Palaeoecological study on the Holocene valley development of the River Main, southern Germany

Abstract

Tree‐ring studies carried out on subfossil oak trunk deposits within the Holocene valley fills of the River Main can reconstruct phases of increased fluvial activities. These phases have been dated on the base of two absolutely tree‐ring dated chronologies and in addition by 11C‐datings of eleven floating tree‐ring scries of subfossil oaks.Geological‐pedological investigations reveal an alternation between increased and reduced fluvial activity during the Holocene.Periods of increased gravel redeposition are dated by dendrochronology, and by 14C and cultural findings. Increased fluvial activity becomes more frequent towards Modern Times with culminations in the Middle Atlantic, the Subboreal, the Iron‐Roman Age, the Main Middle Ages till earliest Modern Times, and in the last century.On the sequence of Holocene river deposits there developed specific soil types as indicators for the age of the river deposits since the Last Glacial.Among other palaeoecological results an important finding is the correlation between tree‐ring width, flood‐loam sedimentation, and soil development.