Reconstruction of hydrological changes over the last 4000 years in the Puścizna Wielka bog (Southern Poland) based on testate amoebae
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The Puścizna Wielka bog is situated in the Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin, surrounded by the Western Carpathians. It is a large raised bog (area over 480 ha, peat thickness up to 10 m) and represents an excellent peat archive of Holocene hydrological changes and climate variability in central Europe. We have collected a 6.3 m long peat sequence from the intact part of the bog. Here, we present preliminary results of testate amoeba subfossil record from the upper 4 m long sequence. Depth to the water table and water pH were reconstructed using an unpublished training dataset from central European peatlands. Our results show that before the 14th century the hydrology was rather stable with moderately wet surface conditions and the dominance of wet indicator species Archerella flavum and Hyalosphenia papilio. We recorded a distinct and short-time wet shift around 1440 AD, corresponding with the onset of the Little Ice Age. Since the mid-16th century, the water table has been gradually decreasing as suggested by the dominance of drought indicator species (e.g. Difflugia pulex, Heleopera sylvatica, Nebela militaris and Trinema lineare). The cause of the water table decrease is unclear because it is difficult to distinguish between climatically and anthropogenically driven changes of the bog hydrology in this development phase. Our preliminary results are in good agreement with other reconstructions derived from bog sequences in the Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin and central Europe. We acknowledge the support of grant no. 17-05696S from the Czech Science Foundation. |
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