Krzywopłoty – Late Glacial and Holocene Mire in the Bydlin Area (Częstochowa Upland)

Abstract

Macroscopic and laboratory tests of over 4-metre-thick organic deposits of Krzywopłoty profile (gyttjas and peat) allowed the authors to identify the development of the peatland as having four phases, each transition being associated with fluctuations in water level. Sediments from a depth of 3.75–0.65 m were also included in palynological testing. Seven local pollen assemblage zones show a continuous transformation in the plant landscape and surroundings of the site between the end of the Vistulian and the Holocene. Pollen data indicates a change of vegetation, from open communities of herbaceous plants and loose pine-birch communities in the Younger Dryas, then dense pine forests in the Preboreal chronozone, and finally multispecies forests in the Atlantic and Subboreal chronozones.