In order to reconstruct environmental changes in the Borzechowo mire, a sediment core was subjected to macrofossil and stratigraphic analyses. The mire is located in the eastern part of the Pomeranian Lakeland (Tuchola Forest, northern Poland). It is a limnogenic mire, formed as a result of terrestrialisation of a water body. The time of basal peat accumulation was estimated by radiocarbon dating as 9860±130 14C BP (Gd-12393) and by palynological analysis as Preboreal. The analysis of macrofossils shows that in that period, considerable hydrological changes took place in the study area. These hydrological changes were caused by melting of dead ice blocks that was common place in the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene.
The objective of the paleoecological studies undertaken in the "Klocie Ostrowieckie" reserve was mainly to reconstruct the subfossil mire vegetation at a local and regional scale. This article presents the results of palynological and plant macroremain analyses of this site, and belongs to the first published studies of such a type, made in the Drawieński National Park. Based on our studies, five phases in the history of the mire development were determined. The most pronounced feature of that history, was a decline of Cladietum marisci clearly concurrent with a strong yet puzzling expansion of pine stands occurring approximately 1000 years ago.
Białowieża in Poland is a very famous region in Europe (because of its primeval forest and bison population), but its environmental history is poorly known. This article shows the results of palynological analysis, macrofossil analysis and geological settings of two mires in the Białowieża Forest. The pollen diagrams show changes of the vegetation cover from the younger part of the Late Glacial until the present time. The relative time scale is based on palynostratigraphy and comparison to published results of other sites from the adjacent regions. During the Late Glacial two stages of the vegetation succession were revealed: steppe and forest during the Alleröd period and tundra-like vegetation during the Younger Dryas. The Holocene history consists of five stages of plant cover development. The special features of the Białowieża Forest are conditioned by two main factors: low degree of anthropogenic impact and influences of continental climate and boreal zone, stronger than in the other regions of Poland.