Bergische Heideterrasse

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Bergische Heideterrassen
The Wahner Heide
The Wahner Heide
Systematics according to Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany
Greater region 1st order North German Lowlands
Greater region 2nd order Lower Rhine lowlands and Cologne Bay
Main unit group 55 →
Lower Rhine Bay
Natural space 550 →
Bergische Heideterrassen
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 4 ′ 48 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 48 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E
Bergische Heideterrassen (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Bergische Heideterrassen
Location Bergische Heideterrassen
state North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany

The Bergische Heideterrassen (according to the basic definition of the Federal Research Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning in the plural form Bergische Heideterrassen ) is a natural spatial over-main unit with the ordinal number 550 in the Lower Rhine Bay at the transition to the Bergische Plateaus , part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains .

It stretches to the right of the Rhine as a landscape band on a stretch of around 80 kilometers on the edge of the Bergisches Land from Mülheim an der Ruhr in the north to Siegburg in the south . The river terraces are of flight sands covered gravel and sand deposits on a partially exposed base of folded rock of the Devon and flat-lying, sandy, z. T. also clayey tertiary layers .

The name of the natural area is derived from nutrient-poor heather moors , sandy heaths , dry grasslands and inland dunes with a large variety of biotopes . Here you will find , among other things , grove -beech forests , alder-swamp forests , oak-birch forests , hardwood meadows , wet meadows and brook meadows .

Structure of the natural area

The natural spatial main unit 550 was initially referred to as Schlebusch-Wahner Heide in the elaborations for the handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany (6th delivery 1959, maps 1: 1,000,000 from 1954 and 1960) . In the refinement on a scale of 1: 200,000 on sheet 109 Düsseldorf in 1963, this was renamed Bergische Heideterrassen and subdivided into finer natural spaces; the southern part was finally broken down on page 123 Cologne in 1978.

The main unit is then structured as follows:

  • 550 Bergische Heideterrassen

history

The Bergische Heideterrasse is a relic from the Ice Age . It was characterized by different forest communities on wet or dry sandy soils with layers of scree below . These soils were poorly suited for agriculture and were therefore hardly populated. In the vicinity of Opladen , at the end of the Mesolithic period, around 8000-4000 BC. First settlements by people who looked for their home here. They cleared the land and practiced arable farming. As a result, the various heather vegetations spread over the next 3000 years. The heather population continued to decline due to the later modern agricultural economy.

Until the end of the 19th century, the flowering heather, alder and birch forests with their swampy subsoil were largely preserved. For centuries they were characterized by pasture farming with sheep , cattle , horses , goats and pigs . In addition, there were forestry , shipbuilding , beekeeping and broom making . The industrialization that started now, combined with industrial forestry , road and path construction and the sealing of land through settlement and industrial areas, however, was associated with a sharp decline in biological habitats . To date, around 30 nature reserves have been set up in the area of ​​the Bergische Heideterrasse, in which the old ways of life have been preserved.

Nature reserves (selection)

In the following, some nature reserves in the area of ​​the Bergische Heideterrasse are listed, for which there is already an article in Wikipedia:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Karlheinz Paffen, Adolf Schüttler, Heinrich Müller-Miny: Geographical land survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 108/109 Düsseldorf / Erkelenz. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1963. →  Online map (PDF; 7.1 MB)
  2. ↑ a b c Ewald Glässer: Geographical land survey: The natural spatial units on sheet 122/123 Cologne / Aachen. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1978. →  Online map (PDF; 8.7 MB)
  3. ↑ The Bergische Heideterrasse Accessed on December 14, 2016
  4. ↑ a b The Bergische Heideterrasse - a prime example of biodiversity and biotope networking. Accessed on December 14, 2016
  5. ^ Emil Meynen , Josef Schmithüsen (editor): Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany . Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Remagen / Bad Godesberg 1953–1962 (9 deliveries in 8 books, updated map 1: 1,000,000 with main units 1960).
  6. ↑ Developing nature - experiencing nature on the Bergische Heideterrasse. Accessed on December 15, 2016
Remarks
  1. ↑ The definition and naming of the natural area was first established by the Federal Research Institute and used in the plural form in specialist literature such as the handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany. Today's mentions mostly only use the singular form, although the natural space is formed by a collection of individual Rhine terraces that can be separated from one another geologically, geologically and spatially.

Web links