This study presents a quantitative reconstruction over a 235-year time frame of the development of the natural Donaumoos fen and Danube River into an anthroposphere. The selected proxies are the Donaumoos drainage ditch length and the Danube surface water area traced through the multi-temporal analysis of old maps. A comparison of quantitative proxies with the state of research from written sources leads to the discovery of potential great transitions in floodplain and peatland transformation.

This dissertation evaluates long-term wildfire dynamics in eastern Siberia. A total of 11 new records of Holocene wildfire activity, based on charcoal particles in lake sediments, show past trends of biomass burning in a region that was previously strongly under-represented. A newly fire-enabled forest model is used alongside the charcoal-based reconstructions to further refine interpretations of climate, vegetation, and humans as potential drivers behind past fire regime changes.

An important multicultural Neolithic site was discovered in a lignite mine area near Leipzig in the vicinity of a former pond with organic-rich sediments. Various geoarchaeological investigations were carried out. It was possible to reconstruct the vegetation and land use history of a central German Altsiedellandschaft using a near-site pollen profile for the first time. The widespread pine forests had already diversified to mixed-oak forests due to anthropogenic use in the Atlantic period. 

Accurateness of dates and rates of landscape evolution depends on the precision of the geochronological data. This study offers a robust methodology of outlier identification for modelling the cosmogenic nuclide isochron burial age of fluvial sediments. The method is tested on a fluvial terrace of the Danube River in the Vienna Basin and provides novel information for the quantification of the uplift rate of the area. The presented methodology is applicable in other fluvial settings as well.

This study combines different geophysical and geomorphological methods to estimate how and to what extent human–environment interactions have shaped the coastal region of the Trendermarsch since the High Middle Ages. Our results reveal a drowned, formerly cultivated marshland with different phases of settlement from medieval times onwards and thus presumably illustrate storm-flood-induced reactions in cultivation patterns.