Interactions among millennial-scale geomorphic processes in different parts of a drainage basin, arid China

Abstract

The geomorphic evolution of different parts of the Shiyang River catchment was analyzed in this study, using Quaternary chronologies, sedimentary facies, grain size, geochemical proxies, and pollen proxies of sedimentary sections and study sites to examine millennial-scale geomorphic processes. Results indicate that during the early and middle Holocene, most sections and study sites were eroded in the upper reaches, with an average erosion rate around 0.042 cm/yr, while sediment deposition appeared in the middle reaches, at a rate of 0.091 cm/yr. At the same time, the average deposition rate was 0.062 cm/yr in the lower reaches. During the late Holocene, erosion in the upper reaches was more severe, with the rate of 0.169 cm/yr, due to the development of steep river banks. The middle reaches showed an average late-Holocene erosion rate of 0.089 cm/yr, and sediments in the lower reaches were deposited at a rate of 0.011 cm/yr. Characteristics of all proxies are well related to the changes of erosion and deposition rates; therefore, climate change is assumed to be the primary factor for geomorphic evolution at the millennia scale, and geomorphic responses of different parts of the river are understood to be connected but distinct.