Palaeomeander of the Rudava River (SW Slovakia) – an insight into the evolution of landscape and vegetation

Abstract

Palaeomeander of the Rudava River (SW Slovakia) – an insight into the evolution of landscape and vegetation This study is focused on a cut - off palaeomeander of the Rudava River (SW Slovakia). Along its middle reach, Rudava passes through the extensive plain of Quaternary eolian sands covered with Scots Pine woodland. Specific landforms – semi - circled cut - bluffs (wagrams) are commonly found on either side of the river valley. They have been triggered by a meandering river in contact with both lower terraces and sand dune pseudoterrace and postgenously shaped by mass wasting. The left - bank palaeomeander and cut - bluff at river kilometre 13.2 is one of the most completely evolved and, until today, the best - preserved landforms of this kind. A palaeoecological study of the palaeomeander infill (two cores) combined with a digital elevation model, AMS radiocarbon dating, cartographic data analysis and a survey of present - day vegetation suggest the river meander was most probably cut - off in the 18th Cen- tury. Due to the flow hydrological regime, meandering dynamics at this reach is relatively slow. Numerous springs and seepage along the south edge of the river valley play an important role in the initiation and evolution of cut - bluffs. Also, at the site under study, such spring draining into the Rudava River has significantly contributed to the present - day variability of local soils, wood and marsh habitats. According to plant macrofossil records and ecogroups - based vegetative macrozones a riparian land- scape in the time of meander abandonment and earlier was much more open and with a markedly human impact. Probably upon the pastureʼs decline, the Holocene flood- plainʼs adjacent reach was completely reforested until the mid - 19th Century. Current hardwood alluvial woodland (of the association Ficario vernae - Ulmetum campestris ) originated in 1916 mainly from natural and perhaps artificial regeneration.