New progress of lake sediments and environmental changes research in China

Abstract

Environmental change recorded by lake sediments is one of the important branches of the past global changes study. The new progress of lake sediments and environmental changes in China since the late 1980s has been comprehensively discussed. The highlights emphasized are Asian paleomonsoon migration reflected by lake level fluctuation, uplift of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau recorded by lacustrine sediments, saltlake sediments and environmental evolution, lake response to the natural-human interaction and modern lake biogeochemical process. Meanwhile important suggestions for the lake sediments and environmental research in the future are proposed, which include studies on the quantitative relationship between lake environment proxies and climate factors, high-resolution evolutionary sequence and spatial differentiation of environments, modern lake dynamic process and environment, Quaternary Chinese lake database and global changes.