The fluvial system on the East European Plain: Sediment source and sink

Abstract

The modern fluvial system on the lowland East European Plain is of depositional type. Sediment transport to the seas is only a few percent of the total erosion, and the main part of eroded material is accumulated in the channels. The recent deposition of suspended sediments is caused by accelerated soil erosion on the arable slopes, which led to a high rate of lateral sediment input and deposition at the river headwaters and on the floodplains. The process of accumulation is facilitated by the unfilled “negative” volume of the net of dry valleys formed during the Late Glacial catastrophic erosion event. Such events of catastrophic erosion of the sediments deposited in the lowland fluvial systems occur with a frequency of 100-120 thousand years. In the conditions of both scarce vegetation and extremal surface runoff, the entire fluvial systems become the area of intensive erosion, with the deep incision of gullies and of the river channels. Therefore, despite the modern intensive deposition, delivery ratio for the fluvial systems on this lowland territory is close to one in the long-term perspective.