Human Impacts Overwhelmed Hydroclimate Control of Soil Erosion in China 5,000 Years Ago

Deforestation and intensive land use have accelerated soil erosion, reshaped topography, and altered carbon reservoirs for thousands of years. The timing, scope, and magnitude of long-term anthropogenic soil erosion across China are especially important to understand the global scale of this process. Here, sediment accumulation rates (SARs) from 191 sediment archives are found to be temporally correlated with monsoon intensity during 6-40 ka BP, indicating that hydroclimate was the main driver of soil erosion in this time interval. The rapid increase in SARs after ca. 5 ka BP is decoupled from persistently weakened hydroclimate but instead follows the trend of increasing population and related agricultural activities in China, implying a change in the primary controlling factor since then. Early human activities in China therefore appear to have had profound implications on Earth's surface at a continental scale.

Automated summary

Deforestation and intensive land use in China have led to long-term anthropogenic soil erosion. The main driver of soil erosion was hydroclimate during 6-40 ka BP, while population increase and agricultural activities have become the primary factor after ca. 5 ka BP. Early human activities in China have had profound implications on Earth's surface at a continental scale.