PAGES Poland

pollen

Palynological research

Poland is a region in Europe where buried palaeolake-lands, peats, coastal marine sediments, and fossil soils provide opportunities for the study of palaeovegetation and climatic changes during the Late Pliocene and Quaternary. In order to reconstruct environmental and climatic conditions, variability, and anthropogenic influence, research communities apply a wide range of traditional palaeontological methods (palaeobotanical and faunal) complemented by dendrological, isotopic, geochemical and sedimentological studies.

Phot. 1. Cichoriceae - Phot. 2. Arthemisia sp.

Climatic fluctuation and variation has been inferred from a great number of freshwater lake and marine sediments deposited during the Eemian Interglacial, the Late Glacial and the Holocene. Pollen data and radiocarbon dating obtained from numerous sites covering almost the whole country permitted the reconstruction of the distribution and immigration patterns of trees, shrubs, and selected herb taxa for 500-year time intervals during the Late Glacial and Holocene, using the isopollen method. Very thorough and high-resolution studies of the Holsteinian (MIS 11) lacustrine deposits from eastern Poland bear the unique character of the interglacial climatic optimum and confirm that eastern Poland is, and was, a transitional area between continental and maritime climatic influences.

Phot. 3. Alnus viridis - Phot. 4. Betula nana

The long continental pollen sequences from eastern and central Poland are excellent, unique archives of the palaeovegetation, palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental conditions that existed during the Early and early-Middle Pleistocene. The continuous and numerous profiles of this age readily qualify this part of Poland as a key area in Europe in resolving stratigraphical questions concerning stages older than MIS 11.


Hanna Winter, Wojciech Granoszewski