Elsterbach (Fulda)

Elsterbach
Data
Water code	DE : 42996
location	District of Kassel , Hesse , Germany
River system	Weser
Drain over	Fulda  → Weser  → North Sea
source	in the Reinhardswald near the Gahrenberg 51 ° 26 '11 "  N , 9 ° 34' 45"  E
Source height	approx.  390  m above sea level NHN
muzzle	near Wilhelmshausen in the Fulda Coordinates: 51 ° 26 '12 "  N , 9 ° 34' 44"  E 51 ° 26 '12 "  N , 9 ° 34' 44"  E
Mouth height	approx.  125  m above sea level NHN
Height difference	approx. 265 m
Bottom slope	approx. 55 ‰
length	4.8 km
Catchment area	5.598 km²
Drain	MQ	33.4 m³ / s
Big cities	kassel
Communities	Fuldatal , Reinhardswald estate

The Elsterbach is a left side stream of the Fulda . It is located in the Reinhardswald north of Kassel. The brook with the brook valley is part of the Natura 2000 area Weser slopes with brooks (FFH no. 4423-350).

Location and hydrology

The Elsterbach rises on the plateau of the Reinhardswald from an extensive spring swamp south and southwest of the basalt summit of the Gahrenberg . In the tertiary layers in the source region, protected from erosion by the basalt, lignite was extracted at the Wilhelmshausen colliery . The waterlogged soils of the red sandstone plateau with the influence of loess loam , stagnogleye and pseudogleye from a pedological point of view , are regionally called "whey soils" because of the white seepage water. Due to the impermeable subsoil, the swampy area has only little spring discharge, the spring water of the Elsterbach comes largely from the more productive groundwater horizons of the Gahrenberg itself, in the northwest of the catchment area. Due to the rather large, mostly poorly permeable catchment area, the water flow of the Elsterbach fluctuates considerably; values ​​of around 5 liters per second were measured in dry periods up to 3500 liters per second after heavy rainfall. The source swamps of the Elsterbach are protected in the " Bruchwald am Gahrenberg " nature reserve .

The numerous small source brooks of the Elsterbach unite at the silver pond (also called alum pond, due to the historical extraction of alum in the lignite sediments). A few hundred meters below there are two more reservoirs, the Lägerteiche, also known as Heiligenlägerteiche, which are surrounded by alder break forest . Below these flows from the left (from the north) a nameless side stream about 1.5 kilometers long. Below that, the brook runs almost in a straight line to the south to the Fulda in a steeply incised valley with no further inflows.

The former village of Gebhardshagen , which fell desolate again in the high Middle Ages, was located near the junction of the source streams . The name of the deserted area was remembered as a field name. The name of the Heiligenlägerteiche is said to derive from the (no longer preserved) ruins of the church, which later served as quarters for cattle herders (some authors also assume that there is another desolation called red here). At the confluence of the Elsterbach in the Fulda, on the edge of the floodplain, lies the small housing estate "Am Elsterbach" belonging to the village of Wilhelmshausen . The rest of the valley is forested and unpopulated. The forest share of the catchment area is around 95 percent, of which almost half are spruce forests.

In the Fulda valley, near the confluence with the Fulda, the Elsterbach is separated from the federal highway 3 between Kassel and Hann. Münden and the parallel Fulda cycle path crossed. At the mouth there is also the Wilhelmshausen sewage treatment plant, which receives the wastewater from Wilhelmshausen, Knickhagen and the Fritz-Erler-Anlage industrial park (former Fritz-Erler barracks ).

Aquatic chemistry and biology

Due to the nutrient-poor soils of the catchment area, the stream was very susceptible to acidification due to anthropogenic (man-made) air pollutants, especially sulfur dioxide . In the northeastern spring streams pH values between 4.4 and 4.6 were measured. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Bachchemismus has shown a trend towards recovery due to better air pollution control. The catchment area of ​​the Elsterbach has been investigated from the end of 1972 until today as one of only two streams in Hesse in terms of water chemistry and forest hydrology , which means that an unusually large amount of data is available about the small stream. A permanent measuring station is still in operation today (as of 2019).

The frog spawn alga Batrachospermum gelatinosum , a red alga, which is very rare in the region and is characteristic of clean running waters , was found in the Elsterbach . The most common aquatic plant is the brook spade moss Scapania undulata . As is typical for the river type, there are no higher water plants. The larvae of the spring brook-typical dragonfly species, the two- striped spring damsel Cordulegaster boltoni, live in the brook . Larvae of the fire salamander Salamandra salamandra are found but not common. The fish species brook trout Salmo trutta fario , brook loach Barbatula barbatula , gudgeon Gobio gobio , minnow Phoxinus phoxinus and three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus have been identified in the brook below the storage ponds . For benthic invertebrates of the stream, however, is little known.

Literature and Sources

• Lothar & Sieglinde Nitsche: Nature reserves in Hessen. Volume 2 City of Kassel, District of Kassel and Schwalm-Eder District. published by the Philippi Society for the Advancement of Natural Sciences. cognitio-Verlag, Niedenstein 2003. ISBN 3-932583-07-8 .
• Thomas Meineke, Kerstin Menge: Basic data collection in the FFH area "Weser slopes with streams" (4423-350). Expert opinion on behalf of the State of Hesse, Kassel Regional Council, Upper Nature Conservation Authority, January 2011. 227 pages.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Water map service of the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection ( information )
3. ^ Zeche Wilhelmshausen Historical local dictionary, Lagis State History Information System Hesse.
4. ↑ Gebhardshagen Historical Gazetteer, Lagis country Informationssystem Hessen.
5. ↑ The municipal sewage treatment plants in Fuldatal.
6. ↑ Kang-Hyun Cho (1995): Long-term change in creek water chemistry in a catchment area of ​​the Reinhardswald (Northern Hesse). Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt 114: 362–374.
7. ^ Schmidt, Marcus, Kolb, Matthias, Scheler, Birte, Paar, Uwe & Eichhorn, Johannes. (2005): The dry year 2003 - Effects on Hessian forest ecosystems. AFZ Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift, September 2005: 2-4.