Human activity main reason for reduced sediment transport in Yellow River: study

Chinese scientists have found that sediment transport in Yellow River was reduced mainly due to anthropogenic changes.

The Yellow River was once the world's largest carrier of fluvial sediment, with 90 percent coming from the Loess Plateau. But its sediment load has decreased sharply in recent years, according to Fu Bojie, lead researcher and scientist at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Figures in the Tongguan Pass of the Yellow River showed that the annual sediment transport has dropped from 1.6 billion tonnes in the 1970s to 300 million tonnes in present day.

"The declined sediment load is due to changes in water discharge and sediment concentration, which are both influenced by regional climate change and human activities," said Fu.

The research group also found that construction of check dams and terrace fields were the primary factors driving reduction in sediment load from the 1970s to 1990s, and large-scale vegetation restoration projects have also reduced soil erosion since 2000.

Fu said that a sustainable vegetation eco-system will take a bigger role in effective control of sediment load in the Yellow River, as the ability of existing dams and reservoirs to trap sediments declines in the future.

The study was published online at Nature Geosciences on Tuesday. Endi