Abstract
The paper presents the results of investigations concerning the accumulation processes, sediment composition, pollen and macroscopic analyses of sediments from the lakes Popradské pleso (1513 m) and Štrbské pleso (1345 m) in the High Tatra mountains, western Carpathians, Slovakia. While Popradské pleso is undoubtedly of glacial origin with silts in the Lateglacial layers and algal gyttja in the Holocene layers, Štrbské pleso or its greater part originated recently between the 16th and the beginning of the 18th centuries when the previous bog of Atlantic or early Subboreal age was flooded with water after the dispersed outflow from the bog depression was blocked. Our pollen and macrofossil analyses indicate mountain tundra in the Lateglacial and a continuous presence of coniferous forest with Picea abies with admixture of Pinus cembra, Larix decidua, Juniperus communis and Pinus cf. mugo in the uppermost elevations at the alpine forest limit since the very beginning of the Holocene. No noticeable oscillation of the forest line can be interpreted from our pollen analyses. It seems probable that its position was controlled by geomorphological and edaphic conditions rather than by the Holocene climatic changes. Spruce forests dominated at elevations between ca. 1000–1400 m during the whole Holocene.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the participation of several colleagues, who essentially contributed to the project. We want to thank first of all the staff of the Tatra National Park administration for the generous permission to core in the lakes. Then we thank B. Ammann and H. Wright who organized and participated in the field work; the first also managed all 14C datings. Pim van der Knaap carried out the laboratory treatment of all pollen samples and did good work when editing this manuscript. J. Valer and Z. Formánková assisted in data processing and construction of the pollen diagrams. G.M. Steiner obtained for us copies of the two oldest historical maps in the Austrian State Archives, Vienna. We are also indebted to the reviewers of the manuscript, H. H. Birks and M. Makohonienko, for their comments and improvements. The analytical work and compilation of the manuscript were supported by grants Nos. 206/96/0531 and 206/02/0568 from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic as well as by the Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences (fund No. AV-0-Z 60050516).
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Rybníčková, E., Rybníček, K. Pollen and macroscopic analyses of sediments from two lakes in the High Tatra mountains, Slovakia. Veget Hist Archaeobot 15, 345–356 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-006-0050-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-006-0050-1