Sedimentary records of natural and artificial Huanghe (Yellow River) channel shifts during the Holocene in the southern Bohai Sea

Abstract

Two gravity cores collected off the modern Huanghe (Yellow River) delta in the southern Bohai Sea were analyzed for grain size, the total organic carbon (TOC)/total nitrogen (TN) ratio, color diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, 14C dating and 137Cs and 210Pb isotope contents to clarify changes in the sedimentary environment during the Holocene. In particular, the effect of natural and artificial river-course shifts of the Huanghe on the Bohai Sea sediment was investigated. A peat layer, scouring surface and sharp changes in the grain size, TOC/TN ratio, sediment color ( L ⁎, a ⁎) and magnetic susceptibility were identified and are likely to be due to the early-Holocene sea-level rise resulting in environmental changes from coastal to shelf environments in the Bohai Sea. After the sea level reached its maximum at 6–7 ka BP, the lateral shifts in the river course of the Huanghe formed 10 superlobes, and superlobe 7 (11–1048 AD) and superlobe 10 (1855–present) of the Huanghe delta affected the core sites. The northern site of BH-239 has been more affected by the Huanghe since the middle Holocene. Notably, in the superlobe 10 period, the reshaping of the northern Huanghe delta due to an artificial river-course shift from northward to eastward in 1976 (e.g., a∼10 km shoreline retreat due to coastal erosion) was recorded in the core sediments, particularly in terms of the TOC/TN ratio, sediment color ( L ⁎ and a ⁎) and magnetic susceptibility, owing to the huge sediment supply from coastal erosion of the former river mouth area.