Holocene sea-level history of the northern coast of South China Sea

Xiong, Haixian; Zong, Yongqiang; Qian, Peng; Huang, Guangqing; Fu, Shuqing

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.06.022

Cited by 57 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The modern coasts of southern China and SEA are characterized by rocky headlands and small estuarine and lagoonal plains, with large river deltas providing extensive low-lying flatlands suitable for irrigated rice cultivation. In the early Holocene, relative sea level rose rapidly and the sea inundated channels incised during the last glacial sea level lowstand (33,34). Marine transgression constrained the amount of land suitable for paddy field agriculture.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The area of freshwater lowlands emerged after 5 ka was calculated by ArcGIS 10.2, based on the estimated paleoshorelines for around 6 to 5 ka. Holocene relative sea level changes along the coastlines of China and Southeast Asia have been driven mainly by global ice-volume changes, glacial isostatic adjustment, and local geological-tectonic processes (33,35). The history of Holocene coastal progradation in the China/Southeast Asia region is related to a complex range of factors, including relative sea level change and sediment supply.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Holocene coastal evolution preceded the expansion of paddy field rice farming

Rolett

Zheng

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Rice agriculture is the foundation of Asian civilizations south of the Yangtze River. Although rice history is well documented for its lower Yangtze homeland area, the early southward expansion of paddy rice farming is poorly known. Our study investigates this process using a compilation of paleoenvironmental proxies from coastal sediment cores from southeast China to Thailand and Island Southeast Asia. We propose that a shortage of land suitable for paddy fields, caused by marine transgression, constrained rice agriculture during the mid-Holocene. Rapid expansion of coastal plains, particularly in deltaic basins, over the past three millennia has coincided with increases in land suitable for rice cultivation. Our study also helps explain the past population movements of rice farmers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene coastal evolution preceded the expansion of paddy field rice farming

Rolett

Zheng

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…1) update farfield relative sea-level records from the South China Sea and northern Indian Ocean, respectively. Xiong et al (2018) note an acceleration in relative sea-level rise at ~9.5 ka with a slowing sealevel rise at ~7.0 ka. These are times of known acceleration in Laurentide ice sheet retreat and final deglaciation (Carlson et al, 2008a;Ullman et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Last Glacial Cyclementioning

confidence: 88%

“…The relative sea-level data resulting from this study will provide important constraints on GIA models and therefore for improving predictions of future sea-level change in this region. 6 Xiong et al (2018) and Yokoyama et al (2019) (7 and 8, respectively, on Fig. 1) update farfield relative sea-level records from the South China Sea and northern Indian Ocean, respectively.…”

Section: The Last Glacial Cyclementioning

confidence: 91%

“…PALSEA brings together observational scientists and ice-sheet, climate and sea-level modelers in order to better define and interpret observational constraints on past sea-level rise and improve our understanding of ice-sheet responses to climate change. This PALSEA Quaternary Science Reviews special issue addresses these topics by examining orbital-scale sea-level changes during the late Pliocene (Grant et al, 2018), ice-sheet extent and volume prior to and during the last glacial maximum (Carlson et al, 2018;Pico et al, 2018;Simms et al, 2019), relative sea-level changes following the last glacial maximum (Barnett et al, 2019;Romundset et al, 2018;Simms et al, 2018;Xiong et al, 2018;Yokoyama et al, 2019;Yousefi et al, 2018), and full interglacial relative sea-level change during the last interglaciation (Skrivanek et al, 2018) (Fig. 1, 2b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PALeo constraints on SEA level rise (PALSEA): Ice-sheet and sea-level responses to past climate warming

Carlson

Dutton

Long

et al. 2019

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Seabed erosion and deposition related to the typhoon activity of the past millennium on the southeast coast of China

Xiong

Zong

Huang

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Catastrophic events often interrupt long‐term Earth surface processes. In coastal areas, although millennial‐scale trends of climatic and sea‐level changes determine the trajectory of sedimentary landform evolution, storm and/or tsunami activity can cause abrupt changes in depositional conditions that may alter the long‐term sedimentary processes. Here, we report a sedimentary hiatus that is widely observed from the late Holocene sedimentary sequence at the seabed along the southeast China coast. This hiatus was discovered by close temporal sedimentary and radiocarbon dating analyses of a seabed sedimentary sequence in the mouth area of the Pearl River estuary. The results suggest that a couple of metres in the middle to late Holocene sediment at the seabed were eroded by a catastrophic event happening c. 1000–800 cal. Years BP. In theory, a mega‐tsunami generated from the Manila Trench could have caused such erosion at the seabed, but there is a lack of direct geological and historical evidence to support such a hypothesis. Much more likely, a super‐typhoon struck the coast and caused the erosion. This hypothesis is strongly supported by the region's historical and geological records, which suggest a period characteristic of intense typhoons ranging from the Medieval Warm Period to the climate transition phase (c. 1000–600 cal. Years BP). During the subsequent Little Ice Age, deposition of sandy sediment continued, suggesting frequent but weaker typhoon activity. Over the past two centuries the deposition of sandy sediment and gravels began, implying the beginning of a phase of intensifying typhoon conditions, possibly a result of the recent warming climate. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Holocene sea-level history of the northern coast of South China Sea

Cited by 57 publications

References 54 publications

Holocene coastal evolution preceded the expansion of paddy field rice farming

Holocene coastal evolution preceded the expansion of paddy field rice farming

PALeo constraints on SEA level rise (PALSEA): Ice-sheet and sea-level responses to past climate warming

Seabed erosion and deposition related to the typhoon activity of the past millennium on the southeast coast of China

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