Short communication: Massive erosion in monsoonal central India linked to late Holocene land cover degradation
Soil erosion plays a crucial role in transferring sediment and carbon from land to sea, yet little is known about the rhythm and rates of soil erosion prior to the most recent few centuries. Here we reconstruct a Holocene erosional history from central India, as integrated by the Godavari River i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Earth Surface Dynamics |
| Online Access: | https://www.earth-surf-dynam.net/5/781/2017/esurf-5-781-2017.pdf |
| Summary: | Soil erosion plays a crucial role in transferring sediment and carbon from
land to sea, yet little is known about the rhythm and rates of soil erosion
prior to the most recent few centuries. Here we reconstruct a Holocene
erosional history from central India, as integrated by the Godavari River in
a sediment core from the Bay of Bengal. We quantify terrigenous fluxes,
fingerprint sources for the lithogenic fraction and assess the age of the
exported terrigenous carbon. Taken together, our data show that the monsoon
decline in the late Holocene significantly increased soil erosion and the age
of exported organic carbon. This acceleration of natural erosion was later
exacerbated by the Neolithic adoption and Iron Age extensification of
agriculture on the Deccan Plateau. Despite a constantly elevated sea level
since the middle Holocene, this erosion acceleration led to a rapid growth of
the continental margin. We conclude that in monsoon conditions aridity boosts
rather than suppresses sediment and carbon export, acting as a monsoon
erosional pump modulated by land cover conditions. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-6311 2196-632X |