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We examined the source-to-sink sediment transport processes from the Changjiang River to the estuarine coastal shelf area by analyzing the clay mineral assemblages in suspended sediment samples from the Changjiang River catchment and surface samples from the estuarine coastal shelf area following the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in 2003. The results indicate that the clay mineral compositions throughout the study area are dominated by illite, with less abundant kaolinite and chlorite and scarce smectite. The clay minerals display distinct differences in the tributaries and exhibit obvious changes in the trunk stream compared with the periods before 2003, and the source of sediment has largely shifted to the mid- to lower reaches of the river after 2003. Spatially, the clay mineral assemblages in the estuarine area define two compositionally distinct provinces. Province I covers the mud area of the Changjiang River estuary and the Zhe-Min coastal region, where sediment is primarily supplied by the Changjiang River. Province II includes part of the Changjiang River estuary and the southeastern portion of the study area, where the sediment is composed of terrestrial material from the Changjiang River and re-suspended material from the Huanghe River carried by the Jiangsu coastal current. Moreover, the other smaller rivers in China (including the Oujiang and Minjiang rivers of mainland China and the rivers of West Taiwan) also contribut sediments to the estuarine and inner shelf areas. In general, the clay mineral assemblages in the Changjiang River estuarine area are have mainly been controlled by sediment supplied from upstream of the Changjiang River tributaries. However, since the completion of the TGD in 2003, the mid- to downstream tributaries have become the main source of sediments from the Changjiang catchment into the East China Sea. These analyses further demonstrate that the coastal currents and the decrease in the sediment load of the river have the greatest impacts on the distribution and transport of clay minerals assemblages in the sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although extreme weather events make a strong impact in shallow marine sedimentary environments, there is still a paucity of past records for the Holocene period. Estuarine-inner shelf mud regions deposited from rivers that transport a large amount of suspended sediment represent an important archive of the Holocene. Two cores (S5-2 and JC07) retrieved from the estuarine-inner shelf regions of the East China Sea provided an opportunity to use sensitive grain size and 210Pb dating to reconstruct a history of extreme weather events in the Yangtze River basin. Here, we show that the average sedimentation rates of the two cores, S5-2 (1930–2013) and JC07 (1910–2013), were estimated to be 3.11 and 1.56 cm/yr, respectively. The results indicated that sediment supply played an important role in sedimentation of the estuarine-inner shelf mud region of the East China Sea. Sand content strongly increased in the late 1980s, a result of downstream riverbed erosion of the Yangtze River and submerged deltas. The grain size versus the standard deviation method was used to identify grain-size intervals with the highest variability along a sedimentary sequence. The Yangtze estuary mud area coarse population correlated well with historical literature on Yangtze River floods since AD 1930. Extreme storm events corresponded well with historical literature on the Zhe-Min mud region of the East China Sea. The spectral analyses of the sample core coastal population demonstrated that flood and storm events were consistent with a ~3–8 a periodic change of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), suggesting that the flood events usually follow ENSO years in the Yangtze River. Consequently, sediment records preserved in the two cores demonstrated different sedimentary responses to Yangtze River floods and storms, which is important to recover centennial scale flood events, to infer extreme precipitation, and to understand climate change in the estuarine-inner shelf of the East China Sea. Nevertheless, more efforts are still needed to simulate paleo-flood and predict future flood events in the context of global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samples were collected from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China, to study the concentrations, distributions, and compositions of 16 US-EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water and suspended particulate matter (SPM). We also evaluated sources of the PAHs and their potential toxicity. Total concentrations of the PAHs (ΣPAHs) in water ranged from 17.33 to 77.12 ng L, and in SPM, the levels ranged from 595.91 to 2473.74 ng g. Total concentrations of seven carcinogenic PAHs (ΣCPAHs) ranged from 7.63 to 13.02 ng L in water and 276.55 to 1216.89 ng g in SPM. PAH levels in water samples were relatively low, and those in the lower reaches were higher than in the middle reaches. SPM samples had higher levels of PAHs, especially in the lower reaches and in Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake. Principal component analysis (PCA) with multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) was performed to quantitatively characterize the PAH sources. Two factors and their contributions were identified from water samples. Coal and wood combustion accounted for 74.1 % of the PAHs, and petroleum emissions explained 25.9 % of the PAHs. Three source factors were identified from SPM samples: these were vehicular emissions (46.3 % of PAHs), wood and coal combustion (40.4 % of PAHs), and petrogenic sources (13.3 %). Ecological risk assessment indicated that a moderate undesirable impact will be caused by PAHs, and some control measures and remedial actions should be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from the Datong hydrological station and 147 meteorological stations, the influences of climate change and human activities on temporal changes in water discharge and sediment load were examined in the Yangtze River basin from 1953 to 2010. The Mann–Kendall test, abrupt change test (Mann–Kendall and cumulative anomaly test), and Morlet wavelet method were employed to analyze the water discharge and sediment load data measured at the Datong hydrological station. The results indicated that the annual mean precipitation and water discharge exhibited decreasing trends of − 0.0064 mm/10 yr and − 1.41 × 10 8 m 3 /yr, respectively, and that the water sediment load showed a significant decreasing trend of − 46.5 × 10 6 t/yr. Meanwhile, an abrupt change in the water discharge occurred in 2003. The sediment load also exhibited an abrupt change in 1985. From 1970 to 2010, the climate change and human activities contributed 72% and 28%, respectively, to the water discharge reduction. The human-induced decrease in the sediment load was 914.03 × 10 6 t/yr during the 1970s and 3301.79 × 10 6 t/yr during the 2000s. The contribution from human activities also increased from 71% to 92%, especially in the 1990s, when the value increased to 92%. Climate change and human activities contributed 14% and 86%, respectively, to the sediment load reduction. Inter-annual variations in water discharge and sediment load were affected by climate oscillations and human activities. The effect of human activities on the sediment load was considerably greater than those on water discharge in the Yangtze River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]