Climatic variations recorded by the sediments from Erhai Lake, Yunnan Province, southwest China during the past 8000 a

Erhai Lake is a large lake with important climatic significance in Yunnan Province, southwest China. The multi-proxy sedimentary records from Erhai Lake indicate the 9 stages of climatic changes with the alternation of warm-dry and cool-wet during the past 8000 a. The variations of Asian monsoon systems were the main cause for the climatic changes in southwest China. The warm-dry period was coincident with the intensification of India monsoon and Northwest Pacific Sub-tropical High Pressure, and the cool-wet corresponding to weak of India monsoon and its main rain belt moving back to southwest China.