500-1050 cal a BP, 550-400 cal a BP (Little Ice Age), and 100 cal a BP-AD 1985. Therefore, the eastern summer monsoon was weak in the early Holocene, and lake-level oscillation was controlled by effective humidity in arid and semi-arid areas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.