Changes of the Vistula River Channel and Foodplain in the Last 200 Years

The Vistula River is a typical Central-European river flowing from the mountains across basins and upland belts to the lowlands. The Vistula valley is modelled by a river with a complex hydrological regime. In its upper reaches, floods driven by summer rainfall prevail, while in the lower reaches snowmelt floods are important. Deforestation favoured a natural propensity for river braiding. In the mid-19th century, the channelization of the upper Vistula (in the Carpathian foreland) and the lower reaches was commenced with, while the middle streach was left in a natural state, such that the river has in places preserved a braided pattern up to the present day. The channelization followed by construction of reservoirs caused downcutting and aggradation to occur, such that opposing tendencies were observed in particular reaches of the river channel. In addition, flood embankments confined aggradation to the intra-embankment area. Thus, the functioning of the Vistula River system is largely controlled by diverse human activity. Unconstrained flow and river load transport along the whole river length are only partly possible during extreme floods. The present-day adjustment tendencies also relate to ongoing changes in land-use in the drainage basin, as well as on global climatic changes

Problems of Holocene climatostratigraphy on the territory of Poland

The pre sented cli ma to stra tigra phy of the Holo cene on the ter ri tory of Po land is based on a range of bi otic, sedi men tologi cal, geo mor pho logi cal and iso topic rec ords, but also takes into ac count fluc tua tions of tem pera ture and hy dro logical re gime. The author up holds the tra di tional di vi sion of the Holo cene into three ther mic phases and dis cusses inde tail dis tinct fluc tua tions in the hy dro logi cal re gime re flected in the al tera tion of wet ter and drier phases. Al though their pro files tend to be blurred, the lower bounda ries of the wet ter phases, which set off the trans for ma tion of geoe cosys tems (a pro cess re flected in the first clus ters of ex treme events), may be used to iden tify re gional stra tigraphic subdi vi sions. The su per im posed phases of hu man ac tiv ity have much smaller spa tial ex tent

Clustering of extreme rainfalls and evolution of fluvial systems in the Holocene

The term ex treme rain fall re fers to an event dur ing which the thresh olds of vari ous hy dro logi cal and geo mor phic processes are ex ceeded. The fre quency of ex tremes var ies in dif fer ent cli matic zones and in time. The clus ter ing of ex treme events hap pens when the ex tremes are re peated every 2–3 years, every year or even sev eral times a year. Such clus ter ings dis turb the equi lib rium of slope and river chan nel sys tems and are sepa rated by pe ri ods of sta bil ity and re cov ery. The oc curences of clus ters are ex em pli fied by pres ent – day pro cesses, his tori cal rec ords and geo logi cal rec ords. On this base a model of phases with fre quent and rare clus ter ings dur ing the Holo cene was con structed

Global warming and accompanying changes - analoges from the past

The comparison of present-day global warming, its effects and accompanying increase in frequency of extreme hydrometeorological events with eventual analoges in the past shows that actual situation is inrepeatable. Only once at the beginning of the Holocene about 11500 years ago it was recorded a similar rapid rise in the temperature during several decades but it happened at the start of warm stage (not after climatic optimum) and was not accompanied by so distinet rise in CO2 and CH4 content in the atmosphere as at present. The rise in frequency of extreme events with their clusterings are frequent in the Holocene history of the Earth, but there were not connected with warming and progressing degradation of water and biotic resources extorting an acceleration in the circulation of matter. It was just opposite. Clusters of extremes were mainly characteristic for several wetter and cooler phases which rather quarantied relative stability of geoecosystems. Therefore the peculiarity of present-day global warming so different from situations recorded in the past seems to be connected with disorder in the stability of the global system caused by overexploitation of natural resources by man

The reflection of the Holocene climatic variations in the slope and fluvial deposits and forms in the European mountains

In the European mountains we observe a coincidence of phases of glacial advances, gravitational processes and floods. These correlate in time with shifting of vegetation belts and increased deposition at the mountain foreland.Dans les montagnes européennes on observe une coincidence des phases d'avancées glaciaires, de processus gravitationnels et d'inondations. Ceux-ci peuvent être corrélés dans le temps avec des déplacements de ceintures de végétation et un accroissement du dépôt dans les piémonts.Starkel Leszek. The reflection of the Holocene climatic variations in the slope and fluvial deposits and forms in the European mountains. In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 11 n°1, 1985. Changements hydrologiques dans la zone tempérée au cours des quinze derniers millénaires / Paleohydrological changes in the temperate zone in the last 15000 years. Marseille (France) 3-5/07/1984. pp. 91-97

Paradoxes in the development of gullies

Abstract: Gullies in the temperate zone are the products of linear erosion, piping and mass movements active mostly during heavy rains. On dominant role of one of those three co-operating processes decide the parameters of rainfalls and permability of substratum. The diversity of gullying depends also on the inherited relief and stage of development of gully forms. In the cultivated areas the formation of gullies is initiated also by cart-roads

State of research on the Late Glacial and Holocene fluvial history in the Vistula river valley. (Etat des recherches sur l'évolution hydrologique de la vallée de la Vistule, pendant le Tardiglaciaire et l'Holocène)

In this paper is presented the characterization of the Vistula river valley and the state of research on the fluvial history of this region during the Late Glacial and the Holocene.Cet article résume les caractéristiques principales de la vallée de la Vistule et l'état d'avancement des recherches sur l'évolution de cette region durant le Tardiglaciaire et l'Holocène.Starkel L. State of research on the Late Glacial and Holocene fluvial history in the Vistula river valley. (Etat des recherches sur l'évolution hydrologique de la vallée de la Vistule, pendant le Tardiglaciaire et l'Holocène). In: Bulletin de l'Association française pour l'étude du quaternaire, vol. 17, n°1-2, 1980. pp. 81-84

The remarks on the polygenesis of mountains relief (exemplified by the Carpathians)

Rzeźba Karpat ma cechy rzeźby poligenicznej i polichronicznej. O poligenezie mówimy w dwojakim sensie. Młode formy modelowane są obecnie przy współdziałaniu różnych procesów (najczęściej erozji wody płynącej, sufozji i ruchów masowych). Zasadnicze formy obecnej rzeźby zostały przeważnie ukształtowane w odległej przeszłości w zmieniających się warunkach klimatycznych i tektonicznych. Oddziedziczona rzeźba dotąd zachowana była także w zależności od odporności skał podłoża stale adaptowana do nowych warunków. Szczególnie wyraźny zapis tej adaptacji dotyczy w analizowanym regionie ostatniego cyklu glacjalno-interglacjalnego czwartorzędu.The relief of the Carpathians has the features of a polygenic and polychronic landscape. On polygenesis, we may talk in a double context. The young forms are developing at the present time by cooperation of various processes (mainly erosion of flowing water, piping and gravitational movements). The fundamental forms of the existing mountain relief were created usually in the distant past under varying tectonic and climatic conditions. The inherited relief has been preserved depending on the resistance of bedrock being permanently adapted to changing conditions. Particularly distinct markers of that adaptation in the Carpathians were left by the last glacial-interglacial cycle