A 14,000 year sediment yield record from western Germany based on annually laminated lake sediments

The reconstruction of sediment yield data for the catchment of Lake Holzmaar (205.8 ha) in the Eifel mountains (western Germany) is based on high resolution geochemical and physical analyses of an absolutely dated sediment record. This technique provides flux rates of allochthonous minerogenic deposition for the last 13,840 years. The Pleistocene/Holocene transition is characterized by instable soils and vegetation caused by adjustment of the catchment to interglacial climatic conditions. These instabilities are the reason for elevated mean sediment yields in the catchment of 16 t km−2 yr−1 until 9800 cal. BP. During most of the Holocene erosive processes are insignificant and sediment yields are very low (1.5 t km−2 yr−1). Since humans cleared the forests for agriculture and early industrial purposes the natural environment has been disturbed and sediment yields increased to mean values of 14 t km−2 yr−1 during the last 2750 years. Comparisons of reconstructions from the Eifel area with similar data from southern Sweden and with measured data from lakes, reservoirs and monitoring sites suggest that quantitative reconstructions based on Lake Holzmaar sediments may be regarded as reliable despite uncertainties related to the methods of reconstruction applied.