The fluvial anthroposphere of the Wiesent River catchment, northern Bavaria, Germany: review and first results

Abstract. Since the Late Holocene, human activities have fundamentally altered fluvial systems across central European catchments, driving a gradual transition from natural to human-dominated floodplains. The Wiesent River catchment in northern Bavaria, Germany, provides a low-mountain-range case study to investigate this transformation within the conceptual framework of the “fluvial anthroposphere”. Despite its long settlement history, the catchment remained predominantly rural, allowing the assessment of cumulative anthropogenic impacts beyond major urban or industrial centres. Here, we combine a comprehensive multidisciplinary review with first geoscientific investigations to evaluate human–environmental interactions in the Wiesent River catchment. The review synthesizes environmental, archaeological, and historical evidence to reconstruct natural conditions, settlement dynamics, and human-induced sediment dynamics. Complementary first geoscientific field and laboratory investigations include electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and sedimentological analyses of percussion drill cores to characterize floodplain stratigraphy and sedimentary floodplain architecture. The results reveal a characteristic floodplain stratigraphy comprising basal organic-rich deposits and peat, locally intercalated gravel layers, and up to 3 m of homogenous silty to loamy overbank deposits. This succession reflects a shift from Early Holocene wetland conditions towards sustained overbank deposition likely to be primarily driven by intensified land use, deforestation, grazing, and hydrotechnical installations since, at the latest, the Early Middle Ages. The close correspondence between the review and first empirical findings demonstrates the suitability of the Wiesent River floodplain as a high-resolution archive of human-induced fluvial change.