Title
River flooding and landscape changes impact ecological conditions of a scour hole lake in the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands
Author
Cremer, H.
Bunnik, F.P.M.
Donders, T.H.
Hoek, W.Z.
Koolen-Eekhout, M.
Koolmees, H.H.
Lavooi, E.
TNO Bouw en Ondergrond
Publication year
2010
Abstract
A 400-year sediment record from an 18 m deep scour hole lake (Haarsteegse Wiel) near the Meuse River in the Netherlands was investigated for past changes in water quality, flooding frequency and landscape change using geophysical, geochemical and micropaleontological information. The results are highly significant for determining long-term trends of water quality, the impact of atmospheric (as SCP, spheroidal carbonaceous particles) and industrial (chromium) pollution on the terrestrial and aquatic flora, and the impact of river floods. The studied sediment record was dated by combining 137Cs activities, biostratigraphical ages, micro-tephra layers, and historically documented floods indicated by the magnetic susceptibility. The oldest flooding event is indicated at AD 1610 when the lake was created by water masses bursting through a dike. Large historical river floods are well documented in regional chronicles and thus may provide reliable age calibration points. Based on assumptions about the timing of flood events and constant rate of sedimentation, it appears that sedimentation rates in Haarsteegse Wiel declined after ca. AD 1880. This decline might be a result of a widespread change from wheat cultivation to pasture land from around AD 1875 as a direct result of falling wheat prices and intensified cattle farming linked to the agricultural crisis in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Water quality changes and absolute phosphorus concentrations were reconstructed using a diatom-based transfer function. Results show that the currently nutrient-rich lake has mostly been in a mesotrophic state prior to ca. AD 1920, with the exception of several apparently sharp eutrophication events that were coeval with river floods. River flooding also impacted the vegetation composition by importing allochthonous components, and indirectly by the influx of nutrients which had a clear influence on the composition of the water plant communities and aquatic species diversity. Magnetic susceptibility changes and pollen data show that within the period AD 1610-1740, within the Little Ice Age period, several undocumented floods may have occurred. Thus, documentation of geophysical, geochemical, and biological flooding signals in a high-resolution archive present the possibility to detect flooding regimes further back in time. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Subject
Earth & Environment
PG - Petroleum Geosciences
EELS - Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences
Geosciences
Chromium
Diatoms
Dike burst lake
Environmental change
Flooding
Pollen
Total phosphorus
biostratigraphy
cesium isotope
chromium
depositional environment
diatom
dike
environmental change
eutrophication
flood frequency
flooding
fluvial deposit
geophysical method
land use change
landscape change
Little Ice Age
magnetic susceptibility
micropaleontology
nineteenth century
nutrient cycling
paleoecology
paleolimnology
palynology
pasture
phosphorus
plant community
scour
sedimentation rate
tephra
transfer function
water chemistry
water mass
water quality
wheat
Netherlands
Rhine-Meuse Delta
Bacillariophyta
Bos
Triticum aestivum
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a02fb533-27cc-4754-80f4-4fadf654c228
TNO identifier
409828
ISSN
0921-2728
Source
Journal of Paleolimnology, 44 (3), 789-801
Document type
article