Floodplain environmental change during the Younger Dryas and Holocene in Northwest Europe: Insights from the lower Kennet Valley, south central England

Abstract

-3 -likely to diverge from this. Consequently, it is essential to understand catchment controls, particularly the relative significance of surface and subsurface hydrology.

Fluvial system evolution and environmental changes during the Holocene in the Mue valley (Western France)

“…Moreover, the archaeological data indicate a more dense settlement pattern during the Middle Bronze Age and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (Marcigny et al, in press). Such a hypothesis is in accordance with research conducted in the central part of the Paris basin (Pastre et al, 2001(Pastre et al, , 2006 and more generally in northwest European valleys, where accelerated fine alluviation took place and is often associated with land use controls coupled with erosive storms or climatic oscillation (Brown, 1997;Pastre et al, 2006;Collins et al, 2006).…”

“…Consequences of human activities appear only locally, in the immediate vicinity of archaeological sites. Very low sedimentological changes in relation with human activities are observed in the Mue valley during the Atlantic and the Lower Subboreal periods, like in most of British valleys (Macklin, 1999;Collins et al, 2006). In contrast, they are more clearly recorded in other areas of the Paris basin where lateral erosion processes, silt and sand deposits are observed, even if they have still little impact on channel dimensions and geometry (Pastre et al, 2001).…”

“…The fluvial system functions as a continuum from upstream to downstream and the valley bottom still experienced good drainage. The development of floodplain backswamp areas, which has characterized many valley bottoms of southern England and northwest Europe (Brown, 1995;Pastre et al, 2001;Antoine et al, 2003;Collins et al, 2006), was experienced later in the Mue valley. Locally, we observe the onset of tufa deposits which is more widely registered in valleys of the Paris basin (Antoine et al, 2003), lowland Britain and western Europe (Brown, 1997;Collins et al, 2006).…”

Anomalous buried hollows in London: development of a hazard susceptibility map

“…If significant, this too might facilitate earlier more rapid wasting in the recharge zone (North Downs and Chilterns) than in the basin, thereby increasing the artesian groundwater pressures. Fluvial sediments in nearby Chalk catchments show a very abrupt reduction in stream power and increased dominance by groundwater-controlled flow at the end of the last cold stage (Collins et al 2006), which may reflect this process. Additionally and as a consequence of sea-level lowering, karstification of the Chalk (Mortimore et al 2011), which is commonly focused on the boundary between specific flint bands and the chalk, might form a focus for groundwater flow to the recharge zones.…”

Medieval environmental impacts and feedbacks: The lowland floodplains of England and Wales

“…This contrasts with the situation in the Thames valley (Dodd, 2003;Booth et al, 2007;Parker et al, 2008). Chalk downlands elsewhere, although showing evidence of earlier anthropogenic soil erosion and colluvial deposition, unsurprisingly do not appear later on to have delivered the marked acceleration in alluvial deposition arising elsewhere from medieval arable cultivation (Favis-Mortlock, Boardman, & Bell, 1997;French & Lewis, 2005;Collins et al, 2006). Catchments with a capping of loess, a wind-blown sediment that carpeted southern England during the last glaciation (Catt, 1977), produced more permeable soils and thicker silty floodplain materials (Burrin & Scaife, 1984), some the so-called brickearths.…”