Open AccessClimate change dominates recent sedimentation and organic carbon burial in Lake Chenghai, southwest China
Author(s) -
Weiwei Sun,
Qingfeng Jiang,
Enfeng Liu,
Jie Chang,
Enlou Zhang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of limnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.465
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1723-8633
pISSN - 1129-5767
DOI - 10.4081/jlimnol.2018.1762
Subject(s) - environmental science , erosion , drainage basin , sediment , soil carbon , total organic carbon , fluvial , carbon cycle , ecosystem , terrestrial ecosystem , hydrology (agriculture) , climate change , sedimentation , vegetation (pathology) , physical geography , geology , soil science , ecology , oceanography , structural basin , geography , geomorphology , soil water , medicine , cartography , geotechnical engineering , pathology , biology
Lacustrine ecosystems are directly influenced by terrestrial soil erosion, and excessive sediment loading constitutes a significant and widespread environmental issue. In order to investigate the response of catchment soil erosion and organic carbon burial to climate change and human activity, a sediment core spanning the last 160 years was retrieved from Lake Chenghai in southwest China. Multi-proxy analysis including grain-size composition and geochemical indicators were undertaken in this study. The result of grain-size vs standard deviation method shows that the sensitive component with a modal size of 13.2 μm is related to fluvial processes and sensitive to the catchment soil erosion. The increasing intensity of soil erosion was mainly determined by the weakening of Indian summer monsoon and global warming, as well as intensive human activities during the middle of 20th century, which resulted in decreasing vegetation cover in Lake Chenghai catchment. The organic carbon burial rate was also attributed to the catchment disturbance, indicating that increased catchment soil erosion may impact the terrestrial carbon recycling.