Qinghai Lake is located in a hydrologically closed basin at the conjunction of SE and SW monsoons and westerlies . Its frequent lake level fluctuations arising from climatic and monsoonal changes have left a series of geological records since the last glaciation.The coarse sediments in Core QD1, the sporopollen assemblage representing steppe, the eolian paleo-sanddunes in the east and southeast banks and the fossil glacial topography all indicated frigid and arid climatic conditions and large scale shrinkage of the lake during the last glacial maximum. Qinghai Lake is located in a hydrologically closed basin at the conjunction of SE and SW monsoons and westerlies. Its frequent lake level fluctuations arising from climatic and monsoonal changes have left a series of geological records since the last glaciation. The coarse sediments in Core QD1, the sporopollen assemblage representing steppe, the eolian paleo-sanddunes in the east and southeast banks and the fossil glacial topography all indicated frigid and arid climatic conditions and large scale shrinkage of the lake during the last glacial maximum.