Abstract:The westerlies and the Indian monsoon are the primary atmospheric circulations impacting climate and environmental changes on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results reveal that both the intensity and extent influenced by these two circulations display distinct spatial and temporal patterns. Based on both the in-situ oxygen stable isotope in precipitation and simulation from high resolution isotopic GCM models, three modes of interaction between the westerlies and the Indian monsoon (the westerlies model; the transitional model; and the monsoonal model) were founded on the Tibetan Plateau. The lake sediment further evidence that the extents of three model domains display the temporally change. We also found three distinct change patterns of glaciers, lakes, and ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau which corresponded to three models of interaction between the westerlies and the Indian monsoon. In the monsoon domain, it is characterized with greatest glacial retreat, widespread reduction in lake area, and the delay in green-up dates; in contrast, the stable or even increasing glacial volumes, significant lake expansion, and an advance in green-up dates were found in the westerlies domain; the relative complex process of glaciers, lakes, and ecosystem occurs in the transitional domain.