Holocene dynamics of the alpine timberline in the High Sudetes

The study focuses on the High Sudetes that represent the most distinctive islands of alpine forest-free area among hercynian mid-mountains of Central Europe. Based on data from newly taken cores and previously published pollen profiles, comparison of the development of the alpine timberline position is carried out. The first of the analysed pollen profiles — the Labsky důl core in the Krkonoše Mts spans the whole period of the Holocene, the Keprník and Mezikotlí profiles in the Hruby Jeseník Mts bring information from the Subboreal/older Subatlanticum turn to the present. An exceptional position of the Krkonoše Mts in terms of permanent presence of the alpine belt throughout the Holocene was confirmed. Three oscillations of the alpine timberline during the Lower Holocene were detected in the profile from the Labsky důl site. In the Hruby Jeseník Mts a temperature dependent forest-free area existed at least since Subboreal to the present.     

The evolution of Late-Glacial and Holocene vegetation in the vicinity of Světlá nad Sázavou (in the Western Forland of the Bohemian-Moravian Uplands)

Four profiles were sampled from three mires situated near the town of Světlá nad Sázvou in the western forland of the Bohemian-Moravian Uplands. The sites were studied pollen analytically. In one of the profiles macroscopic analyses were also carried out. The aim of the analyses performed was to provide data for reconstructing the vegetational evolution in the area under study. A survey of vegetation changes from the Late Glacial (Alleröd) up to the present was obtained. Special attention was devoted to the composition of original forest stands and to their changes due to the impact of man. The results were compared with the conclusions of the geobotanical reconstruction mapping, of forest-type mapping, of the biogeographical mapping, and of archives of forest records.