Late glacial and Holocene vegetation history and climate oscillations – Preliminary pollen data from lake Boczne, NE Poland

Abstract

This study was based on pollen data collected at Lake Boczne, NE Poland, and radiocarbon dating. Vegetation changes at the end of the last glacial period (Late Weichselian, Late Vistulian) and the during Holocene were documented. Due to specific location in a climate temperate transitional, this region is an interesting area for palaeoecological study. Therefore, the aim of the article was to indicate stadial-interstadial changes, short-term climatic fluctuations and the impact of human activity, which will allow for more detailed analyses of selected sections in the near future.

The Late Glacial record suggests the presence of sedimentary gaps and contamination of sediments that make interpretations of this period difficult. During the Early and Middle Holocene, the reconstructed changes in plant communities and pollen production indicate the presence of six potential short-lasting negative climate events, including the Early and Late Peboreal Oscillations, the 9.3 ka event rarely identified in records, and the most often described 8.2 ka event. The pollen record and radiocarbon dates indicate a hiatus lasting around 2200 years at the Middle/Late Holocene transition (between ca. 5000 and 3000 cal yr PB), which may have been caused by 2.8 ka global cooling or by human activity. After this gap, the Late Holocene record of vegetation changes illustrates human activity dynamic starting from the Roman Period. Our study is important because it is extremely rare to document vegetation changes for several intra-Holocene climatic oscillations in one profile, and studies at sensitive site allow the assessment of vegetation responses to different-scale climatic anomalies.