Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape history of the central Palatinate forest (Pfälzerwald, south-western Germany)

Abstract

Field studies on the Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape history were conducted in the central Palatinate Forest ( Pfälzerwald, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) near the village of Johanniskreuz. The structure and composition of periglacial cover beds, the young floodplain sediments of the Aschbach, Schwarzbach und Moosalbe valleys, and the sediment structure in some dry valleys, of alluvial fans and slope colluvia, were studied. The sandy cover beds are less than 10% aeolian, and in all cases only the main and basal layer are present, with no evidence of the intermediate layer. In general, the cover beds resemble those of other parts of the Central German Uplands ( Mittelgebirge). As a rule, their total thickness is 100 cm, and that of the main layer 45–55 cm. Evidence from valley-floor and spring bogs, sediment sections, and historic charcoal-burning sites was used to identify palaeo-climatological, semi-natural and anthropogenic landscape changes. Based on alluvial fans and slope colluvia, the following sedimentation phases could be identified for the Holocene: Preboreal, Boreal, and Subboreal (natural impact factors) and the Late Holocene, since the High Middle Ages (anthropogenic impact factors, e.g. deforestation). The influence that historical charcoal production and tillage have had on accelerating surface runoff and the formation of colluvia is discussed. This study represents the first ever chronostratigraphy of the Pleistocene cover beds and Holocene valley floor sediments of the Palatinate Forest Mts.