A new paleobotanical method for the description of Late Quaternary organic sediments (Mire-development pathways and paleoclimatic records from S Hungary)

A new quantitative paleobotanical method for the description of Quaternary organic sediments is presented. The Peat Component System, with the paleobotanical description of macroscopic organic material, allowed us to reconstruct the hydroseral succession. The modified "semi-quantitative quadrate and leaf-count macrofossil analysis technique" (QLCMA) was used to quantify the peat components. This quantitative plant macrofossil technique, together with pollen, mollusk, and radiocarbon analyses, was used to reconstruct the postglacial mire development of an eutrophic peat bog in S Hungary. The analysis of the Holocene peat sequence was used to reconstruct the development of a filling-up spillstream of the river Danube. Multiple cores made it possible to reconstruct vegetation development in space and time.