How did the climate and human activities modulate the sedimentary evolution of the central Yellow Sea Mud, China

[Display omitted] •The sedimentary evolution and provenance variation of Central Yellow Sea Mud was the result of sea level rising at the begin of Holocene and the established shelf circulation after 7.0 ka.•Drastic environmental changes in the Yellow River basin after 4.0 ka induced by weakening of East Asian Summer Monsoon and enhanced human activities increased the sediment accumulation in the Central Yellow Sea Mud.•The sedimentation of Central Yellow Sea Mud was controlled by the sediment supply under the regulation of monsoon climate and human activities after 4.0 ka. The Central Yellow Sea Mud (CYSM) archived important signals of regional environment and climate changes during the Holocene. We performed high-resolution analysis of two sediment cores taken from the CYSM, including measurements of radiocarbon chronology and grain size, as well as the mineralogical and geochemical measurements on the sediment samples. The results indicate that the Yellow River were likely a dominant source of the CYSM before 6.8 ka BP, with minimal contributions from the local small rivers in the Shandong Peninsula and Korean Peninsula, as confirmed by the mineralogical and geochemical evidences. After 6.8 ka BP, the fine-grained sediments accumulated in the CYSM presented a mixture of those from both the Yangtze and Yellow River with an individual contribution of 55 ± 8% and 45 ± 6%, respectively, as the sea level reached its highstand and initiated the establishment of modern shelf circulation. The drastic environmental changes in the Yellow River basin after 4.0 ka BP driven by the weakened East Asian Summer Monsoon and enhanced human activities that significantly increased the sediment yield from the Chinese Loess Plateau should be responsible for the abrupt increase in the fine-grained sediment (