Fluvial Responses to Late Quaternary Climate Change in a Humid and Semi-Humid Transitional Area: Insights from the Upper Huaihe River, Eastern China

Research into river processes in different climatic and geomorphic areas is vital for a clearer understanding of the non-linear responses of rivers to climate change. The Huaihe River (HHR) Basin, located in China’s North–South Transition Zone (NSTZ), provides an ideal environment in which to explor...

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Published inWater (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 9; p. 1767
Main Authors Li, Zongmeng, Wang, Yixuan, Zhu, Wenmin, Gao, Hongshan, Liu, Fenliang, Xing, Wei, Zhang, Chenguang, Qiao, Qiang, Lei, Xiaoying
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.05.2023
Subjects
Analysis
Climate change
Cold
Extreme weather
fluvial process
Fluvial sediments
Geomorphology
Global temperature changes
Grain size
Holocene
Humid areas
Ice ages
Impact factors
Laboratories
Late Quaternary
Mountains
Nonlinear response
Precipitation
Quaternary
Radiocarbon dating
Regions
Rivers
Stratigraphy
Topography
Transition zone
upper Huaihe River
China
Henan China
Huaihe River
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Summary:Research into river processes in different climatic and geomorphic areas is vital for a clearer understanding of the non-linear responses of rivers to climate change. The Huaihe River (HHR) Basin, located in China’s North–South Transition Zone (NSTZ), provides an ideal environment in which to explore river responses to climate change within a humid/semi-humid transitional area. Based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and 14C dating, combined with sedimentary stratigraphic analyses, we reconstructed the river processes of three sedimentary sequences in the upper HHR since the Late Quaternary. Our results showed that the upper HHR was characterized by aggrading meandering channels from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to 0.5 ka, and an aggrading wandering channel from 0.2 ka to the present. Two periods of downcutting occurred during 5.8–3.0 and 0.5–0.2 ka, respectively. The river incision is potentially linked to changes in the climate during the Mid–Late Holocene transition and the Little Ice Age (LIA). However, there have been no marked changes in channel patterns in the upper HHR since the LGM. This phenomenon reflects the influence of vegetation on channel patterns during climate change. Our results showed that the fluvial processes in different climatic and geomorphic areas are controlled by the local hydroclimatic regime.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w15091767