Holocene shelf-coastal sedimentary systems associated with the Changjiang River: An overview

The fate of the terrestrial sediment supplied by rivers is a critical issue for understanding the patterns of Holocene environmental change on continental shelves. The East China Sea is a typical broad continental shelf with abundant sediment supply from large rivers. Here, a variety of sedimentary records were formed during the Holocene period. The sedimentary systems associated with these records have unique characteristics in terms of spatial distribution, material composition, deposition rate and the timing of deposition, which are related to active sediment transport processes induced by tides and waves, shelf circulations and sediment gravity flows. The sedimentary records thus formed are high resolution slices, i.e., each record has a temporal resolution of up to 10(0)-10(-1)a, but only covers a limited part of the Holocene time. In terms of the spatial distribution, these records are scattered over a large area on the shelf. Further studies of these systems are required to understand the underlying process-product relationships. In particular, the mid-Holocene coastal deposits on the Jiangsu coast, the early to middle Holocene sequences of the Hangzhou Bay, as well as the Holocene mud deposits off the Zhejiang-Fujian coasts, should be investigated in terms of the material supply (from both seabed reworking during the sea level rise event and river discharges), transport-accumulation processes, the sediment sequences and the future evolution of the sedimentary systems. Advanced numerical modeling techniques should be developed to meet the needs of these studies.