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The history of a Pannonian oak woodland – palaeoecological evidence from south-eastern Slovakia

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Abstract

The history and continuity of lowland woodlands in Central Europe is closely connected with human activities. We studied a small wetland situated directly in a low-elevation oak-dominated woodland to evaluate the history and impact of humans on an oak woodland in south-eastern Slovakia. We used different proxies to obtain evidence of woodland history spanning at least 8,500 years. Pollen, diatom and physical analysis, including micromorphology, were used to study infill sediments and to determine the processes causing the influx of material into the wetland basin from its surroundings. The oak-dominated woodland community occurred throughout the Holocene, but its detailed history is impossible to trace because of reverse chronology caused by mixing of deposits. The stability of the oak woodland was determined by anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing. These disturbances are indicated by pollen taxa, signals of soil erosion in the deposits, and local development of the wetland that acted as drinking and hemp retting basin. The recent decline of human pressure has led to gradual changes in the species composition of the wetland itself (shrub encroachment) and of understory of the surrounding oak woodlands.

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Acknowledgements

Our research was supported by the grant projects GA17-05696S of the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), VEGA 1/0477/11, APPV-14-0550, and the long-term research development project of the Botanical Institute AVSR RVO 67985939. Many thanks to Ivan Jarolímek and Milan Valachovič for kindly providing vegetation data and Leona Chadimová for measuring magnetic susceptibility. We also thank Petra Hájková and Michal Hájek for their comments, Lydie Dudová, Slavo Rezník and Standa Němejc for help with field work and Ladislav Olexa and Tomáš Nováček for their kind support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-61137, Brno, Czechia

    Libor Petr, Barbora Chattová & Eva Jamrichová

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-61137, Brno, Czechia

    Jan Petřík

  3. Laboratory of Palaeoecology, Institute of Botany ASCR, Lidická 25/27, CZ-602 00, Brno, Czechia

    Eva Jamrichová

  4. Institute of Geology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojová 269, Prague 6, CZ-16500, Czechia

    Jan Rohovec & Šárka Matoušková

  5. Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, SK-94974, Nitra, Slovakia

    Mária Hajnalová

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  1. Libor Petr
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Correspondence to Libor Petr.

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Petr, L., Petřík, J., Chattová, B. et al. The history of a Pannonian oak woodland – palaeoecological evidence from south-eastern Slovakia. Folia Geobot 55, 29–40 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-019-09360-5

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