River response to variations of periglacial climate in mid-latitude Europe

The Last Glaciation was characterised by considerable changes in climate, Many European river basins reacted to these changes by initial incision and subsequent pattern change. Earlier research explained this by the time lag of vegetation development after a climatic change, which considerably affected the sediment load. However, since some river basins react differently, or do not react at all, this model needs to be refined. This paper deals with the fluvial evolution of several rivers in northern and central Europe during the Last Glaciation, and two of them, the Weisse Elater river in the Leipzig area and the Spree river in the Niederlausitz (Germany), are discussed in more detail. The vegetation cover on the floodplain, in combination with the presence of frozen ground, which affects the discharge characteristics, largely determines the river type. Nevertheless, when the sequences are compared, not only synchronous changes in fluvial development may be observed, but also distinct differences in fluvial development. By analysing the different rivers in their varying geomorphological settings, it appears that grain size, basin configuration and catchment size are important parameters also, which can determine whether a threshold is exceeded or not. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. AU rights reserved.