Review

Geomorphology of the Anthropocene: Time-transgressive discontinuities of

human-induced alluviation
Antony Brown
a,
*, Phillip Toms
b,1
, Chris Carey
c
, Eddie Rhodes
d
a
Palaeoenvironmental Laboratory University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
b
Luminescence Dating Laboratory, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 4AZ, UK
c
School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK
d
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Contents
1. Introduction: geomorphology, sedimentology and the rock record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
2. Dening potential and actual erosion rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
3. Depositional systems, sediment budget and preservation potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
3.1. Contrasting catchment case studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
3.2. Data methods summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
3.3. The Frome valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
3.4. The Culm valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
5. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000
1. Introduction: geomorphology, sedimentology and the rock
record
The nature, scale and chronology of alluvial sedimentation is
one of the most obvious geological elements in the identication
and demarcation of the Anthropocene (sensu Zalasiewicz et al.
(2010)) the proposed geological period during which humans
have overwhelmed the forces of nature (Steffen et al., 2007). The
geological record is largely composed of sedimentary rocks which
reect both global and regional Earth surface conditions. Although
the geological record is dominated by marine sediments there are
substantial intervals of the record where uvial sediments are
common (such as the Permo-Trias and much of the Carboniferous).
The constitution of the rock record fundamentally reects plate
tectonics and global climate with the two being inter-related
through spatiotemporal changes in the distribution of land and
Anthropocene xxx (2013) xxxxxx
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 28 March 2013
Received in revised form 14 June 2013
Accepted 24 June 2013
Keywords:
Alluviation
Floodplain formation
Stratigraphy
Earth sediment transport
Erosion
Chronology
A B S T R A C T
Alluvial sediments are an integral and environmentally sensitive component of the geological record and
may be preserved both in subsiding basins and by uplift. This paper examines the Holocene alluvial
record of a high-order uvial discontinuity within the mid to late Holocene that is evident on all
continents except Antarctica. The time-transgressive nature of this discontinuity, even over short
distances, is revealed by two similar small-catchments in the UK which have a similar response to arable
cultivation but separated in time by approximately 3000 years. It is argued that this anthropogenic
discontinuity is likely to be an enduring signal as it exists well outside potentially future-glaciated areas
and will be preserved in Holocene river terraces due to recent and future channel incision. This will make
a marked lithological and sedimentological difference between this Middle-Late Holocene terrace and
Pleistocene terraces which will also include a biological turnover with the appearance of new taxa,
largely domesticates and synanthropes. Discussions of the Anthropocene as a geological period will have
to accommodate this data and this may have important implications for the status and demarcation of
the Anthropocene as a period in Earth System history.
2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 02380 595493.
E-mail addresses: Tony.Brown@soton.ac.uk (A. Brown), ptoms@glos.ac.uk
(P. Toms), chriscareyconsulting@gmail.com (C. Carey), erhodes@ess.ucla.edu
(E. Rhodes).
1
Tel.: +44 01242 714708.
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Anthropocene
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.06.002
oceans, astronomical forcing (Croll-Milankovitch cycles) and
oceanic feedback loops. However, even marine sediments are
the result of a combination of solutional and clastic input both of
which are related to climate and Earth surface processes such as
chemical weathering and erosion. Geomorphology is therefore an
integral part of the rock-cycle and so fundamentally embedded
within the Geological record both in the past and today (Brown,
2008; Brown et al., 2013). It is in this context that we must consider
the role of humans both in the past and under the present
increasingly human-driven global climate.
Since pioneering work in North America after the dust-bowl of
the 1930s by Happ et al. (1940) and later work both in North
America (Trimble, 1981) and lowland Europe (Shotton, 1978;
Brown and Barber, 1985) it has been accepted that alluvial
stratigraphy can reect both climatic conditions and human
activity. More recent work in North America has reinforced this
view by showing how valleys can contain legacy sediments
related to particular phases and forms of agricultural change
(Walter and Merritts, 2008). Similar work in North West Europe
has shown that the relative reection of climatic and human
activity depends upon several factors including geological inheri-
tance, principally the hydrology and erodibility of bedrock, the size
of the basin and the spatially varied nature of human activity
(Houben, 2007). The geological impact of humans has also been
proposed as a driver of societal failure (Montgomery, 2007a);
however, the closer the inspection of such cases of erosion-induced
collapse the more other, societal, factors are seen to have been
important if not critical (Butzer, 2012). Soil erosion has also been
perceived as a problem from earliest times (Dotterweich, 2013). In
this paper we review the interaction of humans and alluviation
both from rst principals, and spatially, present two contrasting
Old World case studies and nally and discuss the implications for
the identication of the Anthropocene and its status.
2. Dening potential and actual erosion rates
The relationship between the natural and semi-natural (or pre-
Anthropocene) climatic drivers of Earth surface erosion, and
subsequent transport and human activity, is fundamentally
multiplicative as conceptualised in Eq. (1) and (2). So in the
absence of humans we can, at least theoretically, determine a
climatic erosion or denudation rate.
Climate geology vegetationland use erosion (1)
This implies that the erosional potential of the climate
(erosivity) is multiplied by the susceptibility of the geology
including soils to erosion (erobibility). Re-writing this equation it
becomes
ErosivityR erodibilityK vegetationlanduse L erosion E
Re-arranging this becomes
R L
E
K
(3)
And assuming that K is a constant we can see that the erosion
rate is a result of the product of climate and vegetation cover. This
relationship is contained not only in both statistical soil erosion
measures such as the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE),
but also in more realistic models which are driven by topography,
soil characteristics (such as inltration rate) and biomass, and that
can be used to estimate the effective storage capacity or runoff
threshold (h) from Kirkby et al. (2003);
h b hm VI lO (4)
where b is the proportion of bare (unvegetated) surface, hm is the
mineral soil storage (making allowance for crustability); V is the
plant biomass; I is the interception storage per unit biomass; l is
the storage per unit of organic soil and O is the soil organic matter
biomass.
We can clearly see here how the increase in bare area that is
unavoidable in most forms of agriculture will, other factors being
constant, have a positive effect on the erosion rate per unit area. In
practice human activity can also increase erodibility by reducing
soil strength. It is therefore clear that human activity can both
increase and decrease this natural or potential erosion rate at
source. It is generally accepted that the dominant spatially and
temporally averaged natural driver of weathering and erosion is
climate as parameterised by some variant of the T8/P ratio (Kirkby
et al., 2003). Other factors can be dominant such as tectonics but
only at extreme temporal scales of millions of years (Ma) or
localised over short timescales (such as volcanic activity). At the
Ma scale tectonics also largely operate through effective-climate as
altered by uplift. A major reason for the non-linear relationship of
the potential erosion rate with climate, particularly mean annual
temperature, is the cover effect of vegetation (Wainright et al.,
2011). So human changes to vegetation cover can both increase
and decrease the potential erosion rate. The most common change
is the reduction of cover for at least part of the year entailed in
arable agriculture, but afforestation, re-vegetation and the paving
of surfaces can all reduce the actual erosion rate (Wolman and
Schick, 1967).
It is the complexity and non-linearity of the relationship
between potential and actual erosion rates that allows seemingly
un-reconcilable views concerning the dominant drivers to co-exist.
With reference to oodplain alluviation these have varied from the
view that it is climatically driven but culturally blurred (Macklin,
1999) to largely an artefact of human history (Brown, 1997). Can
both be right at different times and in different places?
3. Depositional systems, sediment budget and preservation
potential
Using the above relationships we can predict that during an
interglacial cycle the erosionanddepositionrate would followthe
product of changes in rainfall intensity and vegetation quantity, at
least after ground-freezing had ceased. This gives us a geomor-
phological interglacial cycle (Ig-C) which should have a peak of
sedimentation during disequilibrium in the early Ig-C, and most
notably a lowux or incision during the main temperate phase as
changes in erosivity would not be large enough in most regions to
overwhelm the high biomass (Fig. 1), although the role of large
herbivores might complicate this locally (Brown and Barber,
1987; Bradshaw et al., 2003). It follows that widespread alluvial
hiatuses should followthe climatic transitions and one would not
be expected within the main temperate phase (Bridgland, 2000).
What is seen for most temperate phases within either stacked
sequences or terrace staircases are either thin overbank units
(particularly in the case of interstadials), palaeosols or channel
lls incised into cold-stage gravels. An exception to this is in areas
of carbonate lithology, particularly chalk where thick tufaceous
deposits may locally raise water tables and develop over
palaeosols as is revealed by the archaeological site of Caours in
the Somme Valley (Antoine, 2007) and early mid Holocene valleys
in both France (Lespez et al., 2008) and the UK (Brown, 1997).
However, many studies of alluvial lls in both the Old World and
New Worlds have revealed a mid or late Holocene (sensu Walker
et al., 2012) hiatus in sedimentation that is both traceable within
valleys and regionally. Although interpreted by the authors as
evidence for climatic control on oodplain sedimentation, time-
series of cumulative density functions of dates reveals not only
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peaks related to events or series of events but also an overall trend
when these dates are converted into rates (Macklin et al., 2010;
Fig. 2).
All Holocene catchments have a Lateglacial inheritance which
although dominated by climatic forcing (Gibbard and Lewin, 2002)
may have been inuenced to a minor extent by human activity
(Notebaert and Verstraeten, 2010). Since catchment size can be
assumed to have remained constant during the Holocene it follows
that changes in oodplain deposition must reect the sum of the
input of sediment to and export from the reach the basis of the
sediment budget approach to uvial geomorphology. Allowing for
geometric considerations, changes in the rate of sediment
deposition within valley must then reect changing inputs
(Hoffmann et al., 2010). An important result of the occurrence
of relatively small basins and relatively uniform erosion rates is
high levels of retention of anthropogenic sediments on the lower
parts of hillslopes as colluvium or 0 order valleys (Brown, 2009;
Dotterweich et al., 2013) and in 1st order valley oors (Brown and
Barber, 1985; Houben, 2003). In a recent study of a small
catchment in Germany 62% of the sediment produced by 5000
years of cultivation still resides in the catchment as colluvium
amounting to 9425 t ha
1
(Houben, 2012). This represents an
approximate average of 2.6 t ha
1
yr
1
(equivalent to 0.2 mm yr
1
)
which is close to the median for measured agricultural soil erosion
rates (Montgomery, 2007b).
3.1. Contrasting catchment case studies
Two small catchments are used here to show the existence of a
major sedimentary discontinuity associated with human activity
within two contrasting valley chronostratigraphies. The catch-
ments of the Culm and Frome are both located in England but are
100 km apart. They are similar in size, altitude, relative relief and
even solid geology (Table 1; Fig. 3).
3.2. Data methods summary
The methods used in both studies are standard sedimentary and
palaeoecological analytical procedures and can be found in Brown
et al. (2011) and will not be detailed here, except for the
geophysical and GIS methodology which are outlined below. In
both catchments sediment logging from bank exposures and
coring was augmented by ground penetrating radar transects. In
the Culm a Pulse Ekko 1000 was loaned from the NERC Geophysical
Equipment Pool in Edinburgh. In the Frome a GSSI SIR3000 with
200 MHz antennae was used, collecting data with a survey wheel
and using a 5 gain point signal amplication. Dating used both
radiocarbon AMS and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
AMS dates were calibrated using Stuiver et al. (1998) and where
possible identied macroscopic plant remains were dated. In both
catchments the data were input to a GIS model (ArcGIS version 8.3)
along with Landmap Ordnance Survey data with a 10 m posting.
More detailed satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar
(IFSAR) data with a 5 m posting relief data were obtained for part of
the Frome catchment in the lower reaches of the valley in order to
create a bare-earth DTM. Other data were taken from published
sources and archaeological data were taken from the historic
environment register (HER) of each area.
+20
500
+10
0
-10
400
300
200
100
0
t
cryocratic
protocratic
mesocratic
oligocratic
telocratic
mean Tc warmest month
mean Tc
mean Tc coldest month
mean hypothetical sediment rate
sediment residence time
Tc
(RT Kyrs)
Fig. 1. A generalised geomorphic cycle for an Interglacial at mid-latitudes, showing
estimated mean annual temperature, January temperature and July temperature
from Coope (2012), conventional vegetation sub-zones from Turner and West
(1968) and estimated natural erosion rates (T) derived from studies in different
climates including Montgomery (2007a,b).
Fig. 2. Holocene oodplain mean sedimentation rates in the UK (in mm yr
1
) over
the last 12,000 years with summed probability distribution of cereal/crop dates
derived from dated cereal grains (n = 333).
Adapted from Macklin et al. (2010) and Stevens and Fuller (2012).
Table 1
Comparative basin statistics for the Frome and Culm catchments, UK.
Size (km
2
) Alt. m asl
(relative relief)
Geology and hydrogeology Soils
Frome 144 48245 (197) Sandstones, mudstones, conglomerates (Devonian),
gravels (Quaternary)
Argillic brown earths mod. To highly erodible
Culm 276 60280 (220) Clay with ints, chert, weakly cemented sands,
mudstones
Pelosols, argillic brown earths, surface water
gleys mod. To highly erodible
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3.3. The Frome valley
Valley cross-sections were logged, augered and cored at 7
locations from the headwaters to the conuence with the river
Lugg (Fig. 4). As can be seen from the long-section, which uses the
maximum valley thickness in each reach, the valley ll is
dominated by a thick (up to 5 m) silty-sand unit (Fig. 5). This
unit which was clearly seen on the GPR transects overlies blue-
grey clays with organics and in places sand and gravel. As can be
seen from Fig. 5a the ll thickens dramatically between Sections 3
and 4 and this corresponds with the conuence of a tributary
which drains an area of the north west of the catchment which has
stagnogleyic argillic brown earth soils that are particularly
erodible. At the base of the over-thickened supercial valley unit
was a series of small palaeochannels and hydromorphic soils
(Fig. 6) which were not truncated. One particularly prominent
palaeochannel at Yarkhill (Section 5) has started to inll with the
silty sand of the supercial unit. From these channel lls plant
macrofossils were obtained and AMS dated (Table 2). The AMS
dates all fall within the period 44403560 PB (24901610 cal BCE
at 95% condence).
This time window corresponds with the British late Neolithic
and early Bronze Age. Both pastoral and arable agriculture started
here in the early Neolithic (c. 4000 BCE) but it was restricted and
sporadic and did not really expand until the late Neolithic (Stevens
and Fuller, 2012). In order to test the hypothesis that farming
within this catchment followed this trajectory and was therefore
co-incident with this major stratigraphic discontinuity we under-
took pollen and spore analysis on three bank sections and two
cores. Only a summary is given here with more details in Brown
et al. (2011). The results showed that the organic rich unit at
Sections 46 was deposited during a period of signicant change in
the vegetation of the oodplain and adjacent slopes. More
specically woodland composition was changing from oak-elm
dominated to oak-hazel dominated with an increased representa-
tion of scrub, understory and hedge taxa (rowan, hawthorn, sloe/
cherry, and bracken). This is most parsimoniously interpreted as
selective felling, death of the elm by disease (the well-known elm
decline) or perhaps a combination of both. Whatever the precise
mechanism it created gaps in the oak woodland which could be
colonised by hazel and understory shrubs. Cereals (wheat/oats,
barley) are present but at low concentrations. In contrast the core
from the Yarkhill palaeochannel (YHC4, Section 5) showed
continuation of this change in high resolution (over 0.67 m) with
woodland changing from the mixed oak-hazel seen in the other
channels (also with pine here) to open grassland with bracken and
high cereal levels (wheat/oats and barley). Indeed the cereal pollen
concentration is unusually high (Fig. 6; >10% TLP) at levels
normally encountered from in or adjacent to arable elds and there
are two possible explanations. First that arable cultivation was
Fig. 3. Catchment maps for (a) the Frome and (b) Culm catchments with coring transects and study reaches.
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being undertaken on a tongue of low dryland to the east of the
palaeochannel and/or the inux was enhanced by aquatic pollen
transport from overland ow across arable land. This mechanism
has been shown to occur in modern catchments (Brown et al.,
2007, 2008). Either way this clearly indicates initial deposition of
the supercial overbank unit co-incidentally with both deforesta-
tion and the expansion of arable farming.
Typically there was no organic matter in the supercial silty-
sand unit that could be dated using AMS. So in order to determine
the chronology of deposition 6 OSL dates were acquired from two
sections. The dates at section 4 (Upper Venn Farm) give a date of
initial deposition of 4100 300 BP. There is an inversion in the two
upper dates; however, they overlap at the 95% error level. Taken
together they conform with the AMS dating from the adjacent Section
5 and suggest a rapid rate of deposition (12.4 mm yr
1
) during the
period 2150 BCE to 620 CE or a little later. Given that there are no
discontinuities within this unit this suggests high levels of overbank
deposition from the early Bronze Age to the early post-Roman (Saxon)
period. The dates from section 6 range from 2200 100 BP to
930 100 BP, which given the date from the underling unit suggests
accumulation from c. 2340 BCE to 1020 CE, the early Bronze Age to the
High Mediaeval period with a slightly lower rate of accumulation of
1.01.1 mm yr
1
. This may be partly due to the wider oodplain but
the longer chronology suggests we have a sediment pulse with
Fig. 4. Frome valley long section with GPR inset from Yarkhill transect.
Fig. 5. Photos of the major stratigraphic boundary in the Holocene valley lls from Bishops Frome in the Frome valley (left with inset) and Culumbjohn in the Culm valley
(right).
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reworking or bypassing of upper reaches as alluviation continues
(Nicholas et al., 1995). This continuity of sedimentation is supported
by the archaeological record from the catchment which shows an
abundance of crop-marks, earthworks and occupation sites from the
Bronze Age to the post-Roman period (Fig. 6). Indeed there is a cluster
of Prehistoric sites in the upper northwest of the basin, which
corresponds with the tributary that seems to have produced much of
the upper ll of the lower valley. It is believed that for its size this is
Fig. 6. The pollen proportions from two levels at the base of the core from the Yarkhill palaeochannel YHC4, archaeological site distribution map and sites by period.
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the most alluviated catchment in the British Isles and this legacy has
persisted into problematic high suspended sediment loads today
(Walling and Webb, 1996). The effect of the bedrock through the
erodibility of the soils and their high arable potential is a marked
contrast with the Arrow valley draining low mountains directly to the
west. This catchment on Palaeozoic bedrock has four Holocene
terraces produced by a dynamic channel sensitive to climatic shifts
(Macklin et al., 2003) and no over-thickened anthropogenic unit.
3.4. The Culm valley
The Culm Valley drains the Blackdown Hills which are a cuesta
with a plateau at 200250 m asl. and steep narrow valleys with
strong spring-lines. The stratigraphy of the Culm Valley also shows
a major discontinuity between lower gravels, sands, silty clays and
palaochannel lls, and an upper weakly laminated silty-sand unit
(Fig. 7). However, this upper unit is far less thick varying from
under 1 m to 2.5 m at its maximum in the most downstream study
reach (Fig. 5). For most of the valley length it is also of relatively
constant thickness and uniform in grain size and with variable sub-
horizontal silt-sand laminations blanketing the oodplain and
lling many of the palaeochannels. The planform of the entire
valley is dominated by multiple channels bifurcating and re-
joining at nodes and conforming to an anastomosing or
anabranching channel pattern, often associated in Europe with
forested oodplains (Gradzin ski et al., 2000). Again organic
sediments could only be obtained from the palaeochannels
providing a terminus post quem for the change in sedimentation
style. These dates are given in Table 2 and show that the dates
range over nearly 3000 years from c. 1600 BCE to 1400 ACE and
that the upper surcial unit was deposited after 8001400 ACE. In
order to date the overbank unit 31 OSL age estimates were made
from 22 different locations. The distribution of these dates is
consistent with the radiocarbon dates providing an age distribu-
tion which takes off at 500400 BP (c. 15001600 ACE) in the High
Mediaeval to late Mediaeval period. This period saw an intensi-
cation of farming in the Blackdown Hills and although the plateau
had been cleared and cultivated in the Bronze Age pollen evidence
suggests that hillside woodland and pastoral lower slopes
persisted through the Roman period (Brown et al., in press), as
summarised in Fig. 7 and Table 3. This intensication is associated
nationally with the establishment and growth or large ecclesiasti-
cal estates which in this catchment is represented by the
establishment of a Cistercian abbey at Dunkerswell (est. 1201
ACE), an Augustinian abbey at Westleigh, an abbey at Culumbjohn
and a nunnery at Canonsleigh. In the religious revival of the 12th
and 13th centuries ACE the Church expanded and increased
agricultural production as well as its inuence over the landscape
(Brown et al., submitted for publication; Rippon, 2012). This period
was the high-tide of Mediaeval farming with a high population
yet to be ravaged by the Black Death from 1348 ACE onwards
(Hoskins, 1954; Turner, 2007).
4. Discussion
In both valleys there exists a clear lithostratigraphic boundary
between basal gravels with organic channel lls and a thick
capping sandy silt unit (up to 5 m thick). In both valleys this
sedimentary discontinuity or bounding surface can be traced
throughout the valley ll. In terms of sedimentary architecture it is
therefore clear that it is higher than a 5th order bounding surface
(sensu Miall, 1996) and so must be a 6th order surface comparable
to the discontinuity which exists between the bedrock and valley
ll or between Pleistocene glacial sediments and the Holocene ll
(Table 3; Murton and Belshaw, 2011). Such surfaces often form
boundaries for geological Stages and also Epochs. However, in the
Frome this bounding surface is dated at 36004400 cal BP but in
the Culm it is dated to 1300220 cal BP. From palaeoecological and
archaeological data we can see that this abrupt change in
sedimentation is primarily a function of intensive arable agricul-
ture. Even over as short a distance as 100 km this boundary is time-
transgressive by at least 2300 years and could not be associated
with any one climatic episode in the Holocene. This presents
signicant problems for the recognition of this sedimentary
boundary as the start of the Anthropocene.
This agriculturally created sedimentary boundary is also
common across North West Europe. Excellent examples have
been documented in Northern France (Lespez et al., 2008), Saxony
in northern Germany (Bork, 1989; Bork and Lang, 2003), mid-
Germany (Houben, 2012), south Germany (Dotterweich, 2008) and
further east in Poland (Starkel et al., 2006; Dotterweich et al., 2012)
and Slovakia (Dotterweich et al., 2013). Indeed wherever lowland
Holocene sedimentary sequences are investigated such a discon-
tinuity is discovered. Moving south the picture is complicated by
the greater sensitivity of Mediterranean catchments to climatic
inuences (cf. Maas and Macklin, 2002; Butzer, 2005; Fuchs, 2007).
However, it has been identied in northern and central Italy
(Brown and Ellis, 1996) and Greece (van Andel et al., 1990; Lespez,
2003; Fuchs, 2007) and Spain (Schulte, 2002; Thorndycraft and
Benito, 2006). It is clear that in Europe there is signicant
diachrony in the late Holocene increase in valley sedimentation
but it most frequently occurs over the last 1000 to 2000 years
(Notebaert and Verstraeten, 2010). Recent studies have also shown
similar alluvial chronologies in northern Africa, which appear
primarily driven by rapid climate change events but with
sedimentation response being intensied by anthropogenic impact
(Faust et al., 2004; Schuldenrein, 2007). Studies to the east from
the Levant to India have largely been part of archaeological
Table 2
Basal
14
C dates from channel lls of the radiocarbon dates from the Frome Valley and Culm Valley (see text for details).
Sample Depth (cm) Material Date BP d
13
C Cal BP Cal BCE/ACE
Frome
FF1.1 158 Alnus wood 2875 45 27.6 30752930 1125980 BCE
FF2.1 145165 Twigs & leaves 3075 40 27.2 33812170 1431220 BCE
FF3.1 6878 Herbaceous peat 1365 45 31.1 13521180 598770 ACE
FF4.1 130160 organic silty sand 790 50 29.2 892658 10581292 ACE
FF1-OH 7080 Seeds + wood frag. 2963 35 29.5 32503010 13001060 BCE
Culm
FF9 6080 Twig 2501 23 28.9 27302450 780500 BCE
SM 155170 Polygonum seeds 953 25 28.2 970770 9801180 ACE
WH1 190205 Tree bark 1098 29 29.1 1100940 8501010 ACE
CJ3 170180 Rubus and Sambucus seeds 990 25 26.8 960760? 9901190 ACE
CJ10 160170 Tree bark 4641 31 29.9 35403340 15901390 BCE
CJ11 135150 Sambucus seeds 794 20 29.9 730610 11701290 ACE
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investigations and have focussed on climatic inuences on early
agricultural societies. In each case the chronological variation is
related by the authors to the local cultural and land use history and
the strong climatic variations experienced in the SW Asian area
during the Mid-late Holocene. Most recently studies have started
to show agriculturally related alluviation in sub-Saharan Africa
particularly Mali (Lespez et al., 2011, 2013) but these studies are in
their infancy and complicated by the ubiquity of herding as an
agricultural system. Similarly very few studies have investigated
Holocene alluvial chronologies in SE Asia and also pre-European
Fig. 7. A generalised cross-section with
14
C and OSL ages from the Culm valley and a summary diagram from the Blackdown Hills from Brown et al. (in press).
A. Brown et al. / Anthropocene xxx (2013) xxxxxx 8
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induced alluviation. Anthropocene (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.06.002
Americas. However, many studies have shown that the expansion
of clearance and arable farming in both Australia and North
America is associated with an unambiguous stratigraphic marker
of a Holocene alluvial soil covered by rapid overbank sedimenta-
tion (Fanning, 1994; Rustomji and Pietsch, 2007; Walter and
Merritts, 2008).
This change in the driving factors of sediment transport has
practical implications through rates of reservoir sedimentation
which have now decreased sediment output to the oceans
(Sylvitski et al., 2005) and sediment management issues. Humans
now are both the dominant geomorphological force on the Earth
and by default are therefore managing the Earth surface sediment
system (Hooke, 1994; Wilkinson, 2005; Haff, 2010). The implica-
tions go as far as legislation such as the Water Framework Directive
in Europe (Lespez et al., 2011). Indeed awareness of human as
geomorphic agents goes back a long way. In the 16th century
Elizabeth I of England passed an act seeking to control mining
activities on Dartmoor in order to prevent her harbour at Plymouth
from being silted up. Our role was more formally recognised by G P
Marsh, one of the rst geomorphologists to realise the potential of
human activities in Gilberts (1877) classic study of mining in the
Henry Mountains, USA.
If we accept that there is a mid or late Holocene hiatus in the
geological record within uvial systems that is near-global and
associated with human activity, principally agricultural intensi-
cation, then this would be a prima-facie case for the identication
of a geological boundary with an exemplary site being used as a
Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP). The problem is that
this boundary of whatever assigned rank would be diachronous by
up to approximately 4000 years spanning from the mid to late
Holocene. In geological terms this is not a problem in that as
dened on a combination of litho, bio and chronostratigraphic
criteria the nest temporal resolution of any pre-Pleistocene
boundaries is approximately 5000 years.
However, the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary has a far higher
precision either dened conventionally, or as it is now from the
NGRIP d
18
O record (Walker et al., 2009). It would also be difcult to
dene it with less precision than stage boundaries within the
Holocene sensu Walker et al. (2012) and Brown et al. (2013). This
leaves two principal alternatives. First to use is a Global marker that
is strongly and unequivocally-related to human dominance of the
current Earth system. The most obvious and indeed that which was
rst suggested by Crutzen (2002) is the rise in Global temperatures
caused by greenhouse gas emissions which have resulted from
industrialisation. The Mid Holocene rise in greenhouse gases,
particularly CH
4
ascribed to human rice-agriculture by Ruddiman
(2003) although apparently supportable on archaeological
grounds (Fuller et al., 2011), is also explainable by enhanced
emissions in the southern hemisphere tropics linked to preces-
sion-induced modication of seasonal precipitation (Singarayer
et al., 2011). The use of the rise in mean Global temperatures has
two major advantages, rstly it is a Global measure andsecondly it
is recorded in components of the Earth system from ice to lake
sediments and even in oceanic sediments through acidication. In
both respects it is far preferable to an indirect non-Earth systems
parameter suchas population growthor some arbitrary date (Gale
and Hoare, 2012) for some phase of the industrial revolution,
which was itself diachronous. The second, pragmatic alternative
has been to use the radiocarbon baseline set by nuclear weapon
emissions at 1950 as a Global Stratigraphic Stage Age (GSSA) and
after which even the most remote lakes show an anthropogenic
inuence (Wolfe et al., 2013). However, as shown by the data in
this paper this could depart fromthe date of the most signicant
terrestrial stratigraphic signals by as much as 5000 years. It would
also, if dened as an Epoch boundary, mark the end of the
Holocene which is itself partly dened on the rise of human
societies and clearly contains signicant and in some cases
overwhelming human impact on geomorphological systems.
Since these contradictions are not mutually resolvable one area
of current consideration is to consider a boundary outside of or
above normal geological boundaries. It can be argued that this is
both in the spirit, if not the language, of the original suggestion by
Crutzenandis warrantedby the fact that this situation is unique in
Earth history, indeed in the history of our solar system. It is also
non-repeatable in that a shift to human dominance of the Earth
Systemcan only happen once. We can also examine the question
using the same reasoning that we apply to geological history. If
after the end of the Pleistocene, as demarcated by the loss of all ice
on the poles (either due to human-induced warming or plate
motions), we were to look back at the Late Pleistocene record
would we see a litho- and biostratigraphic discontinuity dated to
the Mid to Late Holocene?
5. Conclusions
Geomorphology is a fundamental driver of the geological record
at all spatial and temporal scales. It should therefore be part of
discussions concerning the identication and demarcation of the
Holocene (Brown et al., 2013) including sub-division on the basis of
stratigraphy in order to create the Anthropocene (Zalasiewicz et al.,
2011). In this paper radiocarbon AMS, OSL and palaeoecology are
used to show that a high-order bounding surface is present
Table 3
Summary of vegetation and alluvial chronology of the Frome and Culm catchments. The shaded cells indicate periods with high rates of overbank sedimentation. Empty cells
indicate periods with little change or no evidence.
Years BP/MIS stage Archaeological period Frome Culm
Present-200 BP Industrial and post-industrial Channel incision Overbank deposition and channel bed aggradation
200500 Post-mediaeval Channel incision Extensive overbank deposition
5001000 High mediaeval Overbank alluviation
10001600 BP Saxon Overbank alluviation Some slope deforestation, limited overbank deposition
16002000 BP Roman Overbank alluviation
20002700 BP Iron age Overbank alluviation
27004600 BP Bronze age Deforestation and switch
to extensive overbank
deposition (c. 4000 BP)
Plateau deforestation
46006000 PB Neolithic Organic channel inlling Channel abandonment
600011670 BP Mesolithic Multiple-channel system with human activity on gravel bars
MIS 2 Late Upper Palaeolithic Dated low terrace gravels
and palaeosol at Wellington
4 km upstream of Wye Frome
junction (Brown et al., 2005)
Sub-alluvial gravels and low terrace below junction with the
Exe (Brown et al., 2010.)
MIS 3 Upper Palaeolithic Undated gravels OSL date of 39 ka on low gravel terrace
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induced alluviation. Anthropocene (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.06.002
throughout both valley lls located 100 km apart in the British
Isles. In both case studies the change in sedimentary style and
dramatic increase in the rate of oodplain sedimentation can be
related to the agricultural history of the catchments; however, this
change to a human-driven geomorphological system varies in date
by at least 2300 years. Notebaert and Verstraeten (2010) comment
that there is seldom proof of a direct relationship of accelerated
alluviation with either climate or anthropogenic activity; however,
this is bound to be the case at the regional level, but not if
individual small catchments are used which have high resolution
dating and independent vegetation histories as is the case here.
Geomorphologists have recognised a Global discontinuity in
Holocene alluvial stratigraphies from all continents, except
Antarctica. However, this has been dated to the mid to late
Holocene in the Old World and parts of the New World, and to the
period of European colonisation of other parts of the New World. In
all these cases the principal, but not sole cause is arable agriculture.
It is argued that this is likely to be an enduring signal as it exists
well outside potentially future-glaciated areas and as sediment
yields fall the sedimentary boundary will be preserved in river
terraces due to channel incision. This will make a marked
lithological and sedimentological difference between this terrace
and earlier Pleistocene terraces which will also include a biological
turnover with the appearance of new taxa, largely domesticates,
and synanthropes. Discussions of the Anthropocene have to
accommodate these data and this may have important implica-
tions for the status and demarcation of the Anthropocene as a
period in Earth System history.
Acknowledgements
The authors very much thank N. Whitehouse, S. Davis, R.
Fletcher, M. Dinnin and J. Bennett for assistance in the eld and L.
Ertl for assistance with gure preparation.
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Please cite this article in press as: Brown, A., et al., Geomorphology of the Anthropocene: Time-transgressive discontinuities of human-
induced alluviation. Anthropocene (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.06.002