Asynchronized erosion effects due to climate and human activities on the central Chinese Loess Plateau during the Anthropocene and its implications for future soil and water management

Variations and regional differences in land surface processes during the Anthropocene have directly impacted local economic development and social stability. Nevertheless, little is known about the historical erosion effects and human-environment interactions at annual and decadal scales on the central Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) over the past 200 years, when human activities and annual sediment discharge both reached historical peaks. Located in the northcentral hilly-gully and southcentral plateau-gully regions, respectively, the Jingbian and Heshui landslide-dammed reservoirs were ideal settings to reconstruct the erosion flux and precipitation over A.D. 1850-2000 due to vertical stacking of interannual couplets. During this period, the mean annual specific sediment yield reached 1.17 x 10(4) t/(km(2) a) in the Jingbian catchment (precipitation threshold of 30 mm), while it reached 1.13 x 10(4) t/(km(2) a) in the Heshui catchment (precipitation threshold of 40 mm) according to sediment yield with frustum and extrapolation of historical precipitation. Interannual El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events were deemed a primary climatic factor inducing soil erosion over the central CLP. This should remind decision-makers that it is necessary to prevent large-scale floods and severe erosion before future ENSO events. Changes in population, policies, and human activities also affected land surface processes on the central CLP during 1850-2000. In addition, the results revealed that abandoned farmlands in the southcentral regions with 600 mm and more precipitation had a strong ecological resilience, while this was weak in the northcentral drier region. These findings imply that future ecological restoration of the central CLP should consider the ecological resilience of farmlands that have been recently abandoned due to urbanization. These novel results provide new insights into regional soil and water management under China's development agenda of 'Ecological Conservation and High-quality Development of the Yellow River Basin'