Abstract. Soil carbon sequestration plays an essential role in mitigating atmospheric CO 2 increases and the subsequently global greenhouse effect. The storages and dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) of 0-30 cm soil depth in different landscape types including beaches, reservoir and pond, reed wetland, forest wetland, bush wetland, farmland, building land, bare land (severe saline land) and salt field in the modern Yellow River Delta (YRD) were studied based on the data of the regional survey and laboratory analysis. The landscape types were classified by the interpretation of remote sensing images of 2000 and 2009, which were calibrated by field survey results. The results revealed an increase of 10.59 km 2 in the modem YRD area from 2000 to 2009. The SOC density varied ranging from 0.73 kg m −2 to 4.25 kg m −2 at depth of 0-30 cm. There were approx. 3.559 × 10 6 t and 3.545 × 10 6 t SOC stored in the YRD in 2000 and 2009, respectively. The SOC storages changed greatly in beaches, bush wetland, farm land and salt field which were affected dominantly by anthropogenic activities. The area of the YRD increased greatly within 10 years, however, the small increase of SOC storage in the region was observed due to landscape changes, indicating that the modern YRD was a potential carbon sink and anthropogenic activity was a key factor for SOC change.

Abstract. The Yellow River, which is the second largest river in China, is regarded as the world's largest contributor of fluvial sediment load to the ocean. In recent decades, the dramatic reduction in water discharge and sediment load due to climate change and human activities in the drainage basin has greatly constrained the evolution process of Yellow River delta. We highlight how runoff and sediment load discharged into sea affected extension of shoreline length and area of modern Yellow River delta dur- [1976][1977][1978][1979][1980][1981][1982][1983][1984][1985]. Since 1996 however, the average increase rate of shoreline length and area decreased to ∼0.80 km yr −1 and ∼3.94 km 2 yr −1 , respectively. In addition, the fluctuated changes of shoreline and area were great and the net negative increase of land area was occurred during this period. There exist significant exponential relaCorrespondence to: J. Yu (junbao.yu@gmail.com) tionships between the accumulated sediment load and extensions of shoreline length and the area during the evolution of the modern Yellow River Delta. Our results indicate that the evolution of shoreline and change of area of the Yellow River Delta are directly affected by the dramatic reduction of runoff and sediment load, which are much close related human being activities in Yellow River drainage basin in recent decades.