Origin of a boreal birch bog woodland and landscape development on a warm low mountain summit at the Carpathian–Pannonian interface

Abstract

Hilly regions along the Western Carpathian–Pannonian border are phytogeographically important, but their vegetation history remains largely unknown. We analysed two peat cores of Late Glacial origin from a bog woodland in the Malé Karpaty Mts (SW Slovakia) using plant macrofossil, pollen, peat chemistry and charcoal analyses to trace local successional patterns, regional vegetation development and occurrence of rare species. The small distance between the two profiles situated within homogeneous vegetation enabled us to explore small-scale differences in local vegetation history. The sediment started to accumulate at the end of the Allerød (ca. 12950 cal. yr BP), when a shallow oligotrophic/mesotrophic lake with macrophytes developed. Open pine-birch forests dominated in the landscape. During the early Holocene, the lake was infilled, mire vegetation appeared and broad-leaved forests spread in the surroundings. Two fire events indicated by increases in number of macroscopic charcoal particles were recorded. The first one, which occurred at the end of the Late Glacial, was found only in one of the profiles, while the second one affected entire mire and probably caused a hiatus spanning the middle and late Holocene. Fagus started to spread no later than 5800 cal. yr BP. Open mire vegetation reappeared after the fire (ca. 400 cal. yr BP). During the 19th century, the mire was overgrown by a birch bog woodland. The two profiles showed basically the same successional patterns, but some local events and occurrences of rare species ( Potamogeton alpinus, Potamogeton praelongus, Scorpidium scorpioides and Pleurospermum austriacum) were traced only in one of them.

Identifying white spots on the roadmap of Late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeolimnology in Slovakia: Review and future directions

“…In the hilly region of the same area, an Alleröd open pine-birch forest surrounding the oligotrophic to mesotrophic lake was replaced by a broadleaved forest during the early Holocene and enriched in Fagus no later than 5,800 cal y BP. The natural forest succession was disrupted by two fire events in the area (Gálová et al 2016).…”

Birch Bog on Anthropogenically Transformed Raised Bogs. A Case Study from Pomerania (Poland)

“…Among the analyzed plots, ZB1-2 and N1 (61-74 species) are the richest in fungi species, and are located in former peat extraction pits. In turn, the SD1-2 plots not subject to human pressure turned out to be the least rich in fungi species (33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39). The contribution of peat mosses could be one of the factors restricting the number of fungi species on an undisturbed habitat, as it was here highest among all the analyzed plots.…”

Rich fen development in CE Europe, resilience to climate change and human impact over the last ca. 3500 years

“…The main objectives of this study are: i) to determine the influence of allogenic (climate change and human impact) and autogenic drivers of rich fen development over the late Holocene; ii) to identify the factors responsible for the spread of C. mariscus, presently one of the common plants on this peatland; iii) to define the variability in local vegetation development by using two parallel peat cores as replicates. This approach is rarely employed in palaeoecological studies, and mainly in ombrotrophic peatlands (Lamentowicz et al, 2011;Gálová et al, 2016;Gałka et al, 2016a), but it is crucial for the validation of paleoenvironmental interpretations, especially for testing the impact of recent climate change on local vegetation in different parts of peatlands (Charman et al, 1999). We hypothesise that i) the studied rich fen responded sensitively to both late Holocene climatic fluctuations and the intensification of human activity, including deforestation, fire and pollution, and ii) past climate variability of the late Holocene (warm and cold phases) significantly affected the range distribution and abundance of the population of C. mariscus at the study site.…”