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Studia Quaternaria
Volume 26 (2009)

Abstract
History of the Białowieża Primeval Forest, NE Poland

Krystyna Milecka 1, Agnieszka M. Noryśkiewicz 2 and Grzegorz Kowalewski 1

1Department of Biogeography and Palaeoecology, A. Mickiewicz University, Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań, Poland; e-mail: milecka@amu.edu.pl; ichtys@amu.edu.pl

2Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48, 87-100 Toruń, Poland; e-mail: anorys@uni.torun.pl

Abstract      

Białowieża in Poland is a very famous region in Europe (because of its primeval forest and bison population), but its environmental history is poorly known. This article shows the results of palynological analysis, macrofossil analysis and geological settings of two mires in the Białowieża Forest. The pollen diagrams show changes of the vegetation cover from the younger part of the Late Glacial until the present time. The relative time scale is based on palynostratigraphy and comparison to published results of other sites from the adjacent regions. During the Late Glacial two stages of the vegetation succession were revealed: steppe and forest during the Alleröd period and tundra-like vegetation during the Younger Dryas. The Holocene history consists of five stages of plant cover development. The special features of the Białowieża Forest are conditioned by two main factors: low degree of anthropogenic impact and influences of continental climate and boreal zone, stronger than in the other regions of Poland.

 


Editors

Editor-in-Chief: Tomasz Goslar
Co-Editors: Małgorzata Latałowa
Wojciech Stankowski
Krystyna Szeroczyńska
Secretary
Mariusz Lamentowicz