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Abstract: The distribution of marine-influenced oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 5 to OIS 1 sediments was examined in several late Quaternary boreholes from the southern Changjiang (Yangtze) delta plain, China, using different dating methods including OSL, U-series, AMS 14C and paleomagnetism. Results demonstrate that coastal and estuarine deposition during OIS 5 and OIS 3 occurred throughout the study area. However, Holocene transgressive sediments were absent on the Taihu block. The burial depth of intertidal to subtidal sediment deposited during OIS 5e records 30–80m subsidence caused by sediment compaction and tectonic movement since that time. However, coastal sediments formed during the late phase of OIS 3 were buried to a depth of ca. 6–15m in the Taihu Lake area, while the burial depth increased eastward to ca. 45–60m on the coastal plain. This phenomenon, combined with the distribution of Holocene marine strata, indicates at least 25–30m uplift of the Taihu block since the end of OIS 3. We suggest that this uplift was mainly caused by the differential subsidence due to substantial amount of post-glacial deposition by the Changjiang and Huanghe Rivers on the continental shelf of east China marginal sea. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: During the mid-Holocene the eastern Taihu area, on China''s Yangtze delta plain, was populated by advanced late Neolithic cultures supported by intensive domesticated rice cultivation. This agricultural system collapsed around 4200cal yr BP, with severe population decline, the end of the Liangzhu culture, and about half a millennium of very low-scale human activity in the area before the re-establishment of agricultural production. Microfossil analyses from six sedimentary sequences, supported by AMS 14C dating, has allowed reconstruction of mid-Holocene hydrological conditions and salinity changes which would have had a major influence on agricultural viability and cultural history in the coastal wetlands. These data, allied to existing stratigraphic and sea-level records, show that chenier ridges that developed after ca. 7000cal yr BP in the east of the area sheltered it from marine inundation and, although still connected to the sea through tidal creeks, low-salinity conditions persisted throughout the Neolithic period. There is no evidence that marine flooding caused the collapse of Liangzhu culture. Marine influence was stable and evolved slowly. Social and cultural causes may also have been important, but if environmental change triggered the collapse of Neolithic agricultural society here, other natural forces must be sought to explain this event. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: AMS 14C ages of post-glacial core sediments from the subaqueous Yangtze delta, along with sedimentary structures and distributions of grain size, pollen spores, and dinoflagellate cysts, show an estuarine depositional system from 13 to 8.4 cal ka BP and a deltaic system from 5.9 cal ka BP to the present. The estuarine system consists of intertidal to subtidal flat, estuarine, and estuarine-front facies, characterized by sand–mud couplets and a high sedimentation rate. The deltaic system includes nearshore shelf and prodelta mud featured by lower sedimentation rate, markedly fewer coastal wetland herbaceous pollens, and more dinoflagellate cysts. We explain the extremely high sedimentation rate during 9.2–8.4 cal ka BP at the study site as a result of rapid sea-level rise, high sediment load due to the unstable monsoonal climate, and subaqueous decrease of elevation from inner to outer estuary. A depositional hiatus occurred during 8.2–5.9 cal ka BP, the transition from estuarine to deltaic system, caused possibly by a shortage of sediment supply resulting from delta initiation in paleo-incised Yangtze valley and strong tidal or storm-related reworking in offshore areas. The subsequent development of deltaic system at the study site indicates accelerated progradation of Yangtze delta post-5.9 cal ka BP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Archaeological records of the Neolithic settlements on the eastern China coast between 35°N and 30°N, an area covering the abandoned Yellow River and the Yangtze River delta plains, reveal that Neolithic people moved from the Yellow River basin onto the northern coast for fishing, hunting and dry-land agriculture ~7000 yr ago. Marine transgression interrupted their activities on the low-lying (2–5 m in elevation) coastal wetlands between 6000 and 5000 yr ago, after which they reclaimed their land near the river mouths. Their migration routes on the southern Yangtze delta plain indicate another scenario: early Neolithic communities moved onto the plain for wet-rice cultivation. Despite relative sea-level rise from 7000 to 4000 yr ago, a large number of settlements were established on the lowlands between the eastern Chenier Ridges and the western Taihu Lake depression. The Chenier Ridges, with ~1.0 m higher topography than the adjacent coastal area, played a role in sheltering the Neolithic people. Subsequently, settlements waned considerably, possibly due to further marine inundation combined with cold climate. The present study shows that migration patterns of the Neolithic settlements are closely associated with a gradually rising sea level between 7000 and 4000 yr ago. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]