Morava River floodplain development during the last millennium, Strážnické Pomoraví, Czech Republic

• Published in: Holocene (Sevenoaks) Vol. 19; no. 3; pp. 499 - 509
• Main Authors: Kadlec, J., Grygar, T., Svétlík, I., Ettler, V., Mihaljevič, M., Diehl, J.F., Beske-Diehl, S., Svitavská-Svobodová, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2009; Sage Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Climate change; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Floodplains; Freshwater; Geochronology; Geological time; Isotope geochemistry; Isotope geochemistry. Geochronology; Marine and continental quaternary; Rivers; Sedimentary geology; Surficial geology; Central Europe; Czech Republic; Europe; Austria, Niederoesterreich, Morava R; Czech Rep; expandable clay minerals; Czech Republic; river activity reconstruction; mineral magnetic measurements; Morava River; lead isotope analysis; Floodplain deposits; Cu-trien analysis; last millennium; stream transport; floods; PCBs; cation exchange capacity; X-ray diffraction; upper Quaternary; human activity; paleoclimate; fluvial sedimentation; DDT; Pb-207/Pb-206; dating; Cenozoic; upper Holocene; Quaternary; Cs-137; floodplains; C-14; magnetic susceptibility; Phanerozoic; Holocene; landform evolution
• ISSN: 0959-6836; 1477-0911
• DOI: 10.1177/0959683608101398

Floodplain sediments deposited along the lower course of the Morava River (eastern Czech Republic), were studied in the Strážnické Pomoraví region to describe the alluvial history of the river over the last millennium. The sediments exposed in up to 5 m high erosional river banks were analysed using mineral magnetic, geochemical and chemical approaches. The age model of the sedimentary sequences was constructed from radiocarbon dates in association with 206Pb/207Pb and POP (DDT, PCB) analysis and 137Cs activity data. The Cu-trien method was used for stratigraphically correlating these deposits based on the variation of expandable clay minerals in the sediments. The resulting stratigraphic pattern reveals the alluvial history of the currently active river channel system since the end of the first millennium AD. Fine overbank clayey sediments deposited during the `Mediaeval Warm Period' were eroded from cultivated fields newly formed during Mediaeval colonization between 1250 and 1450. These fine deposits are overlain by coarser floodplain sediments of the `Little Ice Age', indicating a change in the sediment source since the sixteenth century AD, and a substantial increase in the sediment load in the second half of twentieth century. The Strážnické Pomoraví floodplain deposits represent a valuable palaeoenvironmental archive of the last millennium, containing records of fluvial processes considerably altered by human activities.