Changing hillslope and fluvial Holocene sediment dynamics in a Belgian loess catchment

Notebaert, Bastiaan; Verstraeten, Gert; Vandenberghe, Dimitri; Marinova, Elena; Poesen, Jean; Govers, Gérard

doi:10.1002/jqs.1425

Cited by 44 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…This superposition of channel lag deposits above overbank deposits is the result of floodplain aggradation (e.g. Notebaert et al, 2011a), combined with a recent migration of the meander.…”

Section: Sediment Grain Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dates from the base of unit 3 range from 9500 BC to c. 5100 BCE, ages of the top vary between c. 4600 BC and c. 1500 AD (Notebaert et al, 2011a). The thickness of unit 3 varies, but most often it is 1 to 3 m thick.…”

Section: Fluvial Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unit 4 covers unit 3, and the transition between both units is gradual. Ages from the top peat layer range between c. 700 and 1500 AD (Notebaert et al, 2011a). This unit is interpreted as an overbank sediment, deposited under conditions of increasing sediment load and floodplain deposition, and decreasing importance of aggradation of organics in the floodplain.…”

Section: Fluvial Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…During phase 2 units 4 and the lower parts of unit 6 were deposited. This phase is the result of the increase of sediment load in the floodplain, which is related with anthropogenic land use (Notebaert et al, 2011a). During this phase peat growth in the floodplain was replaced by clastic aggradation.…”

Section: Netherlands Journal Of Geosciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fluvial architecture of Belgian river systems in contrasting environments: implications for reconstructing the sedimentation history

Notebaert

Houbrechts

Verstraeten

et al. 2011

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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Accurate dating is necessary to get insight in the temporal variations in sediment deposition in floodplains. The interpretation of such dates is however dependent on the fluvial architecture of the floodplain. In this study we discuss the fluvial architecture of three contrasting Belgian catchments (Dijle, Geul and Amblève catchment) and how this influences the dating possibilities of net floodplain sediment storage. Although vertical aggradation occurred in all three floodplains during the last part of the Holocene, they differ in the importance of lateral accretion and vertical aggradation during the entire Holocene. Holocene floodplain aggradation is the dominant process in the Dijle catchment. Lateral reworking of the floodplain sediments by river meandering was limited to a part of the floodplain, resulting in stacked point bar deposits. The fluvial architecture allows identifying vertical aggradation without erosional hiatuses. Results show that trends in vertical floodplain aggradation in the Dijle catchment are mainly related to land use changes. In the other two catchments, lateral reworking was the dominant process, and channel lag and point bar deposits occur over the entire floodplain width. Here, tracers were used to date the sediment dynamics: lead from metal mining in the Geul and iron slag from ironworks in the Amblève catchment. These methods allow the identification of two or three discrete periods, but their spatial extent and variations is identified in a continuous way. The fluvial architecture and the limitation in dating with tracers hampered the identification of dominant environmental changes for sediment dynamics in both catchments. Dating methods which provide only discrete point information, like radiocarbon or OSL dating, are best suited for fluvial systems which contain continuous aggradation profiles. Spatially more continuous dating methods, e.g. through the use of tracers, allow to reconstruct past surfaces and allow to reconstruct reworked parts of the floodplain. As such they allow a better reconstruction of past sedimentation rates in systems with important lateral reworking.

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“…This superposition of channel lag deposits above overbank deposits is the result of floodplain aggradation (e.g. Notebaert et al, 2011a), combined with a recent migration of the meander.…”

Section: Sediment Grain Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fluvial Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fluvial Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Netherlands Journal Of Geosciencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Fluvial architecture of Belgian river systems in contrasting environments: implications for reconstructing the sedimentation history

Notebaert

Houbrechts

Verstraeten

et al. 2011

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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“…The hillslope sediment delivery ratio, i.e. the ratio between the amount of sediment mobilised by erosion and exported to the fluvial system, for agricultural catchments in temperate climates is estimated to be between 20 and 50 % (Rommens et al, 2005;Notebaert et al, 2011;Trimble, 1999;Wang et al, 2010). Thus, 50-80 % of the eroded sediments are re-deposited on hillslopes and form colluvial soils (Wang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fate of buried organic carbon in colluvial soils: a long-term perspective

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Colluvial soils are enriched in soil organic carbon (SOC) in comparison to the soils of upslope areas due to the deposition and progressive burial of SOC. This burial of SOC has important implications for the global carbon cycle, but the long-term dynamics of buried SOC remain poorly constrained. We addressed this issue by determining the SOC burial efficiency (i.e. the fraction of originally deposited SOC that is preserved in colluvial deposits) of buried SOC as well as the SOC stability in colluvial soils. We quantified the turnover rate of deposited SOC by establishing sediment and SOC burial chronologies. The SOC stability was derived from soil incubation experiments and the δ 13 C values of SOC. The C burial efficiency was found to decrease with time, reaching a constant ratio of approximately 17 % by about 1000-1500 yr post-burial. This decrease is attributed to the increasing recalcitrance of the remaining buried SOC with time and a less favourable environment for SOC decomposition with increasing depth. Buried SOC in colluvial profiles was found to be more stable and degraded in comparison to SOC sampled at the same depth at a stable reference location. This is due to the preferential mineralisation of the labile fraction of the deposited SOC. Our study shows that SOC responds to burial over a centennial timescale; however, more insight into the factors controlling this response is required to fully understand how this timescale may vary, depending on specific conditions such as climate and depositional environment.

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Constraining a coupled erosion and soil organic carbon model using hillslope‐scale patterns of carbon stocks and pool composition

et al. 2015

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A large amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) is laterally redistributed by agricultural erosion.Recent studies have shown that this leads to strong horizontal (i.e., spatial) and vertical (i.e., with soil depth) gradients in SOC stock and C pool distribution in eroding landscapes. However, the mechanisms leading to these gradients in relation to erosion and deposition are still poorly documented. In particular, the effect of the inherent properties of SOC (as controlled by the SOC pool composition) versus the effect of depth-related soil environmental condition (i.e., differences in soil humidity, temperature, aeration, etc.) on the persistence of SOC in eroding landscapes is uncertain. Nonetheless, a detailed understanding of these factors is important to correctly assess landscape-scale soil C turnover and vulnerability to disturbance from human activities. This study utilizes observational data on long-term erosion/deposition rates and C pool composition derived from soil C fractionation experiments along an eroding agricultural hillslope to constrain a coupled erosion-SOC dynamics model. The simulation results show that the data set used can result in a robust parameter estimation of a multipool C model for an eroding landscape with parameter values that are consistent with incubation experiments. A scenario analysis, where we evaluate the contribution of different processes, demonstrates that soil redistribution is essential to explain the observation that depositional locations contain more SOC in subsoils, while the SOC content of the surface layer is similar to those observed along an eroding hillslope. The spatial variability of plant production could explain some of the observed variability in SOC content, but our results suggest that the spatial variability of SOC pool composition is mainly related to soil redistribution. Finally, we suggest that environmental factors may play a more important role than the inherent properties of SOC in determining the vertical variation of SOC mineralization. This implies that depositional C stocks might be highly vulnerable to disturbance from human activities that may reconnect the buried SOC with the atmosphere.

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Changing hillslope and fluvial Holocene sediment dynamics in a Belgian loess catchment

Cited by 44 publications

References 57 publications

Fluvial architecture of Belgian river systems in contrasting environments: implications for reconstructing the sedimentation history

Fluvial architecture of Belgian river systems in contrasting environments: implications for reconstructing the sedimentation history

The fate of buried organic carbon in colluvial soils: a long-term perspective

Constraining a coupled erosion and soil organic carbon model using hillslope‐scale patterns of carbon stocks and pool composition

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