Abstract
Ecosystems respond to climatic and anthropogenic forcings with regime shifts and reorganizations of their system structures. In river basins, changes in sediment transport can have cascading effects that cause ecosystem regime shifts. The Yellow River, once the world’s most sediment-rich river, has experienced dramatic regime shifts. Although recent intervention has returned sediment discharge in the Yellow River to pristine levels, our understanding of previous regime shifts remains inadequate, particularly for the regime shift to a sediment rich period during early historical time. We reanalyzed previous datasets to clarify the first historical sediment transport regime shift in the Yellow River. Our results show that while historical climatic changes (e.g., the Medieval Warm Period, about 900–1100 AD) caused changes in sediment transport, a regime shift occurred only under increased forcing from anthropogenic stresses (started from about 1350 AD, reached the tipping point after 1900 AD). This unique behavior of the Yellow River under increasing anthropogenic forces may provide perspective for sustainable river basin management.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Best, J. 2019. Anthropogenic stresses on the world’s big rivers. Nature Geoscience 12: 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0262-x.
Chen, Y., J.P.M. Syvitski, S. Gao, I. Overeem, and A.J. Kettner. 2012. Socio-economic impacts on flooding: A 4000-year history of the Yellow River, China. Ambio 41: 682–698. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0290-5.
Chen, Y., K. Wang, Y. Lin, W. Shi, Y. Song, and X. He. 2015. Balancing green and grain trade. Nature Geoscience 8: 739–741. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2544.
Collie, J.S., K. Richardson, and J.H. Steele. 2004. Regime shifts: Can ecological theory illuminate the mechanisms? Progress in Oceanography 60: 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2004.02.013.
Fu, B., S. Wang, Y. Liu, J. Liu, W. Liang, and C. Miao. 2017. Hydrogeomorphic ecosystem responses to natural and anthropogenic changes in the Loess Plateau of China. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 45: 223–243. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-063016-020552.
Ge, J. 2000. Chinese population history. Shanghai: Fudan University Press.
Ge, Q. 2011. Climate change in Chinese historical dynasties. Beijing: Chinese Science Press.
Ge, Q., X. Guo, J. Zheng, and Z. Hao. 2008. Meiyu in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River since 1736. Chinese Science Bulletin 53: 107–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0440-5.
Ge, Q., J. Zheng, X. Fang, Z. Man, X. Zhang, P. Zhang, and W.-C. Wang. 2003. Winter half-year temperature reconstruction for the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and Yangtze River, China, during the past 2000 years. The Holocene 13: 933–940. https://doi.org/10.1191/0959683603hl680rr.
He, F., S. Li, and X. Zhang. 2012. Reconstruction of cropland area and spatial distribution in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty (AD1004-1085). Journal of Geographical Sciences 22: 359–370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-012-0932-3.
Hughes, T. P., S. Carpenter, J. Rockström, M. Scheffer, and B. Walker. 2013. Multiscale regime shifts and planetary boundaries. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28: 389–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.019.
Ji, H., S. Chen, S. Pan, C. Xu, C. Jiang, and Y. Fan. 2018. Morphological variability of the active Yellow River mouth under the new regime of riverine delivery. Journal of Hydrology 564: 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.07.014.
Lappalainen, H.K., N. Altimir, V.-M. Kerminen, T. Petäjä, R. Makkonen, P. Alekseychik, N. Zaitseva, I. Bashmakova, et al. 2018. PAN-EURASIAN experiment (PEEX) program: An overview of the first 5 years in operation and future prospects. Geography, Environment, Sustainability 11: 6–19. https://doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2018-11-1-6-19.
Liu, J.P., J.D. Milliman, S. Gao, and P. Cheng. 2004. Holocene development of the Yellow River’s subaqueous delta, North Yellow Sea. Marine Geology 209: 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2004.06.009.
Milliman, J.D., Q. Yun-Shan, R. Mei-E, and Y. Saito. 1987. Man’s influence on the erosion and transport of sediment by Asian Rivers: The Yellow River (Huanghe) example. The Journal of Geology 95: 751–762. https://doi.org/10.1086/629175.
Ren, M., and X. Zhu. 1994. Anthropogenic influences on changes in the sediment load of the Yellow River, China, during the Holocene. The Holocene 4: 314–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/095968369400400311.
Rocha, J.C., G. Peterson, Ö. Bodin, and S. Levin. 2018. Cascading regime shifts within and across scales. Science 362: 1379–1383.
Saito, Y., Z. Yang, and K. Hori. 2001. The Huanghe (Yellow River) and Changjiang (Yangtze River) deltas: A review on their characteristics, evolution and sediment discharge during the Holocene. Geomorphology 41: 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-555X(01)00118-0.
Scheffer, M., and S.R. Carpenter. 2003. Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: Linking theory to observation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 18: 648–656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2003.09.002.
Shi, C., Z. Dian, and L. You. 2002. Changes in sediment yield of the Yellow River basin of China during the Holocene. Geomorphology 46: 267–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-555X(02)00080-6.
Tan, Q. 1982. Chinese historical geography atlas. Vol. 6. 8 vols. Beijing: China Cartographic Publishing House.
Wang, Y. 1991. A preliminary study of the relationship between water-sand and environmental changes in the reaches of Yellow River during 70-870 A.D. In Collection of researches on environmental changes of the Yellow River Basin and laws of water and sediment transportation, vol. 2, 145–153. Beijing: Geological Publishing House (In Chinese).
Wang, S., B. Fu, S. Piao, Y. Lü, P. Ciais, X. Feng, and Y. Wang. 2016. Reduced sediment transport in the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes. Nature Geoscience 9: 38–41. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2602.
Wang, L., M. Shao, Q. Wang, and W.J. Gale. 2006. Historical changes in the environment of the Chinese Loess Plateau. Environmental Science & Policy 9: 675–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2006.08.003.
Wang, H., Z. Yang, Y. Saito, J.P. Liu, X. Sun, and Y. Wang. 2007. Stepwise decreases of the Huanghe (Yellow River) sediment load (1950–2005): Impacts of climate change and human activities. Global and Planetary Change 57: 331–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2007.01.003.
Wei, Y., J. Jiao, G. Zhao, H. Zhao, Z. He, and X. Mu. 2016. Spatial–temporal variation and periodic change in streamflow and suspended sediment discharge along the mainstream of the Yellow River during 1950‐2013. CATENA 140: 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2016.01.016.
Xu, J. 2003. Sedimentation rates in the lower Yellow River over the past 2300 years as influenced by human activities and climate change. Hydrological Processes 17: 3359–3371. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.1392.
Xu, J., Y. Lin, C. Wu, Q. Yu, and Z. Zuo. 2006. Study on the definition of concentrated sediment source area in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Zhengzhou: The Yellow River Water Conservancy Press.
Yu, X., and H. Wu. 1996. Study on the relationship between Yellow River shipping and water and sediment in historical period. In Collection of researches on environmental changes of the Yellow River Basin and laws of water and sediment transportation, vol. 5, 174–198. Beijing: Geological Publishing House (In Chinese).
Yu, Y., H. Wang, X. Shi, X. Ran, T. Cui, S. Qiao, and Y. Liu. 2013. New discharge regime of the Huanghe (Yellow River): Causes and implications. Continental Shelf Research 69: 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2013.09.013.
Zhang, D. 1994. Evidence for the existence of the medieval warm period in China. Climatic Change 26: 289–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01092419.
Zheng, J., W.-C. Wang, Q. Ge, Z. Man, and P. Zhang. 2006. Precipitation variability and extreme events in eastern China during the past 1500 years. Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 17: 579. https://doi.org/10.3319/TAO.2006.17.3.579(A).
Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (CN) (Grant Nos. 41930649, 41722102) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Song, S., Wang, S., Fu, B. et al. Sediment transport under increasing anthropogenic stress: Regime shifts within the Yellow River, China. Ambio 49, 2015–2025 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01350-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01350-8