Upper Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental changes at the Zwierzyniec site, central Poland

Abstract

The pa per pres ents the data on an Eemian-Late Gla cial sed i men tary se quence from the Zwierzyniec site, cen tral Po land. A num ber of bore holes doc u ment one or two or ganic lay ers that oc cur be neath one or two ho ri zons of clayey and silty de pos its of ice-dammed lakes. This study dem on strates to which ex tent the Zwierzyniec site can con trib ute to a better un der stand ing of the palaeoenvironmental changes dur ing the Eemian-Vistulian time-frame in cen tral Po land. To study it, a multi-proxy approach was ap plied, in volv ing: palynological and plant macrofossil anal y sis, study of round ing of quartz grains and mor phology of their sur face, and in ves ti ga tions of sand min er al ogy and till pe trog ra phy. The re sults show that a till bed is over lain by a sandy se ries cor re spond ing to the gla cial-inter gla cial tran si tion. Ei ther one or two dis tinct peaks of or ganic ac cu mu la tion are ev i denced by peat ho ri zons. The lower ho ri zon re cords spec tra with ha zel and horn beam, and did, there fore, ac cu mu late in the Eemian. Ob served only in some bore holes, the up per peat ho ri zon marks the BrÝrup (or the lower part of the Rederstall stadial) rep re sented by for est-steppe con di tions with patchy mo sa ics of larch and fur ther tran si tion into sedges and her baceous taxa. Lo cal ized in be tween the two peat se quences, the sandy ho ri zon marks a long-last ing ae olian trans for ma tion with weath er ing by frost in the Early Vistulian. Again, sig nif i cant changes of the palaeoenvironmental re gime oc curred, and are man i fested in the one or two ho ri zons of the glaciolacustrine sed i ments. This cor re sponded to the last gla ci ation in the region, when the ice-dammed lakes formed dur ing the Main Stadial.

The loess section in Wąchock as the key site of Vistulian loesses and palaeosols in the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland)

“…Soil de vel op ment at that time was fa voured by a warm cli mate with con sid er able oce anic in flu ence (Marks et al, 2019) and dom i nance of for ests with Quercus and Corylus in the inter gla cial op ti mum (OErodoñ and Go³¹bowa, 1956;Jastrzêbska-Mame³ka, 1985). An im por tant part of this com plex is chernozemic, over lap ping the ear lier de pos ited loess, whose ac cu mu la tion was the con se quence of trends of cli mate aridification and cool ing from the end of the Eemian Inter gla cial (Kaliñska-Nartiša et al, 2016;Marks et al, 2019). This chernozemic soil is cor re lated (Jersak, 1973;Maruszczak, 1991;Jary, 2007) with the Brörup Interstadial (Gi/GJ1), which in the pol len sec tions of cen tral Po land is re corded as the first warm for est sta dium of the Vistulian (Mamakowa, 1989).…”

“…This chernozemic soil is cor re lated (Jersak, 1973;Maruszczak, 1991;Jary, 2007) with the Brörup Interstadial (Gi/GJ1), which in the pol len sec tions of cen tral Po land is re corded as the first warm for est sta dium of the Vistulian (Mamakowa, 1989). A succes sive cli mate change in the Early Vistulian (Weichselian) resulted in the ac cu mu la tion of a se quence of min eral and or ganic de pos its with a re cord of de for es ta tion and ex pan sion of tun dra veg e ta tion in nu mer ous sec tions of cen tral Po land (Jastrzêbska-Mame³ka, 1985;Granoszewski, 2003;Kaliñska-Nartiša et al, 2016;Marks et al, 2019). The above-pre served Low est Youn ger Loess (LMn) con tains two poorly de vel oped ho ri zons of gley tun dra soils in the lower part (Fig.…”

The Raunis section, central Latvia, revisited: first luminescence results and re-evaluation of a key Baltic States stratigraphic site

“…Sedimentary structures along with the shape and surface texture of quartz grains provide excellent information about their history and depositional environments (Alhazza et al 2019;Costa et al 2017;Kalińska-Nartiša et al 2016a, 2018Mahaney et al 2004;Woronko 2012;Miall 1985). In this section, samples are discussed according to their possible origin.…”

Microtextural Inheritance on Quartz Sand Grains from Pleistocene Periglacial Environments of the Mazovian Lowland, Central Poland

“…Glacial recession produced local ice‐dammed lakes, one of which was located in the Warsaw Basin (Figure A; see Kalińska‐Nartiša et al, ; Marks et al, ), morphologically the lowest unit of the Mazovian Lowland. The northern margins of the fan‐like forms border the vast, lower lying plains – Błonie and Wołomin – west and east of Warsaw, respectively (Figure A).…”