Studia Quaternaria

A new investigation and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the locss-palaeosol sequence at Prymorskc, SW Ukraine is presented using soil structures, grain size, mineral magnetics, organic carbon and calcium carbonate determinations. Six units of the established Ukraine Quaternary stratigraphical scheme have been identified and analysed above and including the Zavadivka (Holsteinian) marker horizon - Dnieper, Kaidaky, Tiasmyn, Pryluky and Udai. Precipitation and temperature are tentatively reconstructed from soil and sedimentary proxies calibrated by modern analogues. Increased temperatures and precipitation to today are inferred for the red-brown Zavadivka palaeosol. Overlying Zavadivka is the Dnieper loess containing a gley and two chernozcms above, possibly representing climatic variations of the Saalian Glaciation. The calcified chernozem Kaidaky is separated by a thin loess from the brown/ chestnut Pryluky palaeosol (Eemian) which has features indicating drier conditions to the present. Non-gleyed palaeosols exhibit an enhanced magnetic susceptibility (MS) signal relative to the less weathered loess and highlights the palaeoclimatic potential of the technique. The most well developed palaeosol from this study has the highest MS value (Zavadivka: 80-1 o·8 SJ units) but this relationship is not always found in the Black Sea region. Previous MS analyses at Prymorske (Nawrocki et al. 1999) report significantly higher values to those of this study. Consequently the MS curve at Prymorske cannot be used with confidence for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and inter-regional correlation without further investigation and modern analogue study.

This paper presents the results of palaeobotanical studies (pollen and plant macrofossil analyses) of the sediments from the profile Michałowo P-3 (Gródek-Michałowo Depression, NE Poland). At this profile the second bed of peat under Holocene peat and the layer of silts and sands was discovered. The pollen succession indicates that they were deposited, with some gaps, from the beginning of Eernian Interglacial to Early Vistulian. The local pollen zones, distinguished in the pollen diagram, correlate with the regional pollen stratigraphy of the Eemian Interglacial, but the pollen record of hornbeam (ES R PAZ) and spruce (E6 R PAZ) regional zones is absent in Michałowo. In the middle part of the Michałowo pine zone (Mi-5 Pinus L PAZ), a cool oscillation of climate is marked by an opening of forests and development of herb plant communities.

The Tarnawce I profile, which occurs in the marginal eastern part of the Polish Westem Carpathians, contains loesses representing three last glacial cycles. In this paper we report the results of pollen analysis of the Eemian-Early Glacial pedocomplex and of the Lower plcni-Visrulian loesses with an interstadiał paleosol. The pollen spectra of22 samples were determined. The pollen diagram was divided into 7 local pollen assemblage zones (L PAZ). Interglacial climatic optimum was recorded with the Eemian type of vegetation in the T-4 zone. The coldest conditions occurred during the accumulation of loess, which separates the interglacial and interstadiał soils.

The paleoecological research of biogenie sediments sampled in the different lake-mire ecosystems of the ŁęcznaWłodawa Lake District were the basis of studies on hydrological changes during the Late Glacial and Holocene. The lithological differentiation (spatial and temporal) of lacustrine and mire sediments in the studied sites indicates that the hydrological changes were of local nature. The investigations also evidence a specific functioning of the lakes in this region. Lake basins were formed as a result of the ground ice degradation and the transformation of groundwater circulation in the Late Glacial. The total area of lakes in the Lake District was the largest from the Younger Dryas to the Subboreal chronozone. The gradual lowering ofwater level during the early Holocene resulted in the transformation of sedimentation process, and in the development of typologically differentiated mires and lacustrinc-mire complexes

Cladocera are a group of water animals, which are strongly dependent on environmental conditions. The ratio of planktonie to littoral Cladocera species is a widely used tool in palaeohydrological reconstruction of lakes' water level changes. Interpretation of this ratio is still unclear and requires further evidence. The simplest indicator of water level, which can be used in tracing lake-peat bog transitions, is the presence or absence of Cladocera and the character of its disappearance. In general, two models of Cladocera decline are observed. The first model is characterized by a very abrupt disappearance of all species, whereas the second one. with an intermediate stage, is characterized by domination of specific species. These two models are related to different types of terminal history of the water body. Even after a total disappearance of water in the peat bogs, there were episodes of some pioneer cladoceran species presence, correlated with periods of humid climate.

Report from the workshop on "Hydrological changes of the Polish Lowland in the light of palaeolimnological research", Biskupin 16-18 May 2002