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Impact of human activity and climate change on suspended sediment load: the upper Yellow River, China

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Abstract

Fluvial suspended sediment has multi-fold environmental implications and the study of the variation in suspended sediment load (SSL) of rivers is important both in environmental earth sciences and in river environmental management. Based on data collected for the upper Yellow River of China in the past 50–60 years, the purpose of this study is to elucidate the impact of human activity and climate change on SSL, thereby to provide some knowledge for the improvement of the drainage basin management. The results show that the SSL of the upper Yellow River exhibited a remarkable decreasing trend. A number of reservoirs trapped a considerable amount of sediment, resulting in a reduction in SSL at Toudaoguai station, the most downstream station of the upper Yellow River. The analyses based on Mann–Kendall’U and double-mass plot indicate some turning points, which were caused by the Liujiaxia and Longyangxia Reservoirs, two major reservoirs on the upper Yellow River. The implementation of soil and water conservation measures reduced the runoff coefficient, and therefore, the intensity of soil erosion. The climate change also played a role in reducing sediment yield. The increase in air temperature enhanced the evapo-transpiration and reduced the runoff, by which the SSL decreased. The decreased frequency of sand-dust storms reduced the amount of wind-blown, sand and dust to the river reaches located in desert, also reducing the SSL. Seven influencing variables are selected to describe the changing human activity and climate. As some of the influencing variables are strongly inter-correlated, the principle component regression was used to establish the relationship between SSL and the influencing variables. The squared multiple correlation coefficient is R 2 = 0.823. Some further research is suggested with the minerals and pollutants related with the SSL.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support from the National Major Basic Research Program of China (2011CB403303), Natural Science Foundation of China (41071016) and Chinese Academy of Sciences is gratefully acknowledged. All hydrometrical data are provided by the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission, and the precipitation and sand-dust storm data by the National Bureau of Meteorology of China. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions are valuable for improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Zhengzhou, 450003, China

    Wenyi Yao

  2. Key Laboratory for Water Cycle and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Jiongxin Xu

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  1. Wenyi Yao
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Correspondence to Jiongxin Xu.

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Yao, W., Xu, J. Impact of human activity and climate change on suspended sediment load: the upper Yellow River, China. Environ Earth Sci 70, 1389–1403 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2223-4

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