Holocene history and environmental reconstruction of a Hercynian mire and surrounding mountain landscape based on multiple proxies

0431752 - BÚ 2015 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Dudová, Lydie - Hájková, Petra - Opravilová, V. - Hájek, Michal
Holocene history and environmental reconstruction of a Hercynian mire and surrounding mountain landscape based on multiple proxies.
Quaternary Research. Roč. 82, č. 1 (2014), s. 107-120. ISSN 0033-5894. E-ISSN 1096-0287
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/08/0389
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : fen-bog transition * transfer functions * macrofossil and pollen analysis
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 2.544, year: 2014

We discovered the first peat section covering the entire Holocene in the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains. We analysed pollen, plant macrofossils (more abundant in bottom layers), testate amoebae (more abundant in upper layers), peat stratigraphy and chemistry. The mire started to develop as a calcium-rich percolation fen with some species recently considered to be postglacial relicts (Meesia triquetra, Betula nana), shifted into ombrotrophy around 7450 cal yr BP by autogenic succession and changed into a pauperised, nutrient-enriched spruce woodland due to modern forestry activities. Further, we found that the landscape development differed from other Hercynian mountains located westward. This is represented by Pinus cembra and Larix during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, the early expansion of spruce around 10,450 cal yr BP, and survival of Larix during the climatic optimum. From a methodological viewpoint we demonstrated how using multiple biotic proxies and extensive training sets in transfer functions may overcome taphonomic problems.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0236319