This study shows how the Elster–Pleiße floodplain near Leipzig changed from a dynamic, anabranching river system to a mostly fixed river system. Using old maps and modern airborne surface structure mapping, researchers found that human activities like canals, mills, flood control, and sediment accumulation over time caused rivers to straighten and lose mobility. Understanding and quantifying these past changes can help guide future river restoration and flood management.

We estimated the thickness, spatial distribution, and volumes of alluvial valley fills in the southwestern Black Forest utilizing an extensive borehole database to compile local valley cross sections and model sediment depth above bedrock. Our results reveal considerable spatial heterogeneity and underscore the importance of tectonic boundary conditions on the valley infill in addition to further geologic, hydrologic, and climatologic conditions and processes interacting with fluvial dynamics.

A multi-temporal study investigates river morphology, connectivity, and floodplain land use in the Mulde River system, focusing on the local extinction of Atlantic salmon. The study uses old maps to identify historical barriers and floodplain land use as a proxy for pollution. First results show a negative relationship between increasing barriers counts, intensive floodplain land use, and salmon populations. Sinuous and meandering channel patterns correspond to higher salmon presence.

Alpine peatlands aged 10 000 years old were cored in the Swiss Fimba Valley to investigate their development and past environmental conditions. Sediment layers embedded in the peat show periods of glacier growth, which suppressed peat growth. Human impacts like pastoralism and deforestation began shaping the landscape from the Bronze Age onwards into what it is today. The impacts and potential effects on carbon accumulation and flood mitigation in the valley should be considered in land management practice.

This study investigates the Khur Basin in central Iran, a crucial area for understanding landscape history, past environmental changes, and potential human migration. By analysing the sedimentary archives and mapping landforms, six stages of landscape development were identified, linked to the climate shifts over the late Quaternary period. The findings provide a detailed understanding of how a desert environment, including alluvial fans, dunes, and playas, developed in response to changing climates.

The Drakensberg and Lesotho highlands serve as essential water sources. Uncertainty remains regarding the impact of rising global temperatures, prompting paleoclimatic reconstructions. However, the Last Glacial Maximum's paleoclimate conditions remain debated. Re-examination of a landscape feature challenges prior glacier associations. Our findings suggest no glacial link. Reassessing similar landforms in Lesotho's high-altitude areas is necessary for the LGM's paleoclimate implications.

It is unclear since when and how meso-scale central European river systems have been dominated by human instead of natural influences. Here, the floodplain sediments of the Kinzig River, southwestern Germany, were studied as they recorded natural and human landscape changes. Sediment deposition phases were found, the modern phase of which coincides with increased deposition and heavy metal contaminations that correlate with mining records, indicating that the river system has shifted intensely over 1000 years.

Data from a geologically diverse river catchment in Spain show that certain types of rock provide minerals that are commonly used in the field of geoscience. Other lithologies present in the area do not contribute to the signal. This bias must be accounted for in all studies attempting to provide hinterland information by sampling river sediments. Then, a surprisingly high number of heavy particles of anthropogenic origin were found. These are not yet well represented in environmental studies.

We found Larix decidua at 2156 m altitude in front of the Morteratschgletscher (Engadin, CH) liberated recently from the ice. This tree stopped growing ~10 350 years ago. Another tree started to grow ~10 800 years ago (early Preboreal), which was ~800 years after the end of the Younger Dryas. At this time the glacier did not cover the sampling site. Thus, in the early Preboreal the terminus of the Morteratschgletscher was at much higher elevation in comparison to the present-day situation.

This paper provides a review of numeric dating methods for the Quaternary, which is unique in its focus on applications of the methods to volcanism. The methods included are K/Ar and Ar/Ar, radiocarbon, uranium series, cosmogenic nuclide exposure, and luminescence dating, each with a section on extra concerns for application to volcanic products. The paper’s objective is to serve as a resource for researchers using these methods or using dates produced by these methods for further research.

The historical Lake Lorsch in the Upper Rhine Graben (Germany) is a good example of how humans have changed the fluvial and hydrological systems in the area for at least 500 years. Interdisciplinary research from geomorphology and historical sciences have reconstructed the history based on old maps, digital elevation models and drillings. The results show a sophisticated system of artificial in- and outflows, which partly still exist today, and represent long-term changes in the Weschnitz floodplain.

People have shaped rivers and floodplains in central Europe for thousands of years, but these changes are often hard to trace. We studied the Wiesent River in southern Germany to understand how farming, forest clearing, and river management transformed a natural wetland into a human-shaped landscape. By combining historical sources with field measurements and sediment samples, we show that human land use has strongly controlled floodplain development since medieval times.

The marshy, silted-up channel of the Late Glacial Bergstraßenneckar near Mannheim provided a rare source of clay in the sand- and gravel-dominated environment of the Rhine river. Based on satellite images, sedimentological, geophysical, and historical data, as well as optical dating, we identify a plot of sand-filled trenches where clay was mined around 1865 CE, which was only possible after groundwater lowering resulting from large-scale river regulation starting in the early 19^th century.

Glacio-lacustrine sediments from the overdeepened lower Salzach Valley were investigated. A 30 m long core retrieved sediments that could be identified as the “Salzburger Seeton”. Single-grain luminescence dating methods were applied on six samples spread over the whole depth of the core. The depositional age of these sediments was calculated to be 18.6 ± 0.9 ka. This time frame suggests that at least some shallow parts were filled by post-LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) lacustrine fine sediments.

This study presents cosmogenic ¹⁰Be-derived denudation rates from the Roda Catchment, central Germany. Denudation rates in Europe are generally higher than in other regions globally, indicating the influence of periglacial dynamics on denudation. Short-term erosion rates are lower than long-term denudation rates, despite intensive recent human activity. Differences between local and catchment-wide denudation imply a relief change of 0–28 mm kyr^‒1 in the Roda Catchment over the past 10 ka.

This study explores past environments at a key archaeological site in Serbia to understand how climate and landscape influenced early human life. By analysing soil layers, fossils, and other natural markers, we found that the area offered a mix of habitats and stable conditions during the last ice age. These findings suggest that the region was an important refuge for people and animals, helping us to better understand human survival in changing climates.

Water levels in the Baltic Sea have fluctuated  since the Last Glacial, and coastlines have been at locations where water depth today is meters. We want to understand these  changes and reconstruct prior lake boundaries and  river channels in Mecklenburg Bay in the German Baltic Sea. This was done with acoustic remote sensing, video observation, and sampling and dating of seafloor sediments. Knowing the paleogeography is important for locating flooded sites of archeological interest.

Depositional single-grain feldspar luminescence ages reveal the filling of a glacially overdeepened basin during Marine Isotope Stage 8, representing rare evidence of this time frame in the northern Alpine foreland. Reflection seismic surveys revealed two cross-cutting glacial basins. The dated sediments reveal significantly younger ages than previously assumed. This represents a first step in a re-evaluation of the established Quaternary depositional chronology of the Bavarian Alpine foreland.

This thesis abstract deals with strategies that have been developed to disentangle interfering geochemical signals in dust-based loess deposits, tested at the Schwalbenberg, Germany. Information on dust particle origin and that which has been obtained during their transport and post-depositional process make up the geochemical element composition. If this information can be decoded, loess deposits can be compared across continents, and the timing and nature of terrestrial system responses can be comprehended.

Ancient Bubastis (Tell Basta) remained occupied for over 3000 years despite the highly dynamic environmental conditions of the Nile Delta. This thesis reconstructs the city's landscape and settlement history using sediment coring, geophysical surveys, and phytolith analyses, demonstrating how geomorphology and changing land-use practices shaped long-term urban development.

Oxygen isotopes from Atbara River shells reveal that rainfall seasonality has remained similar to modern patterns for about 200 ka, highlighting persistent seasonality that structured savanna ecosystems. Carbon isotopes were more enriched in the Late Pleistocene for reasons still unclear. Today, the Atbara local meteoric water line matches other Nile basin rivers, reflecting strong evaporation and mixed moisture sources.