Sedimentological and ecohydrological processes of Asian deltas: The Yangtze and the Mekong

摘要

Estuaries link the drainage basin and the sea. They also act as a sedimentological and ecological filter in which the indicators of river catchment alterations due to human activities and global change are recorded. The impacts from intensive land-use because of increasing population pressure are most prominent in China's Yangtze and Vietnam's Mekong Estuaries. Of note, there are about 400 million people living in the Yangtze catchment, and 100 million people in the Mekong catchment. The resulting changes to the estuarine ecosystem are enormous. Yet these changes occurred in a scientific vacuum. Recently multidisciplinary studies aimed at understanding and quantifying bio- and geo-processes have been carried out in the Yangtze and Mekong Estuaries. Science is now starting to answer the question "How do these estuaries respond to human pressure". It is becoming apparent from such studies that linked, physical and geochemical, basin—estuarine processes control the evolution of estuarine ecosystems.