The impact of avulsion on groundwater level and peat formation in delta floodbasins during the middle-Holocene transgression in the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT: By redistributing water and sediment in delta plains, avulsions of river branches have major environmental impacts, notably in changing hydrological and peat-forming conditions in floodbasins. The central part of the Rhine-Meuse delta, with its extensive databases including detailed lithological data and high-resolution age control, offers a unique opportunity to study middle-Holocene avulsion impacts on floodbasin groundwater level and peat formation. Avulsion has caused local accelerations of rising groundwater tables to be superimposed on decelerating base-level rise. This is evident from comparing single-site groundwater rise for multiple floodbasins in the river-dominated part of the delta, with regionally averaged groundwater-rise reconstructions. Floodbasin type (lacustrine versus t

SUBMITTER: van Asselen S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6187837 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature