Past flood events reflected in Holocene floodplain records of East-Germany

The sediment archives in lakes and mires formed by salt solution within the floodplain of the Middle Werra river were used to detect effects of climate and landuse changes on the sedimentation regime of the river by means of high-resolution sedimentological and palynological methods. All archives of the Middle Werra valley show similar sedimentation sequences which are mainly influenced by climate until the Middle Ages and mostly affected by human activity between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. The likelihood of climatic influences in terms of wetter conditions is especially given by a clear increase of indicators for floodplain forest, reed communities and aquatics in combination with decreasing human landuse indicators in the investigation area.In addition, the palynological results show that the sediment input in these depressions is higher both during periods with wetter conditions and with increased human impact in the catchment. According to the fact, that during flood events the river is hydrological connected with these depressions, the minerogenic layers are suspected to be delivered during floods.