Stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental changes in the Yangtze Delta during the Late Quaternary

Li, Congxian; Chen, Qingqiang; Zhang, Jiaqiang; Yang, Shouye; Fan, Daidu

doi:10.1016/s1367-9120(99)00078-4

Cited by 210 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Sea-level change was clearly a defining factor in the site's hydrological history, as its natural and cultural organic sediments are intercalated within thick deposits of marine clay. Sea level rose rapidly on the eastern China coast in the first Holocene millennium (Zhang and Zhao, 1990;Chen and Stanley, 1998;Zong, 2004) until the present Yangtze Delta/Hangzhou Bay area was inundated and the Yangtze delta began to form, demonstrated by shallow marine and intertidal facies there of early Holocene age (Wu, 1983;Yan and Hong, 1987;Chen et al, 2000;Li et al, 2000;Wang et al, 2006). In places marine environments penetrated landward of the present coast along inlets and incised valleys (Yan and Huang, 1987;Hori et al, 2001Hori et al, , 2002, as at Kuahuqiao.…”

Section: Site Hydrologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental history, palaeoecology and human activity at the early Neolithic forager/cultivator site at Kuahuqiao, Hangzhou, eastern China

Innés

Zong

Chen

et al. 2009

Quaternary Science Reviews

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThe date and location of the adoption of rice cultivation by foraging cultures in China is of considerable current interest but its understanding is hampered by a lack of information regarding its palaeoenvironmental context. We present detailed multi-proxy palaeoecological research at the earliest-dated site of rice cultivation in the coastal littoral of east China which has revealed the precise environmental setting of this early Neolithic settlement and its incipient cultivation at c. 7750 cal BP. Regional and local environmental changes governed the character of the site and the duration of human activity. After an episode of marine conditions, natural hydrological succession and terrestrialisation of the site preceded fire clearance of marsh fen-carr alder scrub that prepared the ground for cultivation and then maintained a reedswamp-type wet grassland in which rice was grown. Cropping of Typha stands may have formed part of the subsistence base before the site was overwhelmed by marine inundation c. 7200 cal BP, after which rice cultivation spread to Neolithic sites of Hemudu type elsewhere in the coastal lowlands. We suggest that integrated multi-proxy palaeoecological studies are vitally important for the full understanding of such key wetland archaeological sites.

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Section: Site Hydrologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental history, palaeoecology and human activity at the early Neolithic forager/cultivator site at Kuahuqiao, Hangzhou, eastern China

Innés

Zong

Chen

et al. 2009

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…Continued debate about the age of high elevation in Asia means that constraining when the modern rivers achieved their present geometry is important because of their sensitivity to the changing regional topographic gradient. A proposed Pleistocene age for the Yangtze largely hinges on evidence that the modern delta had only been active since that time (4,5). However, extensive petroleum exploration in the Subei-South Yellow Sea Basin (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Miocene birth of the Yangtze River

Zheng

Clift

Wang

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

261

208

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The development of fluvial systems in East Asia is closely linked to the evolving topography following India-Eurasia collision. Despite this, the age of the Yangtze River system has been strongly debated, with estimates ranging from 40 to 45 Ma, to a more recent initiation around 2 Ma. Here, we present 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages from basalts interbedded with fluvial sediments from the lower reaches of the Yangtze together with detrital zircon U-Pb ages from sand grains within these sediments. We show that a river containing sediments indistinguishable from the modern river was established before ∼23 Ma. We argue that the connection through the Three Gorges must postdate 36.5 Ma because of evaporite and lacustrine sedimentation in the Jianghan Basin before that time. We propose that the present Yangtze River system formed in response to regional extension throughout eastern China, synchronous with the start of strike-slip tectonism and surface uplift in eastern Tibet and fed by strengthened rains caused by the newly intensified summer monsoon.Asian monsoon | drainage capture | provenance | Subei Basin | Yangtze gravel

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“…Sediments in this part of the delta are largely sourced locally, from the delta plain itself and from relatively raised areas of land to the west and south, such as the Tianmu Mountains (Wu et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2009). The region east of the chenier ridges, by comparison, was only above sea level during the Late Holocene (Li et al, 2000), and was therefore unavailable for occupation throughout much of the Neolithic period. Sediments in this part of the delta potentially originate from the full extent of the Yangtze River catchment (Wu et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2009) and their source is therefore potentially difficult to define precisely.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon anomalies suggest late onset of agricultural intensification in the catchment of the southern part of the Yangtze Delta, China

Long

Hunt

Taylor

2016

CATENA

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5Holocene sediments from the southern part of the delta are unevenly distributed through 6 time. Two clusters of dates --in sediments ca. 9,000-7,000 cal. BP and ca. 3,000-1,000 cal. BP 7--most likely indicate two periods of intensive erosion and redeposition of organic materials. 8The older of the two clusters may have been associated with a marked episode of marine 9 transgression, whereas the younger cluster could reflect increasing levels of human 10 disruption of soils and sediments in the catchment. A relatively late increase in 11anthropogenic soil erosion supports recent archaeological evidence that, following its early 12Neolithic origins, agricultural expansion and intensification occurred later on the southern 13Yangtze Delta than previously thought.14 15

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Stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental changes in the Yangtze Delta during the Late Quaternary

Cited by 210 publications

References 7 publications

Environmental history, palaeoecology and human activity at the early Neolithic forager/cultivator site at Kuahuqiao, Hangzhou, eastern China

Environmental history, palaeoecology and human activity at the early Neolithic forager/cultivator site at Kuahuqiao, Hangzhou, eastern China

Pre-Miocene birth of the Yangtze River

Radiocarbon anomalies suggest late onset of agricultural intensification in the catchment of the southern part of the Yangtze Delta, China

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