Imprints of Rapid Climate Changes and human activity on Holocene hydro-sedimentary dynamics in Central Europe (loess-covered Weiße Elster model region)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Peter Ettel; Dr. Hans von Suchodoletz; Professor Dr. Ulrich Veit; Dr. Ulrike Werban; Professor Dr. Christoph Zielhofer
• Subject Area: Physical Geography
• Term: from 2017 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329664411

In sub-continental Central Europe the Weiße Elster model region reveals a loess-covered drainage basin that features a high fluvio-geomorphological sensitivity towards Holocene hydro-climatic shifts. This is indicated by multiple, horizontally bedded soil-sediment sequences within the Weiße Elster floodplain lithostratigraphy. We postulate that the Weiße Elster floodplain reveals an extraordinary high potential to preserve global Rapid Climate Changes (RCCs).For the first time we aim to detect RCC signals in a Central European fluvio-chronostratigraphical record. A robust chronological model will predominantly base on OSL dating. Flood phases with overbank deposition and phases of alluvial soil formation will be systematically compared with multi-centennial-scale RCC records to detect probable linkages between flood dynamics and climate. Within the loess-covered Weiße Elster drainage basin newly recorded colluvial sequences will be used as proxies for a probable human impact during the Holocene. We will stratigraphically link Weiße Elster fluvial and colluvial records by surveying the intercalation zones of both kinds of archives. This allows a better indication of the hydro-sedimentary coupling or de-coupling of fluvial and colluvial sub-systems, and thus a better understanding of probable internal thresholds and sedimentary cascades.Within the Weiße Elster drainage basin we aim to reconstruct for the first time a coherent and diachronic archaeological and historical data set of human occupation and land use from the Early Neolithic until the High Middle Ages. The archaeological reconstruction will base on the compilation of published archaeological and historical data, field reports, available historical databases and GIS datasets of the three archaeological state departments in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. For selected, representative Weiße Elster sub-basins, we aim to reconstruct high-resolution coherent and diachronic archaeological and historical data sets of the spatial distribution of known artefacts, structures and sites as well as documented land use in written sources. To do so, all relevant sources will be systematically re-analysed. We will evaluate different land use intensities based on a semi-quantitative approach. The coupling of archaeological and historical proxy data with geomorphological hillslope-floodplain chronostratigraphies will be used to evaluate the diachronic interaction of land use and sediment re-deposition within the Weiße Elster drainage basin. Finally, we aim to compare chronologically and semi-quantitatively probable imprints of Rapid Climate Changes and human activity within the fragile Weiße Elster hillslope-floodplain system. Reconstructed geomorphological vulnerabilities and thresholds regarding climatic and human impacts should allow a step forward in understanding complex and non-linear Holocene hydro-sedimentary dynamics of highly sensitive loess-covered landscapes in Central Europe.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Pierre Fütterer; Privatdozent Dr. Lukas Werther