Holocene valley aggradation and gully erosion in headwater catchments, south‐eastern highlands of Australia

Abstract

AbstractLate Quaternary stratigraphy of a 50 km2 catchment on the south‐eastern highlands of Australia reveals processes and history of denudation, and helps resolve a long‐standing debate about factors controlling episodic valley aggradation and degradation during Holocene times. Valley sedimentation occurred when swampy vegetation fully colonized valley floors and obliterated all channels, promoting aggradation for periods of several thousand years, with most incoming sediment being trapped in swampy meadows. Much of the sediment was reworked from late Pleistocene alluvial fan and valley fill deposits, and primary hillslope erosion was minor during the Holocene. Differing sedimentation patterns between the Late Pleistocene, Holocene and Post‐European settlement periods reflect regional changes in sediment supply and transport capacity as a result of major environmental change. Within the Holocene, however, valley fill stratigraphy is controlled by massive, episodic gully erosion terminating aggradation. Gully initiation appears to be controlled more by thresholds of incision into vegetated valley floors than by changes to sediment supply. Whether the thresholds are exceeded because of climatic change, autonomous change or extreme events cannot yet be determined. Overall, the Holocene history represents continuing complex response to events of the Late Pleistocene, and does not support the K‐cycle concept, which has strongly influenced late Quaternary geomorphology in Australia.