River Systems and the Anthropocene: A Late Pleistocene and Holocene Timeline for Human Influence

Abstract

Rivers are central to debate about the Anthropocene because many human activities from antiquity focused on channels and floodplains. A literature compilation for the onset of human modification of rivers identifies six stages that represent key innovations focused in the Near East and adjoining areas: (1) minimal effects before about 15,000 cal yr BP, with the use of fire and gathering of plants and aquatic resources; (2) minor effects from increased cultivation after about 15,000 cal yr BP, with plant and animal domestication after about 10,700 cal yr BP; (3) agricultural era after about 9800 cal yr BP, with legacy sediments, widespread fire use, the first dams and irrigation, and mud-brick manufacture; (4) irrigation era from about 6500 cal yr BP, with large-scale irrigation, major cities, the first large dam, urban water supplies, expanded groundwater use, river fleets, and alluvial mining; (5) engineering era with embankments, dams, and watermills after about 3000 cal yr BP, especially in the Chinese and Roman empires; and (6) technological era after about 1800 CE. Anthropogenic river effects were more varied and intense than commonly has been recognised, and they should be considered routinely in interpreting Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial archives.

Successful post-glacial colonization of Europe by single lineage of freshwater amphipod from its Pannonian Plio-Pleistocene diversification hotspot

“…Although there are well identified climate attributes of this transition period, the Holocene hydrological systems has also been affected by human activity (e.g. animal and plant domestication, and the increasing influence of agricultural practices) 59 .…”

Anthropocene: Transdisciplinary Shorthand for Human Disruption of the Earth System

“…Relevant investigations include the role of early humans in the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna (Malhi et al 2016;Plotnick and Koy 2020) and the surging environmental control of the biosphere by humanity, particularly since the 16 th century (Lewis and Maslin 2018). Other examples are a review of evidence for human modification of rivers beginning around 15,000 years ago (Gibling 2018) and a collaboration of archaeologists who detected land-use transformations by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists earlier than reconstructions commonly used by geologists (Stephens et al 2019). The archaeosphere is a proposed label for the surface part of the geosphere with "an abrupt surface at the base of [these] deposits variously called 'artificial ground', 'anthropogenic ground' or 'archaeological stratigraphy" (Edgeworth et al 2015).…”

Influence of 200 Years of Water Resource Management on a Typical Central European River 

“…Various studies investigate the human impact on river systems worldwide in different times [8,9,15,16]. Gibling evaluates the human influence using worldwide examples and creates a timeline, divided into six phases, from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene [15]. He emphasizes that in many studies serious changes were connected with the Industrial the Technological Era (after 1800 CE) (cf.…”

“…According to Gibling, human impact causes changes from meandering to braided planforms and from multichannel to single channel riverbeds [15]. With a decreasing main channel sinuosity a change from anastomosis to braided river structures is common [38].…”

“…Therefore, large-scale morphological changes over the last 200 years are determined using the indicators river length, sinuosity, oxbow structures, sidearms and the number of islands. Due to the importance of the Technological Era after Gibling [15], this period is subclassified into different river management phases. Understanding the interaction between human influence and changes in fluvial systems from the past is the key to a sustainable river management in the future.…”