http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3422-040X
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Abstract
This article presents a reconstruction of Late Holocene vegetation changes within the lower montane forest zone in the Beskid Wyspowy Mountains (Western Carpathians, Central Europe). Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, loss on ignition, and microscopic charcoal analyses were applied to a profile collected from the deposits of the rich fen which developed in the landslide depression. The results reveal that during the period between ca. 4800 ± 70 and 4160 ± 60 cal. BP, Picea abies dominated in the local forests. Between ca. 4800 ± 70 and 4660 ± 60 cal. BP, Acer was an important component in local woodlands, which distinguishes the study site from others in the Western Carpathians. At ca. 4100 ± 60 cal. BP, forests dominated by Abies alba and Fagus sylvatica expanded. Nowadays, this type of vegetation is characteristic of the lower montane zone in the Polish Western Carpathians. This expansion was probably a consequence of environmental disturbances related to the cold and wet ‘4.2 ka BP’ event. The spread of these forests was preceded by a short episode of expansion of Tilia (Tilia cordata and/or Tilia platyphyllos) which was a very local event. The area of the Beskid Wyspowy Mountains provided suitable habitats for the occurrence of T. baccata, which has not been recorded in pollen data spanning the Middle and beginning of the Late Holocene from this mountain range. A significant increase in the percentages of Kretzschmaria deusta, a parasitic fungus, reveals that A. alba–F. sylvatica forests provided an optimal habitat for such species during the period from 4070 ± 60 to 47 cal. BP. Since ca. 2640 ± 110 cal. BP, pollen of pioneer trees, such as Pinus sylvestris and Betula, as well as human activity indicators (Cerealia type and Plantago lanceolata) have become more frequent. Nonetheless, it is highly probable that this section of deposits also includes the presence of one or more sedimentary gaps.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by sources for scientific activity in 2016–2019, project number 0342/IP1/2016/74, to Piotr Kołaczek, which is acknowledged. We are grateful to Prof. Jan Urban (Institute of Nature Conservation PAS in Kraków) for his help with drilling. We would like to thank Ilona Pál, MSc and two anonymous reviewers as well as Dr Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, PhD for their useful comments which enabled us to improve the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
SAMBOR CZERWIŃSKI graduated Master’s Degree in Geography (2017) at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He deals with palynological analysis, and his scientific interest focuses on palaeoecology, especially vegetation reconstruction and human impact on past ecosystems during the Holocene. Currently, he is doing a PhD connected with the collaborative study between palaeoecologists and historians to reconstruct the economy of Poland in the last millennium based on high-resolution multi-proxy analysis and historical sources. His role in this project is palynological analysis.
WŁODZIMIERZ MARGIELEWSKI is a geologist and geomorphologist. He graduated his Master’s Degree (1986), Doctorate (PhD Degree) (1995) and Habilitation (the equivalent of DSc Degree) (2008) in geology in the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków. He is currently Professor in the Institute of Nature Conservation Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków. He develops works in the area of geology, geomorphology and geoconservation in the Carpathians and their Foreland, with particular emphasis to mass movements. He also works on a reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental changes during the Late Glacial and Holocene in the Polish territory (particularly in the Carpathians), based on studies of peat bog deposits (including landslide fens as the type established by him).
MARIUSZ GAŁKA is a palaeoecologist with quite broad research interests in ecological and geological science and work on projects concerning both past and present environmental change. He works in diverse biogeographical zones from Arctic tundra, tropical rainforests to Tierra del Fuego and from Arctic Russia to South Africa. He specializes in plant macrofossils analysis and he reconstructs wetland ecosystems development e.g. peatlands, lakes, rivers, usually over the last 15 000 years vs climate changes or human activity.
PIOTR KOŁACZEK has a Master Degree in Biology (2005) and is a Ph.D. graduate in Biological Sciences (Botany) of the Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland). He works at the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań (Poland). He has experience in palynological analysis. He is interested in different issues regarding (multi-proxy) palaeoecology of the last 130 kyrs in Central Europe. The core of his scientific interests are the topics considering long-term transformations of forests in the relation to climate changes, fire and human impact during the Late Weischselian and Holocene. He also worked on materials from different world’s areas such as Western and Eastern Siberia, northern Italy, Greece, and Tanzania.
