Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:05:58.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene changes in flooding frequency in South Korea and their linkage to centennial-to-millennial-scale El Niño–Southern Oscillation activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

Jaesoo Lim ,
Jin-Young Lee ,
Sei-Sun Hong ,
Ju-Yong Kim ,
Sangheon Yi  and
Wook-Hyun Nahm
Jaesoo Lim*
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
Jin-Young Lee*
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
Sei-Sun Hong
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
Ju-Yong Kim
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
Sangheon Yi
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
Wook-Hyun Nahm
Affiliation:
Geo-Environmental Hazards & Quaternary Geology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea
*
*Corresponding authors at: Quaternary Geology Department, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Lim); [email protected] (J.-Y. Lee).
*Corresponding authors at: Quaternary Geology Department, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 305-350, Republic of Korea. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Lim); [email protected] (J.-Y. Lee).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To trace past changes in flooding frequency, we investigated fluvial sediments in the middle reach of the Nakdong River, South Korea. Sediments with larger grain size, lower total organic carbon percentage, and depleted δ13C values in the recovered sediment cores were interpreted as periods of more frequent flooding. Patterns of decreased long-term flooding frequency and vegetation changes during the early to late Holocene were similar to the decreasing regional summer monsoon intensity. Multicentennial frequent flooding periods in the study area (2900–3400 cal yr BP, 3600–3900 cal yr BP, 4600–5300 cal yr BP, and 5800–6400 cal yr BP) corresponded to stronger El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity periods. Based on previous studies showing that high-frequency tropical typhoon-driven coastal inundation along the western coast of Japan during the middle to late Holocene was coupled with stronger ENSO activity, it is likely that the observed centennial-to-millennial-scale flood frequency change in South Korea was influenced mainly by changes in the genesis and tracks of tropical typhoons at centennial-to-millennial time scales. This suggests that the centennial-to-millennial-scale hydrologic changes in East Asia were linked to the remote atmospheric-oceanic circulation changes represented by an ENSO-like pattern.

Keywords

HoloceneFloodingEl Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)Tropical typhoon
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 37 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, Z.S., 2000. The history and variability of the East Asian paleomonsoon climate. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 171–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedetti, M.M., 2003. Controls on overbank deposition in the Upper Mississippi River. Geomorphology 56, 271–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camargo, S.J., Sobel, A.H., 2005. Western north pacific tropical cyclone intensity and ENSO. Journal of Climate 18, 2996–3006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carson, E.C., Knox, J.C., Mickelson, D.M., 2007. Response of bankfull flood magnitudes to Holocene climate change, Uinta Mountains, northeastern Utah. Geological Society of America Bulletin 119, 1066–1078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, N.-K., Lee, S.-K., 1983. Studies on the classification, productivity and distribution of C3, C4 and CAM plants in vegetations of Korea: III. The distribution of C3 and C4 type plants. [In Korean.] Korean Journal of Ecology 6, 128–141.Google Scholar
Chen, H.-F., Wen, S.-Y., Song, S.-R., Yang, T.-N., Lee, T.-Q., Lin, S.-F., Hsu, S.-C., Wei, K.-Y., Chang, P.-Y., Yu, P.-S., 2012. Strengthening of paleo‐typhoon and autumn rainfall in Taiwan corresponding to the Southern Oscillation at late Holocene. Journal of Quaternary Science 27(9), 964–972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosford, J., Qing, H., Eglington, B., Mattey, D., Yuan, D.X., Zhang, M.L., Cheng, H., 2008. East Asian monsoon variability since the Mid-Holocene recorded in a high-resolution, absolute-dated aragonite speleothem from eastern China. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 275, 296–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Moor, J.J.W., Kasse, C., van Balen, R., Vandenberghe, J., Wallinga, J., 2008. Human and climate impact on catchment development during the Holocene—Geul River, the Netherlands. Geomorphology 98, 316–339. http://dx.doi.org/10/1016/j.geomorph.2006.12.033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, J.P., Woodruff, J.D., 2007. Intense hurricane activity over the past 5,000 years controlled by El Nino and the West African monsoon. Nature 447, 465–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dykoski, C.A., Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Yuan, D., Cai, Y., Zhang, M., Lin, Y., Qing, J., An, Z., Revenaugh, J., 2005. A high-resolution, absolute-dated Holocene and deglacial Asian monsoon record from Dongge Cave, China. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 233, 71–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elsner, J.B., Liu, K.B., 2003. Examining the ENSO-typhoon hypothesis. Climate Research 25, 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ely, L.L., Enzel, Y., Baker, V.R., Cayan, D.R., 1993. A 5000-year record of extreme floods and climate change in the southwestern United States. Science 262, 410–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ely, L.L., 1997. Response of extreme floods in the southwestern United States to climatic variations in the late Holocene. Geomorphology 19, 175–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farquhar, G.D., O’Leary, M.H., Berry, J.A., 1982. On the relationship between carbon isotope discrimination and the intercellular carbon dioxide concentration in leaves. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 9, 121–137.Google Scholar
Fudeyasu, H., Iszuka, S., Matsuura, T., 2006. Impact of ENSO on landfall characteristics of tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific during the summer monsoon season. Geophysical Research Letters 33, L21815. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hijioka, Y., Lin, E., Pereira, J.J., Corlett, R.T., Cui, X., Insarov, G.E., Lasco, R.D., Lindgren, E., Surjan, A., 2014). Asia. In: Barros, V.R., Field, C.B., Dokken, D.J., Mastrandrea, M.D., Mach, K.J., Bilir, T.E., Chatterjee, M., et al. (Eds.), Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1327–1370.Google Scholar
Ho, C.-H., Lee, J.-Y., Ahn, M.-H., Lee, H.-S., 2003. A sudden change in summer rainfall characteristics in Korea during the last 1970s. International Journal of Climatology 23, 117–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, C.C., Pang, J.L., Zha, X.C., Su, H.X., Jia, Y.F., Zhu, Y.Z., 2007. Impact of monsoonal climatic change on Holocene overbank flooding along Sushui River, middle reach of the Yellow River, China. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 2247–2264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jo, K., Woo, K.S., Lim, H.S., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Wang, Y., Jiang, X., et al., 2011. Holocene and Eemian climatic optima in the Korean Peninsula based on textural and carbon isotopic records from the stalagmite of the Daeya Cave, South Korea. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 1218–1231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jo, K., Woo, K.S., Yi, S., Yang, D.Y., Lim, H.S., Wang, Y., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., 2014. Mid-latitude interhemispheric hydrologic seesaw over the past 550,000 years. Nature 508, 378–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knox, J.C., 1993. Large increases in flood magnitude in response to modest changes in climate. Nature 361, 430–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knox, J.C., 2000. Sensitivity of modern and Holocene floods to climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 439–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knox, J.C., 2006. Floodplain sedimentation in the upper Mississippi valley: natural versus human accelerated. Geomorphology 79, 286–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, A., Wilson, G.P., Leng, M.J., 2006. A review of coastal palaeoclimate and relative sea-level reconstructions using δ13C and C/N ratios in organic material. Earth-Science Reviews 75, 29–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, P., Donnelly, J.P., Woodruff, J.D., Hawkes, A.D., 2011. A decadally-resolved paleohurricane record archived in the late Holocene sediments of a Florida sinkhole. Marine Geology 287, 14–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lecce, S.A., Pavlowsky, R.T., 2004. Spatial and temporal variations in the grain-size characteristics of historical flood plain deposits, Blue River, Wisconsin, USA. Geomorphology 61, 361–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, J., Fujiki, T., 2011. Vegetation and climate variability in East Asia driven by low-latitude oceanic forcing during the middle to late Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 2487–2497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, J., Lee, J.-Y., Hong, S.-S., Kim, J.-Y., 2013. Late Holocene flooding records from the floodplain deposits of the Yugu River, South Korea. Geomorphology 180–181, 109–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, J., Lee, J.-Y., Kim, J.C., Hong, S.-S., Yang, D.-Y., 2014. Relationship between environmental change on Geoje Island, southern coast of Korea, and regional monsoon and temperature changes during the late Holocene. Quaternary International 344, 11–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, J., Yang, D.-Y., Lee, J.-Y., Hong, S.-S., Um, I.K., 2015. Middle Holocene environmental change in central Korea and its linkage to summer and winter monsoon changes. Quaternary Research 84, 37–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, K.-b., Shen, C., Louie, K.-s., 2001. A 1000-year history of typhoon landfalls in Guangdong, Southern China, reconstructed from Chinese historical documentary records. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91(3), 453–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloskey, T.A., Liu, K.-b., 2013. A 7000 year record of paleohurricane activity from a coastal wetland in Belize . Holocene 23, 278–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, P.A., 1994. Preservation of elemental and isotopic source identification of sedimentary organic matter. Chemical Geology 114, 289–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, P.A., 1997. Organic geochemical proxies of paleoceanographic, paleolimnologic, and paleoclimatic presesses. Organic Geochemistry 27, 213–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moy, C.M., Seltzer, G.O., Rodbell, D.T., Anderson, D.M., 2002. Variability of El Niño/Southern Oscillation activity at millennial timescales during the Holocene epoch. Nature 420, 162–165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O’Leary, M.H., 1981. Carbon isotope fractionation in plants. Phytochemistry 20, 553–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Leary, M.H., 1988. Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. BioScience 38, 328–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, D.H., Bloemendal, J., Rea, D.K., Vandenberghe, J., Jiang, F., An, Z.S., Su, R.X., 2002. Grain size distribution function of polymodal sediments in hydraulic and aeolian environments, and numerical partitioning of the sedimentary components. Sedimentary Geology 152, 263–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tieszen, L.L., 1991. Natural variations in the carbon isotope values of plants: implications for archaeology, ecology, and paleoecology. Journal of Archaeological Science 18, 227–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toomey, M.R., Donnelly, J.P., Woodruff, J.D., 2013. Reconstructing mid-late Holocene cyclone variability in the Central Pacific using sedimentary records from Tahaa, French Polynesia. Quaternary Science Reviews 77, 181–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visher, G.S., 1969. Grain size distribution and depositional processes. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 39, 1074–1106.Google Scholar
Walling, D.E., Owens, P.N., Leeks, G.J.L., 1997. The characteristics of overbank deposits associated with a major flood event in the catchment of the River Ouse, Yorkshire, UK. Catena 31, 53–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Y.Q., Zhou, L., 2005. Observed trends in extreme precipitation events in China during 1961–2001 and the associated changes in large-scale circulation. Geophysical Research letters 32, L09707. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GL022574.Google Scholar
Williams, H., Choowong, M., Phantuwongraj, S., Surakietchai, P., Thongkhao, T., Kongsen, S., Simon, E., 2016. Geologic records of Holocene typhoon strikes on the Gulf of Thailand coast. Marine Geology 372, 66–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodruff, J.D., Donnelly, J.P., Mohrig, D., Geyer, W.R., 2008. Reconstructing relative flooding intensities responsible for hurricane-induced deposits from Laguna Playa Grande, Vieques, Puerto Rico. Geology 36, 391–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodruff, J.D., Donnelly, J.P., Okusu, A., 2009. Exploring typhoon variability over the mid-to-late Holocene: evidence of extreme coastal flooding from Kamikoshiki, Japan. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 1774–1785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yonekura, E., Hall, T.M., 2011. A statistical model of tropical cyclone tracks in the western North Pacific with ENSO-dependent cyclogenesis. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 50, 1725–1739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar