Reduced sediment transport in the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes
Reduced sediment transport in the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes
复制标题
人为变化导致黄河泥沙输送减少
DOI：
10.1038/ngeo2602
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发表时间：
2016-01-01
影响因子：
18.3
通讯作者：
Wang, Yafeng
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wang, Shuai;Fu, Bojie;Wang, Yafeng
沉积物的侵蚀、搬运和再沉积塑造了地球表面，并影响生态系统和社会的结构和功能。黄河曾经是世界上最大的河流泥沙载体，但在过去的60年里，它的泥沙负荷减少了大约90%。输沙量的减少主要是由区域气候变化和人类活动共同影响的水量和含沙量变化引起的。本文采用归因方法分析了60年来黄河流经中国黄土高原的径流和泥沙负荷观测数据，黄土高原是其近90%泥沙负荷的来源。研究发现，20世纪70年代至90年代，景观工程、梯田和拦河坝和水库的建设是导致泥沙负荷减少的主要因素，但20世纪90年代以来，大规模植被恢复工程也减少了土壤侵蚀。我们认为，随着现有水坝和水库截留泥沙的能力在未来下降，黄土高原的侵蚀速率将越来越多地控制黄河的泥沙负荷。
The erosion, transport and redeposition of sediments shape the Earth’s surface, and affect the structure and function of ecosystems and society,. The Yellow River was once the world’s largest carrier of fluvial sediment, but its sediment load has decreased by approximately 90% over the past 60 years. The decline in sediment load is due to changes in water discharge and sediment concentration, which are both influenced by regional climate change and human activities. Here we use an attribution approach to analyse 60 years of runoff and sediment load observations from the traverse of the Yellow River over China’s Loess Plateau — the source of nearly 90% of its sediment load. We find that landscape engineering, terracing and the construction of check dams and reservoirs were the primary factors driving reduction in sediment load from the 1970s to 1990s, but large-scale vegetation restoration projects have also reduced soil erosion from the 1990s onwards. We suggest that, as the ability of existing dams and reservoirs to trap sediments declines in the future, erosion rates on the Loess Plateau will increasingly control the Yellow River’s sediment load.