The valley-fill deposits of the Kłodnica River (southern Poland): Environmental drivers of facies changes from the Late Vistulian through the holocene

Abstract

Lithological analyses and radiocarbon dating were used to elucidate the patterns and controls of Late Quaternary valley floor development of the Kłodnica River, the Upper Odra Basin. The research results were discussed with data obtained from valleys of rivers draining piedmont basins and highlands of southern Poland. In consequence, five stages of morpho-sedimentary evolution of the Kłodnica valley were distinguished. In the Late Vistulian a large-scale deposition of channel alluvium took place in the conditions of high river discharges. This sedimentary style probably still existed in the Early Pre-Boreal as long as open grass communities survived in the Kłodnica catchment. The next phase, in the Late Pre-Boreal and Boreal, is characterized by a significant increase in accumulation rate of biochemical facies. The considerable restriction of minerogenic deposition was connected with widespread of forest and gradual limitation of the river discharges. The third stage began at the decline of the Boreal and was defined by decrease of accumulation rate or even biogenic accumulation break. Synchronously, periodic increases of fluvial activity were noticed in the form of cutoffs of meander loops and overbank deposition in oxbows. The beginning of the fourth period took place not earlier than in the Early Sub-Boreal. This stage was distinguished by renewed peat growth/increase in biochemical accumulation rate and periodic increase in alluviation, generally taking place in the conditions of low channel-forming flows. The latest phase (from the Middle Sub-Atlantic till now) is characterized by common initiation of slope deposition and a rapid increase in fluvial sedimentation, especially overbank and tributary fan facies. An increase in minerogenic deposition occurred in response to human impact, which became more significant from the Roman Period and occurred on a large scale from the early Middle Ages. Older settlement phases, including intense settlement from the Hallstatt Period, were not clearly recorded in the Kłodnica valley fill.