Effects of Human Activities on Surface Sediments in the Endorheic Zone Around the Qilian Mountain
[Objective]Surface sediment proxies indicate modern environmental elements and thus infer paleoenvi-ronmental evolution,but few assessment have been reported on the effect of intensive human activity on sediments,and whether this affects the indication of the climate of the area by surface sediment proxies.[Methods]In this study,456 surface sediments from the Qilian Mountains and surrounding areas were collected and proxies such as to-tal organic nitrogen(TN),total organic carbon(TOC),carbon to nitrogen ratio(C/N),organic carbon isotope(δ13Corg),carbonate carbon isotope(δ13Ccarb)and oxygen isotope(δ18O)were analyzed.Relationships between proxies and elevation,latitude,longitude,temperature and precipitation were examined,and the influence of modern hu-man activity on the paleoenvironmental proxies of surface sediments was explored.[Results and Conclusions]It was found that these proxies in the anthropogenic zone fluctuate significantly in this region and the correlation is sig-nificantly less than in other areas.This suggests that the influence of human activity has changed the indicative mean-ing of paleoenvironmental proxies.Systematic analysis and calculation of the relationship between surface sediments and environmental elements explored the influence of human activities on surface sediments,and clarified the use of proxies as modern environmental indicators.This provides a theoretical basis for the use of paleoenvironmental proxies in sedimentary strata to infer past climatic conditions and to analyze human activities.
Qilian Mountainsendorheic zonesurface sedimentshuman activity-affected area
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