Foraminiferal Evidence for Holocene Environmental Transitions in The
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Marine Geology 404 (2018) 15–23 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/margo Foraminiferal evidence for Holocene environmental transitions in the Yaojiang Valley, south Hangzhou Bay, eastern China, and its significance for T Neolithic occupations ⁎ Bin Dai, Yan Liu, Qianli Sun , Fuwei Ma, Jing Chen, Zhongyuan Chen State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Editor: E. Anthony The transition from a marine-influenced environment to a coastal plain setting during the Early to Middle Keywords: Holocene was crucial for early human occupation along the eastern China coast. Here, detailed foraminiferal Ningshao plain analyses were completed for two sediment cores (YJ1505 and YJ1508) retrieved from the Yaojiang Valley (YJV) Foraminiferal analysis along the southern Hangzhou Bay coast of eastern China. Brief environmental changes in the YJV during the Transgression and regression Early-Middle Holocene were recovered on the basis of radiocarbon chronology. The assemblages and Detrended Neolithic adaptation Correspondence Analysis (DCA) results of the foraminifera of both cores indicated that the YJV was evidently Environmental transition under a marine influence from 9200 to 7900 cal yr BP; prior to that, it was a fluvial incised valley. The increasing trends in shallow marine foraminifera and the planktonic/benthic foraminifera (P/B) ratio showed that a transgressive period possibly occurred in the valley ca. 9200–7900 cal yr BP, and their following decreases suggested that a rapid regression process occurred thereafter. The disappearance of foraminifera and formation of a peaty layer in core YJ1505 ca. 7600–6500 cal yr BP implied a brief environmental transition to a limnetic wetland setting in the valley centre, which would have been attractive to early human settlers. The dis- appearance of foraminifera in core YJ1508 at the valley's eastern entrance suggested that most areas of the valley were located far from marine influence after ca. 6250 cal yr BP. Then, the limnetic wetland setting transitioned into a coastal plain environment, attracting more people to the valley. Such a transition in the YJV would have provided more opportunities for ancient people and possibly catalysed the development of the Hemudu culture (HC) for approximately two millennia. 1. Introduction (~11,000–8600 cal yr BP)—Kuahuqiao (~8000–7200 cal yr BP) and the Hemudu (~7000–5000 cal yr BP) cultures on the southern Hang- Coastal sediments are valuable archives for the reconstruction of zhou Bay, respectively (ZPICRA, 2003; Liu, 2005)(Fig. 1A and B). sea-level changes and land-sea interactions and the evaluation of their The Yaojiang Valley (YJV) of the southern Hangzhou Bay is well impacts on human occupations during the Holocene (Stanley and known for its fostering of the long-lasting Neolithic Hemudu culture of Warne, 1993; Lambeck et al., 2004; Kemp et al., 2011; Reynolds and the eastern China coast. Over the past decades, Holocene sea-level Simms, 2015). As sea level rise decelerated ~8000–7000 years ago, it changes, landscape processes and Neolithic human adaptations in the gradually created coastal environments that were attractive to human YJV have been intensively studied by scholars of various disciplines. settlers (Chen and Stanley, 1998; Sandweiss, 2003; Zong, 2004; Innes For example, some researchers reconstructed the Holocene vegetation et al., 2009; Song et al., 2013; Zong et al., 2013; Anthony et al., 2014). and geomorphological changes of the Yaojiang Valley via pollen and In eastern China, two relatively independent trajectories of Neolithic algal analyses and geochemical proxies (Li et al., 2009; Qin et al., 2011; cultures occurred on both flanks of Hangzhou Bay during the Holocene. Liu et al., 2014). Geo-archaeological investigations have also reported One is that of the Majiabang (~7000–6000 cal yr BP)—Songze the subsistence of the Hemudu population and the associated rice (~6000–5200 cal yr BP)—Liangzhu (~5200–4000 cal yr BP) and the farming at the representative sites of Hemudu (HMD), Tianluoshan Maqiao (~3900–3200 cal yr BP) cultural sequence in the Taihu Lake (TLS), Zishan (ZS) and Fujiashan (FJS) on the hilly margins of the basin of the northern Hangzhou Bay, and the other is the Shangshan valley. Further, the linkage between human occupation and sea-level ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (Q. Sun). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2018.07.001 Received 23 November 2017; Received in revised form 6 June 2018; Accepted 2 July 2018 Available online 03 July 2018 0025-3227/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. B. Dai et al. Marine Geology 404 (2018) 15–23 Fig. 1. A) Map of East Asia showing the study area. B) Map of the Yangtze Delta and the Hangzhou Bay showing the YJV and several representative Neolithic sites. 1- Shangshan site, 2-Xiaohuangshan site, 3-Kuahuqiao site, 4-Hemudu (HMD) site, 5-Tianluoshan (TLS) site, and 6-Liangzhu sites. C) Map of the YJV; the circles are sediment core sites in the present study, the black dots are Neolithic sites, and the triangles are the collection sites of sediment cores 1) HMD-1, 2) HMD1501, and 3) HMD1502. and landscape changes has been outlined (Tang and Yu, 1996; Jiao, Shaoxing Plain from the west and the Ningfeng Plain from the east, 2007; Fuller et al., 2009; Zheng, 2009; Li et al., 2010; Zheng et al., extending in a NW-W–SE-E direction. The valley is ca. 40 km in length 2012; Liu et al., 2016). Although these previous studies have estab- and ca. 6 km in width, with an average altitude of ca. 3 m above mean lished a preliminary framework of Holocene landscape changes in the sea level (a.m.s.l). Mountains and hills ranging between ca. 100–500 m YJV, some key issues still remain. For example, the timings of marine in elevation lie on the south and north sides of the valley. The Yaojiang transgressions and regressions are still not clear, and whether land River runs through the valley from the west and flows eastward before processes or marine factors, or both, influenced the evolution of the it drains into Hangzhou Bay (Fig. 1C). Hemudu culture in the Yaojiang Valley remains debatable. In this study area, which is located in the subtropical region of The present study focused on two sediment cores retrieved from the south-eastern China, the average temperature is ~4 °C in January and centre and the east entrance of the YJV (Fig. 1C). Foraminiferal analysis ~28 °C in July, and the mean annual precipitation is ca. 1100 mm was completed to decipher the marine transgression and regression (NCCC, 1995). At present, the study area often is subject to severe processes on the basis of radiocarbon chronology. With references to floods caused by typhoons and poor drainage during the monsoon other sediment cores of previous studies in the region, brief environ- season. The highlands of the study area are vegetated with evergreen mental transitions in the Yaojiang Valley during the Early to Middle and deciduous broadleaved forests, while the lowland area features Holocene are shown. Furthermore, the possible impacts of both marine wetlands vegetated by freshwater herbs (Fang, 2006). and land processes on the occupations of the Hemudu culture were re- evaluated from a geo-archaeological perspective. 3. Material and methods 2. Physical setting The sediment cores, YJ1505 (121°17.78′ E, 29°59.58′ N, 1.90 m in elevation) and YJ1508 (121°28.64′ E, 29°58.50′ N, 1.95 m in elevation), The YJV is located in the central part of the Ningshao Plain along were retrieved with a > 95% recovery rate during the winter of 2015. the southern Hangzhou Bay of eastern China. The valley connects the YJ1505 was collected at the centre of the YJV, and the YJ1508 core was 16 B. Dai et al. Marine Geology 404 (2018) 15–23 collected at the east entrance of the valley (Fig. 1C). The YJ1505 and reservoir effect (Reimer et al., 2013). The dates from the shells were YJ1508 cores were sampled at 20- and 10-cm intervals for grain size, calibrated using a reservoir factor (ΔR59 ± 66) based on the average and 20–30-cm intervals for foraminiferal analysis with a sample of the five nearest sites of the East China Sea (Yoneda et al., 2007). thickness of 1 cm. Additionally, the lithology of core YJ1501 The information about human occupation in the Yaojiang Valley (121°15.75′E, 30°2.32′ N, 2.01 m in elevation) was used as a reference. were collected from archaeological literature, excavation reports and Grain-size measurements were conducted using a Beckman Coulter published documents (e.g., ZPICRA and XU, 2001; ZPICRA, 2003; Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer (Model: LS13320, measurement SACH, 2009 ; CSCA and ZPICRA, 2011; NMICRA, 2013). These data range 0.04–2000 μm) at the State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and comprised the temporal and spatial distributions of cultural sites and Coastal Research, East China Normal University (SKLEC, ECNU). relics, human subsistence and local environmental changes. Samples were dried at 40 °C for 24 h; then, 10% HCl was added to eliminate carbonates, 10% H O was added to remove organic matter, 2 2 4. Results and Na(PO3)6 was finally added to disperse the samples prior to testing. The foraminiferal assemblages of the YJ1505 and YJ1508 cores 4.1. Sediment lithology were assessed at the SKLEC, ECNU. For core YJ1505, the sampling in- terval was 30 cm at depths of 0–11.2 m and 20 cm at depths of Core YJ1501 consisted of brownish stiff mud at the bottom, with Fe- 11.2–19.0 m, yielding 71 samples in total.