Precipitation is a particularly important part of the Earth’s hydrological cycle and, therefore, is a necessary variable for maintaining natural balance. This study investigated past, present, and future changes in precipitation in the Marmara region, and examined the effects of global warming on this variable. The study period was from 1960 to 2020, and the climate data of 15 synoptic stations in the Marmara region were used for this purpose. To achieve the objectives of the study, linear and 6th order polynomial regression, ombrothermic and hythergraph diagrams, geostatistical models, Mann-Kendall test, Pearson correlation, standard Z-scores, and multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network models (MLP-ANN) were used to model and predict precipitation. The results of the linear regression analysis showed that of the 15 stations, 6 stations had an increasing trend, 6 stations had a trendless pattern, and 3 stations had a decreasing trend. In terms of periodic analysis, the main downward trend started in 1964 and continued until 1992, while the main periodic upward trend started in 1992 and continued until 2016. The synoptic stations in the Marmara region showed a lack of precipitation over six to seven months of the year, and the precipitation changes in the region were stronger than the temperature changes. In addition, the highest precipitation was observed on the southeast coast of the Black Sea, and the lowest precipitation was observed in the eastern parts of the region. Moreover, except for the Bilecik and Kocaeli stations, the changes in the long-term trend of precipitation at the other stations were significant. Among the 15 stations, only the Kocaeli and Sarıyer stations showed a positive correlation with global temperature during the annual period. In addition, the developed ANN model was accurate in simulating and predicting precipitation and showed an upward trend over the next seven years.

Dryland soil salinization strongly affects soil properties, with severe consequences for regional ecology, agriculture and the aeolian dust dynamics. Given its climate-sensitivity it forms a serious environmental hazard, and to cope with this challenge during current global warming it needs to be better understood.The Bajestan Playa, located in the heavily salinization-affected drylands of Iran, is home to several protected areas and serves as a crucial source of regional dust emissions. Consequently, soil salinization in this region affects both local ecosystems and societies but was not systematically studied yet.Using an unprecedented comprehensive approach, we systematically monitored regional soil salinity from 1992 to 2021 through a combination of remote sensing, on-site field measurements, and laboratory analyses. We linked these data with regional and global climatic information to achieve three main objectives: (i) understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil salinity, (ii) assessing the impact of regional and global climate changes on salinization processes, and (iii) exploring the potential applications of our approach for future soil salinity studies.Our high-resolution annual data over three decades have provided significantly deeper insights into soil salinization dynamics. Furthermore, this pioneering, multidisciplinary research showcases substantial potential for future applications in other salinity-affected drylands forming a foundational knowledge base to address the consequences of ongoing global climate change.

The sediment dynamics include erosion, transport and deposition of sediments within and through a catchment. Erosion leads to a degradation of fertile soils on the slopes, while introducing large-scale inputs of fine-grained overbank sediments into floodplains. These sediments often contain particulate organic carbon and partly also contaminants. This sediment input changes floodplain properties, including e.g. geomorphology, habitat diversity, ecosystem services or human health impacts. Throughout most of the Holocene human activities increasingly influenced sediment dynamics in Central European river catchments through agriculture and settlement, starting in the Neolithic and strongly accelerating since the Middle Ages. However, the Holocene sediment dynamics of Central European river systems remains currently poorly understood. One key question concerns the fate of eroded slope sediments: How much is deposited within a certain part of the catchment, and how much is transported further downstream? Recent studies have addressed this issue by calculating Holocene sediment budgets including ‘sediment delivery ratios’ (SDRs), approximate estimations of the long-term fractions of eroded slope sediments reaching the channel or being transported to the catchment’s outlet. However, the ‘black box’ character of long-term SDRs prevents a detailed examination of temporal variations. Sediment provenance analyses could overcome this limitation by more precisely tracing pathways of Holocene sediments through river systems. Furthermore, well-resolved spatio-temporal information about former human activities has often been unavailable, limiting our ability to estimate human influence on the sediment dynamics.We applied a comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach to the Weiße Elster catchment in Central Germany, which has been partly settled since the Neolithic. Our approach encompassed geomorphology, geophysics, geochronology, geochemical analysis, soil erosion modelling, settlement archaeology and history. We compared patterns and provenance of floodplain sediments in the middle and upper reaches and of colluvial deposits along the middle river reach with regional settlement history. This allowed us to identify the origin of the fluvial sediments in the middle river reach, and evaluate the diachronic influence of human activities on the Holocene sediment dynamics in the floodplain.

The Mansfelder Mulde (German for trough) around Lutherstadt Eisleben is considered as an active subsidence area. Deep-seated subrosion is the potential reason for large- and small-scale earth surface deformation. The appearance of sinkholes as potentially hazardous surface expression of karst has led to increasing interest in the area. Specifically, in the study area Neckendorf in the southwest of the Mansfelder Mulde, two major sinkholes occurred in the early 2000s, affecting a federal road and an allotment garden site. At the end of 2021, surface cracks formed again along a main road just 800 meters away from the previous sinkholes. This process is attributed to ongoing subsidence in the adjacent field. The continuous ground movement, coupled with significant surface cracking along an additional road causing severe traffic problems, necessitated the complete closure of both roads in December 2022.The subsidence area has been investigated by the State Office for Geology and Mining (LAGB) Saxony-Anhalt since 2022 and is since March 2024 a research topic of the UL. During first field measurements, the edge areas of the subsidence were surveyed using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT). In addition, three seismic stations were recently (November 2024) installed to investigate the ground movements in the context of the large-scale subsidence. Currently, no results from the seismic data are available. Once the field data has been retrieved, it will be analyzed in conjunction with the existing ERT data to discuss the subsidence event. With the help of long-distance (deep) ERT we aim to decipher the hydrogeologic conditions of the Anhydrite and Gypsum Zechstein layers, at the supposed base of the subrosion. One objective was to detect, cracks and loosening zones also in the overlying lower Buntsandstein layers. Several profiles were created along the neighbouring fields and the affected roads. Due to different electrical material properties compared to the surrounding soil material, the suspected subrosion features appear as anomalies. ERT showed a clear difference between farmed and abandoned, non-farmed areas. Higher resistivities indicate a deformed subsoil, and with high probability an extension of the loosening zones beyond the crack formation visible on the surface. Near vertical lower-resistance structures could indicate water-saturated fracture zones in context of the main subsidence. Furthermore, the effects of a defective water pipe were possibly detected with ERT. As it is currently not possible to estimate how the subsidence will develop, the evaluation of geophysical data is significant for local hazard assessment and should, above all, provide the affected farmers with clarity about the subsoil situation of their fields and inform local stakeholders about the ongoing process.

Up to several meters thick fine-grained Holocene overbank deposits are ubiquitously found in most Western and Central European lowland floodplains. However, the interplay of different possible causes for their formation are not well understood yet. Most authors suggest human-induced deforestation as the main precondition for sediment mobilisation and transport from the slopes to the floodplain, generally regarding overbank sediments as human-derived ‘legacy sediments’. In contrast, others suggest a stronger influence of climatic factors. This current research gap is caused by often missing well-resolved fluvial chronostratigraphies and spatio-temporal information about former human activity within the studied catchments. To fill this gap we exemplarily studied Holocene overbank sedimentation and possible human or natural drivers in the meso-scale Weiße Elster catchment in Central Germany by using a comprehensive geoarchaeological approach: On the one hand, we applied numerical dating as well as sedimentological and micromorphological analyses to Holocene overbank sediments along three floodplain transects. On the other hand, we built up an unprecedented systematic spatio-temporal database of former human activity within the catchment from the Neolithic until the Early Modern Ages. Together with published paleoclimatic data, this database allowed an unprecedented, systematic comparison of Holocene overbank sedimentation phases with possible human and natural external controls. Our data show that some overbank sedimentation phases were directly linked with human activities in the affected site sub-catchments, whereas others were not. Instead, all phases were clearly linked with natural factors, i.e. hydroclimatic fluctuations. This difference with most former studies could possibly be explained by previously often limited numerical dating of the fluvial sediments and by largely missing spatio-temporally well-resolved regional settlement records, hindering a precise temporal link of fluvial sedimentation with former human settlement. Furthermore, this difference could possibly also be explained by a relatively high natural sensitivity of the landscape dynamics in the Central German lowlands, showing a subcontinental climate, towards external controls.