Climate‐related river activity at the Weichselian‐Holocene transition: a comparative study of the Warta and Maas rivers

Abstract

Huvial systems from the Dutch and Polish lowlands are compared for their evolution during the Weichselian deglaciation period. In both regions the Pleniglacial braided-river pattern changed to a meandering pattern in the beginning of the Lateglacial. Several transitional stages between braided and high-sinuosity meandering systems have been recognized. A difference in fluvial activity is found during the Younger Dryas when the Maas transformed to a braided pattern while the Warta maintained its meandering pattern. Phases of erosion and aggradation are more or less synchronous in the different river basins, but their intensity may differ greatly. The major characteristics of the fluvial systems are obviously a response to the general climatic evolution and related to changes in vegetation. The regional differences are of minor importance and can be explained by site-speclfic factors. Threshold values within the latter factors define the changes in river dynamics.

What was an interglacial river like? Sedimentological investigation of Holsteinian fluvial deposits in eastern Poland

“…As a re sult, sed i men ta tion pre vailed over in ci sion in the inter gla cial val ley. Our find ing matches con clu sions drawn by Vandenberghe et al (1994) and Krzyszkowski (1996) that the Qua ter nary me an der ing tem per ate flu vial sys tems were aggradational ones.…”

“…Such fluvial sed i men tary re cords have been rec og nized in de tail in the Neth er lands (Van Huissteden, 1990;Kasse et al, 1995;Weerts and Berendsen, 1995;Huisink, 2000;Mol et al, 2000;Busschers et al, 2007;Hijma and Co hen, 2011), the Brit ish Isles (Brown, 1995;Rose, 1995;Col lins et al, 1996;Gao et al, 2007), Ger many (Mol, 1995(Mol, , 1997Mol et al, 2000;Andres et al, 2001;Dambeck and Thiemeyer, 2002;Kasse et al, 2003;Erkens et al, 2011), north ern France (Lefevre et al, 1995;Straffin et al, 2000;Antoine et al, 2003) and in Po land (Szumañski, 1983;Rotnicki, 1987;Kozarski et al, 1988;Turkowska, 1988;Vandenberghe et al, 1994;Kalicki, 1996;Florek, 1997;Starkel, 2002;Starkel et al, 2007;Gêbica, 2004). Sev eral stud ies have been con ducted in East ern Eu rope as well, e.g.…”

Climate-driven fluvial development and valley abandonment at the last glacial-interglacial transition (Oude IJssel-Rhine, Germany)

“…There are counterexamples of European valleys, however, that did not see a braidplain re-establish. For example, the Warta in Poland (Vandenberghe et al, 1994), the Scheldt in Belgium (Kiden, 1991) and the Tisza in Hungary (Kasse et al, 2010). The Rhine has examples of both these behaviours.…”

Spatio-temporal evolution of the Choisille River (southern Parisian Basin, France) during the Weichselian and the Holocene as a record of climate trend and human activity in north-western Europe

“…The increase in detrital sedimentation ( [Rose, 1995], [Pastre et al, 1997], [Pastre et al, 2003], [Andres et al, 2001], [Antoine et al, 2003] and [Orth et al, 2004]) and the aeolian deposits interbedded in fluvial sediments ( [Haesaerts, 1984] and [van Huissteden et al, 1986]; [Vandenberghe et al, 1987] and [Mol et al, 2000]) observed during the Younger Dryas in more northern areas are not found in the Choisille catchment. Moreover, there is no evidence of the changes in river patterns suggested in the south-western Parisian Basin after the Allerød (Visset et al, 2005) or during the LateGlacial-Holocene transition , as testified in numerous sites in the Parisian Basin ( [Pastre et al, 1997], [Antoine et al, 2003] and [Orth et al, 2004]) and northwestern Europe ( [Vandenberghe et al, 1994] and [Mol et al, 2000]). The channel patterns inherited from phase 4 continued with no significant change throughout the Choisille floodplain (Fig.…”

“…[Macklin and Needham, 1992], [Bohncke, 1993], and [Visset et al, 2005]). They can be used to study the palaeohydrological and morpho-sedimentary evolution of rivers in relation to palaeoenvironmental changes, for example during the LateGlacial (e.g., [Haesaerts, 1984], [Vandenberghe et al, 1994], [Rose, 1995], [Antoine, 1997], [Antoine et al, 2003], [Pastre et al, 2002a] and [Pastre et al, 2003]). They also demonstrate the extensive development of silty sedimentation and hydro-sedimentary disturbances due to human activities during the last millenia (e.g.…”