In this study, the reservoir deposits were used to compare the effect of dam construction on sediment interception from two representative small catchments underlain by granite and limestone, namely the Jiangzhuang and Quananzi catchments, respectively, over the past 50 years in the Yimeng Mountain Region. Three cores were collected from reservoirs in the both catchments. The activities of ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb_ex at different depths, clay contents, and dry sediment bulk densities in cores from the two reservoirs were analysed with reference to human activity and environmental change in the catchment over the past 50 years. The chronologies of the cores were established by ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb_ex dating methods. The mean annual sediment interception for different time periods since dam construction were estimated from each core by referring to the original reservoir capacity curve, which could be generally used to represent the sediment interception effect of the reservoir. The sediment interception effects estimated from the three cores in the Jiangzhuang and Quananzi reservoirs ranged between (394±142)~(121±43) t/year, and (22±7)~(59±21) t/year, with mean values of (208±75) and (41±15) t/year respectively. The total sediment interceptions since the dam construction were about 10 475 and 2 097 t for Jiangzhuang and Quananzi reservoirs, respectively. Overall, the temporal trends of sediment interception associated with the two reservoirs reflect the different patterns of sediment yield response to the environmental change influenced by human activity in the two contrasting lithological small catchments over the past 50 years.