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Sources of sediment in tidal flats off Zhejiang coast, southeast China

  • Geology
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Abstract

The growth of tidal flats off Zhejiang coasts in southwestern China has provided substantial areas for local agriculture and construction activities. To evaluate modern and future development of tidal flats in the region, a good understanding of sediment sources is necessary. Previous research has concluded that the Changjiang (Yangtze) River is the dominant supplier of sediments to this part of the southeast Chinese coast, despite the fact that sediment delivery from this source has been decreased markedly in the past two decades. In this study, we investigated the sources of tidal flat sediments, and the magnetic and geochemical properties of recent tidal flat sediments along the Zhejiang coast were compared with those discharged from rivers. Magnetic and geochemical properties of the tidal flat samples reveal statistically distinct sediment provenance groups. The magnetic and geochemical scatter plots show that the suspended sediment samples are naturally divided into two different groups, one including the Changjiang River and Qiantang River material, and the other including the Jiaojiang, Oujiang, and Feiyun Rivers that located in the central and southern parts of the study areas. At last, a binary source of tidal flat sediments along the Zhejiang coast was determined, with the substantial majority originating from local rivers, while a much smaller proportion emanates from the Changjiang River to the north. We conclude that the sediment contribution of the Changjiang River to tidal flat development in the region has been markedly overestimated, with important implications for management.

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Data Availability Statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Zhiyuan WANG and Bo WANG for the fieldwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environmental Science, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China

    Jia Jia, Xingze Zhang, Ruhui Zhou, Michael Meadows & Lidong Zhu

  2. Department of Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Michael Meadows

  3. Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science, Ministry of Education, and School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Michael Meadows & Dhritiraj Sengupta

Authors
  1. Jia Jia
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  2. Xingze Zhang
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  3. Ruhui Zhou
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  4. Michael Meadows
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  5. Dhritiraj Sengupta
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  6. Lidong Zhu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jia Jia.

Additional information

Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (No. LY20D040001) and the National Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of China

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Jia, J., Zhang, X., Zhou, R. et al. Sources of sediment in tidal flats off Zhejiang coast, southeast China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 39, 1245–1255 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-0179-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-0179-2

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