The River Trent is one of the major fluvial environments in the UK. It has been highly mobile throughout the Holocene, leading to the preservation of significant organic-rich sediment sequences containing archaeology. The combination of aggregate extraction and recent erratic climate events mean many sites are under threat of destruction, exposure and erosion. A prerequisite of aggregate extraction is to leave intact areas on-site to preserve important sediment/archaeological sequences. Reinstatement strategies and local planning restoration initiatives, (e.g., lake/wetland creation, inert landfill and woodland planting) leave these sediment archives vulnerable to the effects of both changing climatic conditions and changes in vegetation. The design and associated planting, aimed at Biodiversity Net Gain, inadvertently may be compromising the preservation potential of these sediments. The aims of this project are twofold; first to develop a model of Holocene environmental change for the Middle Trent Valley and secondly to assess the effects of the current reinstatement strategies on preservation of sediment archives.
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