Spatial and temporal variations and controlling factors of sediment accumulation in the Yangtze River estuary and its adjacent sea area in the Holocene, especially in the Early Holocene

• We presented a transport and accumulation pattern of the Yangtze-derived sediment.
• The Early Holocene strata scoured by the later tidal current formed the mud ridges.
• The accumulation rates exhibit two trends, i.e., low-high-low, and high-low-high.
• The position shifts of the estuary caused the changes in accumulation rate.

The sub-bottom and collected borehole data provide insight into the transport and accumulation processes of the Yangtze-derived sediment in the study area since ~11 kyr BP. Five seismic units were identified according to six major acoustic surfaces. The sedimentary strata consist of fluvial, estuarine and deltaic systems from the bottom up, characterized by two different trends in sediment accumulation rates, i.e., low-high-low, and high-low-high. On the inner shelf of the East China Sea, the terrain with trough and ridge was formed by the Early Holocene transgression strata (formed in ~10 to 12 kyr BP) scoured by the later rectilinear tidal current due to postglacial sea-level transgression, and the sharply protruding seismic units are interpreted to be bedrocks outcropping on the seafloor. An analysis of the sedimentary characteristics in the boreholes and such factors as difference in accumulation rates, and tectonic subsidence led us to conclude that the paleo-coastline was located not far away from and to the east of Core ZK09 at ~9 kyr BP, and the southern bank of the Yangtze River estuary was located to the south of Core ZK09. At ~9 kyr BP, the Yangtze-derived sediments were transported eastwards along the southern bank of the Yangtze River and the barrier due to the influence of the paleo-coastal current from the north, the direction of the Yangtze-derived sediment transport was split on the northeast of the Zhoushan archipelago, and the sediments covered the terrain with trough and ridge. During the high sea level period (7 kyr BP–present), the eastward migration of paleo-coastline had resulted in the increase in accumulation rate. We also conclude that the sharp increase in accumulation rate near the Yangtze River estuary after ~2 kyr BP was not primarily caused by human activities. The position shifts of the estuary caused by the paleo-coastline migration and sea level oscillations since the Holocene is the main cause controlling the Yangtze-derived sediment distribution, and the difference in accumulation rate at different locations in the study area.