Fig. 1: Conceptual model, presenting a 3D-view of a catchment adapted to the approach of the present study.
From: Human-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age
Example here of Lake Bourget catchment (see Methods), hosting two regions, each of which is characterised by a specific geochemical signature, and in which erosion of one of the regions is influenced mostly by climate fluctuations. To obtain an erosion signal for each of the two regions, isotopic measurements on sediment samples from the source regions, as well as on the lake sedimentary sequence, are needed. These data are used to build a mixing model to obtain the contribution of each region to the erosion signal recorded in the lake. Combined with the knowledge of the total erosion flux in the whole catchment, it is therefore possible to obtain an erosion signal per region over time. The signal from the glaciated region (in blue) corresponds to climate-driven erosion only, while the second one (brown to orange shading) is influenced by both climate and human activities (see Methods for detail).
