What controls lake contraction and then expansion in Tibetan Plateau’s endorheic basin over the past half century?

The evolutions of climate-sensitive lakes on the Tibetan Plateau's endorheic basin exhibited lake shrinkage before the mid-1990s, but widespread and rapid lake expansions ever since. However, the quantitative contribution of glacier meltwater to lake changes, and the exact mechanisms behind its dominant drivers remain elusive. Here, a comprehensive examination of glacier mass balance since similar to 1975 reveals that excess glacier meltwater compensated for net lake volume loss by 21% +/- 5% during its contraction period 1975-1995, whereas promoted net volume gain by 9% +/- 1% during expansion period 1995-2020 and by 17% +/- 2% over the entire period 1975-2020. Further analyses reveal that the interdecadal variations of sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans favor a net moisture inflow to the Tibetan Plateau, leading to increased precipitation since 1995 relative to 1970s-1995, which effectively elucidates the climatic process causing rapid lake volume expansion in the endorheic basin.