Small peatland with a big story: 600-year paleoecological and historical data from a kettle-hole peatland in Western Russia

Abstract

Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numerous consequences arise from these processes, the most important of which are physical and chemical denudation in the catchment and the related hydrological disturbances in the catchment and peatland. The present study determined how human activities and the past climatic variability mutually influenced the development of a small peatland ecosystem. The main goals of the study were: (1) to trace the local changes of the peatland history over the past 600 years, (2) to investigate their relationship with changes in regional hydroclimate patterns, and (3) to estimate the sensitivity of a small peatland to natural and human impact. Our reconstructions were based on a multiproxy analysis, including the analysis of pollen, macrofossils, Chironomidae, Cladocera, and testate amoebae. Our results showed that, depending on the changes in water level, the history of peatland can be divided into three phases as follows: 1/the phase of stable natural conditions, 2/phase of weak changes, and 3/phase of significant changes in the catchment. Additionally, to better understand the importance of the size of catchment and the size of the depositional basin in the evolution of the studied peatland ecosystem, we compared data from two peatlands – large and small – located close to each other. The results of our study indicated that “size matters,” and that larger peatlands are much more resilient and resistant to rapid changes occurring in the direct catchment due to human activities, whereas small peatlands are more sensitive and perfect as archives of environmental changes.

Natural and anthropogenic factors affecting intense slope processes in Eastern Europe during the Modern Period: Serteyka river valley, Russia

“…At this time, a high water level in the Serteya Mire is recorded. In addition, the LIA was characterised by a cool and humid climate (Mroczkowska et al, 2021), which corresponds well to the results presented in this paper. In the period between 1650 and 1700 AD, the beginning of the 'extreme phase of the flood' took place in the area, which correlates with the age of overbank alluvial deposition in the Serteyka River Valley.…”

A novel multiproxy approach to detect the impact of charcoal production on the natural environment in NW Poland – project concept and preliminary results

“…This type of multidisciplinary research has not been undertaken before and in particular the effect of CHRs-and thus human activity -on the transformation of forest ecosystems in the period has been underestimated to date. Disturbances can alter the existing structure and function of an ecosystem, as well as cause changes in neighboring ecosystems through cascading effects (Kulakowski et al, 2011;Lamentowicz et al, 2019;Mroczkowska et al, 2021). Some disturbances can be beneficial to the ecosystems in rare cases when the right balance is achieved between the disturbance and the ecosystem's sustainability (Keane et al, 2002;Kershaw & Mallik, 2013;Dearing et al, 2015).…”

“…We will use the archives such as peat, gyttja and soils. Only by performing results of paleoecological and geochemical analyses, one may study and reconstruct the past events and attempt to interpret the causes and effects recorded in the cores and soil profiles (Lamentowicz et al, 2019;Kittel et al, 2020;Kruczkowska et al, 2021;Łuców et al, 2021;Mroczkowska et al, 2021). A great advantage is working in an area that has a wealth of historical archives from maps to church sources, and information on tax and ownership.…”

Multidimensional tracking and consequences of the usage of forest products in Early Modern Poland

“…Human activity associated with the acquisition of material for construction and land for cultivation may also lead to deforestation (Dietze et al 2019;Słowiński et al 2019). These mechanisms have occurred alternately in the long postglacial history of vegetation in the European Lowlands and are crucial not only because a large portion of forest is lost but also because they have led to new processes, such as increased physical and chemical denudation, i.e., intensi cation of slope processes, changes in meso-climatic and microclimatic conditions, and modi cation of surface runoff (Dietze et A high-resolution analysis can be performed on biogenic cores (peat and lake sediments), as these are natural archives providing information on how ecosystems responded to changes in land use, deforestation, or drainage (Bonk et al 2022;Łuców et al 2020;Mroczkowska et al 2021;Słowiński et al 2018). Additionally, they can indicate the duration of these changes, and also explain whether these changes were related to natural phenomena or human activity that transformed the forest areas into cultivation elds (Czerwiński et al 2021;Słowiński et al 2021).…”