Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:07:23.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rates of Organic Carbon Burial in a Floodplain Lake of the Lower Yellow River Area During the Late Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Shi-Yong Yu ,
Chunhai Li ,
Xuexiang Chen ,
Guiyun Jin  and
Hui Fang
Shi-Yong Yu*
Affiliation:
Institute for Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 27 South Shanda Road, Jinan 250100, China Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2205 E 5th Street, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
Chunhai Li
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Xuexiang Chen
Affiliation:
Institute for Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 27 South Shanda Road, Jinan 250100, China
Guiyun Jin
Affiliation:
Institute for Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 27 South Shanda Road, Jinan 250100, China
Hui Fang
Affiliation:
Institute for Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, 27 South Shanda Road, Jinan 250100, China
*
3. Corresponding author. Email: syu@sdu.edu.cn; syu@d.umn.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rapid outward and upward growth of the world's large fluvial sedimentary systems during the second half of the Holocene is a remarkable geologic process that may have buried considerable areas of pre-existing riparian wetlands, which in turn would sequester massive carbon. However, the role of floodplain lakes in the global carbon budget has long been neglected. This article demonstrates the potential of organic carbon burial due to floodplain aggradation during the late Holocene by analyzing a sediment core from a buried floodplain lake in the lower Yellow River area. Based on detailed radiocarbon dating, this study inferred that landscape development in the study area has experienced three disparate stages closely related to the displacement of the lower Yellow River channel. The first stage (∼2250–1700 cal yr BP) represents a widespread pedogenic process while the Yellow River discharged to the northern Bohai Sea through a course much farther north from the present-day position. The subsequent stage (∼1700–1000 cal yr BP) broadly corresponds to the calm period of the Yellow River while it discharged to the southern Bohai Sea through a course slightly north from the present-day position. A lacustrine environment prevailed during this period, sequestering organic carbon at a rate of ∼0.58 kg m 2 yr 1. The final stage (∼1000 cal yr BP to present) is marked by the rapid growth of the floodplain due to the frequent rerouting of the lower Yellow River. This analysis suggests that fluvial sedimentary systems should be integrated into the terrestrial carbon budget when accounting for the aberrant rise of the atmospheric CO2 in the face of global cooling during the second half of the Holocene.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , 2014 , pp. 1129 - 1138
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alin, SR, Johnson, TC. 2007. Carbon cycling in large lakes of the world: a synthesis of production, burial, and lake-atmosphere exchange estimates. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 21(3):GB3002, doi:10.1029/2006GB002881.Google Scholar
Battin, TJ, Luyssaert, S, Kaplan, LA, Aufdenkampe, AK, Richter, A, Tranvik, LJ. 2009. The boundless carbon cycle. Nature Geoscience 2(9):598–600.Google Scholar
Bianchi, TS, Allison, MA. 2009. Large-river delta-front estuaries as natural “recorders” of global environmental change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106(20):8085–92.Google Scholar
Calvert, S, Vogel, J, Southon, J. 1987. Carbon accumulation rates and the origin of the Holocene sapropel in the Black Sea. Geology 15(10):918–21.Google Scholar
Campbell, I, Campbell, C, Vitt, D, Kelker, D, Laird, L, Trew, D, Kotak, B, LeClair, D, Bayley, S. 2000. A first estimate of organic carbon storage in Holocene lake sediments in Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology 24(4):395–400.Google Scholar
Cole, J, Prairie, Y, Caraco, N, McDowell, W, Tranvik, L, Striegl, R, Duarte, C, Kortelainen, P, Downing, J, Middelburg, J. 2007. Plumbing the global carbon cycle: integrating inland waters into the terrestrial carbon budget. Ecosystems 10(1):172–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, WE. 1999. The carbon cycle and biogeochemical dynamics in lake sediments. Journal of Paleolimnology 21(4):375–93.Google Scholar
Dean, WE, Gorham, E. 1998. Magnitude and significance of carbon burial in lakes, reservoirs, and peatlands. Geology 26(6):535–8.Google Scholar
Dong, X, Anderson, NJ, Yang, X, Shen, J. 2012. Carbon burial by shallow lakes on the Yangtze floodplain and its relevance to regional carbon sequestration. Global Change Biology 18(7):2205–17.Google Scholar
Einsele, G, Yan, J, Hinderer, M. 2001. Atmospheric carbon burial in modern lake basins and its significance for the global carbon budget. Global and Planetary Change 30(3):167–95.Google Scholar
Engle, DL, Melack, JM, Doyle, RD, Fisher, TR. 2008. High rates of net primary production and turnover of floating grasses on the Amazon floodplain: implications for aquatic respiration and regional CO2 flux. Global Change Biology 14(2):369–81.Google Scholar
Falkowski, P, Scholes, R, Boyle, E, Canadell, J, Canfield, D, Elser, J, Gruber, N, Hibbard, K, Högberg, P, Linder, S. 2000. The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of earth as a system. Science 290(5490):291–6.Google Scholar
Gui, Z-F, Xue, B, Yao, S-C, Wei, W-J, Yi, S. 2013. Organic carbon burial in lake sediments in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, China. Hydrobiologia 710(1):143–56.Google Scholar
Guo, Y. 1990. On historical changes of lakes in Shandong Province. Transactions of Oceanology and Limnology 3:15–22. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Han, M, Zhang, W, Li, Y, Zhang, L. 2002. Formation and change of ancient lake on south coast plain of Laizhou Bay. Scientia Geographica Sinica 22(4):430–5. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Hanson, PC, Bade, DL, Carpenter, SR, Kratz, TK. 2003. Lake metabolism: relationships with dissolved organic carbon and phosphorus. Limnology and Oceanography 48(3):1112–9.Google Scholar
Hellinger, SJ, Shedlock, KM, Sclater, JG, Ye, H. 1985. The Cenozoic evolution of the North China Basin. Tectonics 4(4):343–58.Google Scholar
Hori, K, Tanabe, S, Saito, Y, Haruyama, S, Nguyen, V, Kitamura, A. 2004. Delta initiation and Holocene sea-level change: example from the Song Hong (Red River) delta, Vietnam. Sedimentary Geology 164(3):237–49.Google Scholar
Moreira-Turcq, P, Jouanneau, J, Turcq, B, Seyler, P, Weber, O, Guyot, J-L. 2004. Carbon sedimentation at Lago Grande de Curuai, a floodplain lake in the low Amazon region: insights into sedimentation rates. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 214(1):27–40.Google Scholar
Mulholland, PJ, Elwood, JW. 1982. The role of lake and reservoir sediments as sinks in the perturbed global carbon cycle. Tellus 34(5):490–9.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ren, G. 2007. Changes in forest cover in China during the Holocene. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 16(2–3):119–26.Google Scholar
Ren, G, Beug, H-J. 2002. Mapping Holocene pollen data and vegetation of China. Quaternary Science Reviews 21(12):1395–422.Google Scholar
Ren, G, Zhang, L. 1998. A preliminary mapped summary of Holocene pollen data for Northeast China. Quaternary Science Reviews 17(6):669–88.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, WF. 2003. The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago. Climatic Change 61(3):261–93.Google Scholar
Saito, Y, Yang, Z, Hori, K. 2001. The Huanghe (Yellow River) and Changjiang (Yangtze River) deltas: a review on their characteristics, evolution and sediment discharge during the Holocene. Geomorphology 41(2):219–31.Google Scholar
Stallard, RF. 1998. Terrestrial sedimentation and the carbon cycle: coupling weathering and erosion to carbon burial. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 12(2):231–57.Google Scholar
Stanley, DJ, Hait, AK. 2000. Deltas, radiocarbon dating, and measurements of sediment storage and subsidence. Geology 28(4):295–8.Google Scholar
Stanley, DJ, Warne, AG. 1994. Worldwide initiation of Holocene marine deltas by deceleration of sea-level rise. Science 265(5169):228–31.Google Scholar
Tockner, K, Stanford, JA. 2002. Riverine flood plains: present state and future trends. Environmental Conservation 29(3):308–30.Google Scholar
Tranvik, LJ, Downing, JA, Cotner, JB, Loiselle, SA, Striegl, RG, Ballatore, TJ, Dillon, P, Finlay, K, Fortino, K, Knoll, LB. 2009. Lakes and reservoirs as regulators of carbon cycling and climate. Limnology and Oceanography 54(6):2298–314.Google Scholar
Wu, C, Xu, Q, Zhang, X, Ma, Y. 1996a. Palaeochannels on the North China Plain: types and distributions. Geomorphology 18(1):5–14.Google Scholar
Wu, C, Zhu, X, He, N, Ma, Y. 1996b. Compiling the map of shallow-buried palaeochannels on the North China Plain. Geomorphology 18(1):47–52.Google Scholar
Xu, J. 1998. Naturally and anthropogenically accelerated sedimentation in the Lower Yellow River, China, over the past 13,000 years. Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography 80(1):67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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(16):3359–71.Google Scholar
Xu, J, Sun, J. 2003. Sedimentation rate change in the lower Yellow River in the past 2300 years. Acta Geographica Sinica 58(2):247–54. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Xu, Q, Wu, C, Zhu, X, Yang, X. 1996. Palaeochannels on the North China Plain: stage division and palaeoenvironments. Geomorphology 18(1):15–25.Google Scholar
Ye, H, Shedlock, K, Hellinger, S, Sclater, J. 1985. The North China Basin: an example of a Cenozoic rifted intraplate basin. Tectonics 4(2):153–69.Google Scholar
Yi, S, Saito, Y, Oshima, H, Zhou, Y, Wei, H. 2003. Holocene environmental history inferred from pollen assemblages in the Huanghe (Yellow River) delta, China: climatic change and human impact. Quaternary Science Reviews 22(5):609–28.Google Scholar
Yu, S-Y, Berglund, BE, Sandgren, P, Colman, SM. 2007. Holocene organic carbon burial rates in the southeastern Swedish Baltic Sea. The Holocene 17(5):673–81.Google Scholar
Zhang, W, Han, M, Li, Y. 2003. The causes of disappearance of ancient lakes in south coast plain of Laizhou Bay, Shandong Province. Journal of Palaeogeography 5(2):224–31. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z, Nie, X, Bian, X. 2004. Environmental change of lakes in Xiaoqinghe River drainage, Shandong Province. Journal of Palaeogeography 6(2):226–33. In Chinese with English abstract.Google Scholar