<b>Supplementary data for "Human impact on soil erosion and sediment accumulation in karst terrain of SW China (over the past 500 years)"</b>

<p dir="ltr">Southwest China hosts the world'slargest continuous karsts, suffering from severe soil erosion, yet long-term (>100 years) dynamics of soil erosion poorly understood.Here, we presentmulti-proxysequences of Youyang Tiankeng sediments, combined withcomprehensive dating methods (137Cs, 210Pb, and AMS 14C) and historicalrecords, to reconstruct the 500-year history of karst soil erosion and its mechanism.A comprehensive chronological framework of 500 years (1515–2023 AD) was established to quantify soil erosion.The organic carbon stable isotope(δ13Corg) of Tiankeng sediments provides a possibleproxy for catchment vegetation changes, correlating strongly with paleoclimate change and soil erosion.Results reveal paleoclimate change and historical events jointly influenced soil erosion.

Oncentennial scale, paleoclimate shifts impacted soil erosion during the Little Ice Age (LIA) and Current Warm Period (CWP). Drier climate and droughts during the LIA mayhave intensifiedsoil erosion (522.5t·km-2·a-1), exceeding the overall average (506.5 t·km-2·a-1), whereas the warmer, wetter CWP reduced it to 470.3 t·km⁻²·a⁻¹. On shorter timescales, anthropogenic activities have driven four distinct stages (Stages I–IV) of soil erosion.