Millions of people across the world live or depend on deltas for their livelihoods. Formed at the lowest part of a river where its water flow slows and spreads into the sea, deltas are sediment-rich, biodiverse areas, a valuable source of seafood, fertile ground for agriculture, and host to ports important for transportation.

At least half of the deltas around the world are so-called "wave dominated deltas" -- open to the sea and under the impact of wave erosion. And many more deltas will come under wave dominance as dammed rivers carry less and less sediment. In a warming climate, sea levels are rising and storms are increasing in frequency and severity, posing threats to these deltas and the people and habitats dependent on them.

"Waves are a relentless machine, wearing down the coast. They never stop," says Liviu Giosan, a geologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). "Understanding how sediment feeds the lowlands of the delta plain is crucial for protecting them. We know that the rate at which the deltas replenish themselves at present from sediment-starved rivers can't keep pace with erosion from wave action and rising sea level."

A new study by Giosan and his colleagues documents the historic sediment record along the Danube River delta, and offers simple and inexpensive strategies for other deltas to enhance their natural ability to trap sediment and maintain their floodplains.

The paper is the only invited research article in the inaugural issue of Anthropocene, a new journal addressing the problems of the "Age of Humans," the period in Earth's history that is characterized by the unprecedented, global impact, humans have had on the environment.

As the main European waterway for trade between the East and West, the Danube River and its delta have been the focus of observation for over a hundred of years.

"We can gain a very good understanding of what's happened at the coast from a long series of maps, old and new. But we don't know a lot about the delta plain, what kind of sediments were deposited there, and how much," says Giosan.

Using this wealth of historic data as well as analyses of sediment cores, the team pieced together the whole story of the Danube delta's growth and destruction from both natural and human-induced causes.

To better understand the cycles of sedimentation across the delta plain, the researchers took core samples at representative sites in wetlands and at lakes, and used radiocarbon analysis to date very old layers in the core. For younger material, the radioisotope Cesium 137 in the cores provided clear markers of time and human activity, with the start of nuclear bomb testing in 1954, the peak of testing in 1964, and the explosion of the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986.

"We were able to look at this partition, how much sediment stayed on the plain, and how much went to the coast in the period before and after human activity had an impact," he says, which is something the researchers say is poorly understood in deltas around the world.