Seespiegelschwankungen in Nordost-Deutschland : Beobachtung und Rekonstruktion

Currently, central Europe undergoes distinct changes in regional water balances. In northeast Germany a drying trend prevails, resulting in decreasing water quantities. If this trend continues, a negative influence on ecosystem services, such as the provision of water for human use and wetland conservation, is to be feared. Lake-level records of both short-term (last decades) and longterm perspective (last millennia) offer important hydrological information as they document changes in the local to regional water budget, depending from climatic and human impact. Research on lake hydrology can help to optimise management strategies for rebalancing the landscape water budget. Lake levels in northeast Germany have decreased or intensively fluctuated over the last decades. Examples for the hydrological development of some lakes in the Mecklenburg Lake District are given, showing highly variable local records with some conformity. From a palaeohydrological point of view, until the late Mediaeval regional lake hydrology was predominantly driven by climatic, geomorphic and non-anthropogenic biotic factors. Since the late Mediaeval, human activities have strongly influenced the drainage pattern and the lake water cycle, for instance, by damming of lakes, construction of canals and land cover changes in the lake catchments.