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FluVAlps - Research Group
Fluvial Variability, Climate and Land Use Interactions in Alpine Environments

University of Barcelona; University of Berne; Meteorological Survey of Catalonia; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna; Archaeological Survey Canton Berne; ICREA at the Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona; Institute of Earth Science Jaume Almera, Barcelona; Ofiteco S.A., Madrid; Schmidt Information- and Webdesign, Düsseldorf

Research Project CGL2006-0111 to: CGL2009-06951/BTE

Research

Our present core activity is the FluVAlps-plus Project (Sensitivity of alpine rivers to Global Change: High-resolution palaeoenvironmental records and modelling of extreme flood events in the Swiss Alps) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science from January 2010 to December 2012.

Aims of research

The goal of the FluVAlps-plus Project is the contribution of knowledge about Late Holocene and historical terrestrial environmental changes in the Western Alps providing accurate data from fluvial sedimentary, pollen, documentary and instrumental records.

Methods

The generation of high-resolution environmental data from fluvial landforms records such as alluvial fans and fan deltas requires the use of an innovative methodology. We apply a multi-proxy approach, that integrates paleoecological, geomorphological, paleoclimatological, palynological, paleohydrological and documentary data.

Regional settings

The research focuses on the Late Holocene aggradation and environmental history of the Lütschine, Lombach, Aare, Sahne river fan deltas, as well asd further alluvial fans of small catchments of the Lake Brienz and Thun area defined as our study area at the northern slope of the Jungfrau massif (Swiss Alps).

Research highlights

The fluvial archives of the Lütschine fan record paleoclimatic variability from 4000 to 900 yr cal BP. For the last millennium, the anthropogenic impact changed the depositional conditions, reducing wetland environments. Moreover, this impact masks the climate signal of the pollen and geochemistry proxies. The correlation between the major flooding events and d14C anomalies suggest that aggradation of the Lütschine fan delta during the focused period was triggered by solar forcing. Floods occurred in the Lütschine River catchment during cold and wet periods.