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In the sandy deposits from the Late Pleistocene in the Northern European lowlands, the local appearance of red
subsoils emerges the question of their formation and palaeoenvironmental significance. According to the WRB
this soil is classified as Rhodic Arenosols, but in the German Guidelines for Soil Mapping this soil is still unconsidered because the age and genesis is unclear. Due to the intense red subsoil, the working title of this soil is
‘Fuchserde’. Whereas rubefication is a characteristic feature of soils in regions with warm and dry summers like in the Mediterranean, the occurrence of red subsoil horizons containing hematite in soils in northeastern Germany is not an indicator for tropic or Mediterranean climate conditions. Already the appearance of Fuchserden on sandy
deposits from the last glaciation objects earlier theories that consider these soils as a relictic soil formation from
the last interglacial or even the Palaeogene or Neogene. To characterize the genesis of the Fuchserden, we focused
on four different study sites in northeastern Germany. We present our findings from soil micromorphology and the
identification of the iron(hydr)oxides by FTIR. Our results give new insights on the development of the Fuchserden
and the importance of lateral input of iron for their genesis.
The usage of non-reversible ploughs, mainly during the Middle Ages and until historic times, led to the formation
of ridge and furrow systems. Due to improvements of agricultural techniques, these historic agricultural sites were often abandoned and are now marginal land. The parallel ridges and furrows are usually, if not destroyed by later
conventional ploughing, preserved in present-day forests. In northeastern Germany ridge and furrow systems are normally several decameters long and up to ten meters wide. The height difference between ridge top and furrow bottom is up to 50 centimeters and is expected to cause significant contrasts of soil properties and vegetation. Furthermore, due to the abandonment of sites with ridges and furrows, soils on these sites are unique archives for studies on fertilization, soil carbon dynamics and soil development. Therefore, we are characterizing soil physics (bulk density, saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, texture) and soil chemistry (soil acidity, carbon and nitrogen content) on a type location of historic ridges and furrows about 100 km northwest of Berlin.
Charcoal hearths are a unique archive for the long term interaction between biochar, soil development and plant
growth. Charcoal as raw material was crucial for the production of iron in iron works and hence numerous charcoal
hearths can be found in the forests near historic iron works in Europe as well as the Eastern United States. Charcoal
hearths are round to elliptical forms often around 10 m in diameter, and consisting of a several decimeter thick layer containing charcoal fragments, ash, and burnt soil. We studied the soil chemistry of 24 charcoal hearths and
compared them to the surrounding ‘natural’ soils in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The thickness of the organic
rich horizons on the charcoal hearths and their carbon content is remarkably higher than in the surrounding topsoils. The wide distribution of charcoal hearths, their usually high quantity, and their occurrence in different ecosystems underlines their importance for further pedological research.
Seit dem Neolithikum wirkt sich die Nutzung der Landschaft auf unterschiedliche Weise auf Relief, Böden, Gewässer, Flora, Fauna und Klima aus. Insbesondere die Folgen land- und forstwirtschaftlicher Wirtschaftsweisen waren dafür ausschlaggebend. Grundsätzlich reagieren Ökosysteme auf anthropogene Eingriffe, wie die Umwandlung von Wald in andere Nutzungsformen, mit einer schrittweisen Degradation sowie reversiblen oder irreversiblen Veränderungen. Beispiele sind Bodenerosion und eine veränderte Artenzusammensetzung. Die Abschätzung des Ausmaßes im globalen Maßstab gestaltet sich generell schwierig. Für die Geoarchäologie bedeutsam sind daher hauptsächlich lokale Spuren früherer Bewirtschaftung und Formen im Kleinrelief, die sich im Gelände wiederfinden lassen und als Geoarchive fungieren. Denn sie geben Aufschluss über (prä-)historische Bewirtschaftungsformen. So zeugen Wölbäcker, Hochbeete, Plaggenesche und die Relikte der historischen Teichwirtschaft, Moorkultivierung und Köhlerei von früheren Formen der Land- und Forstwirtschaft.
Archaeological excavations have revealed more than thousand charcoal kiln remains (CKRs) in the prefield of
the active opencast lignite mine Jänschwalde, situated about 150 km SE of Berlin (SE Brandenburg, Germany).
The charcoal was mainly produced for the ironwork Peitz nearby, which operated from the 16th to the mid-19th
centuries. In a first approach, to estimate the dimension of the charcoal production, CKRs were mapped on
shaded-relief maps (SRMs) derived from high-resolution LiDAR data (Raab et al. 2015). Subsequently, for a selected test area, identified CKRs on the SRMs were compared with archaeologically excavated CKRs in the
field. This survey showed a considerably number of falsely detected sites. Therefore, the data was critically
re-evaluated using additional relief visualisations. Further, we extended the CKR mapping to areas which are not
archaeologically investigated. The study area, the former royal forest district Tauer, consists of two separate areas: the Tauersche Heide (c. 96 km2 area) N of Peitz and the area Jänschwalde (c. 32 km2 area) NE of Peitz. The study area is characterized by a flat topography. Different former and current anthropogenic uses (e.g., military training, solar power plant, forestry measures) have affected the study area, resulting in extensive disturbances of the terrain surface. The revised CKR abundance in the study area Jänschwalde was considerably smaller than the numbers produced by our first approach. Further, the CKR mapping revealed, that a total record of the CKRs is not possible for various reasons. Despite these limitations, a solid database can be provided for a much larger area than before. Basic statistic parameters of the CKR diameters and all comparative statistical tests were calculated using SPSS. To detect underlying spatial relationships in the CKR site distribution, we applied the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic, a method to test for local spatial autocorrelation between neighbouring sites. The test is available as part of the ArcGis 10.1 spatial statistics toolbox. The outcomes are discussed in consideration of our archaeological, archival and dendrochronological research results.