Vegetation changes in the Hotyn Upland over the last 2000 years (based on pollen data)

Abstract

Pollen study of two soil sections, located in two different relief positions (the gully bottom at Sadgora 1 and the upper part of a slope at Ridkivtsi I) enables us to show vegetational and climatic changes in the Bukovyna area (the Chernivtsi region) during the last 2000 years (the end of the Early Subatlantic, the Middle and Late Subatlantic). The reconstructions of past vegetation are based on the analyses of pollen surface samples, taken from the soils of different ecotops in the sites’ vicinity. The reconstructed short-period phases of environmental change correspond well with those established in other areas. These are the end of the “Roman warm period” (before the 14C date of 1.74 ka BP), with the humid climate; the relatively dry “Dark Ages cool period” (before the 14C date of 1.19 ka BP); the wet “Medieval warm period”; the cool “Little Ice Age” (with its wetter beginning and drier ending) and the modern warm phase (the last 150 years).Centennial environmental changes − the cooling within the Medieval Warming (XI cent.) and the warming within the “Little Ice Age” (XV cent.) – have been detected. Human impact on the vegetation can be demonstrated – forest clearance (with the presence of particles of microscopic charcoal and pollen of pyrophitic plants), the introduction of thermophilous walnut during warm periods, and the appearance of pasture lands in the place of former fern patches and woods during the “Little Ice Age”, and the last warm phase (with the presence of pollen of pastoral synanthropic plants). In the last 2000 years, broad-leaved woodland, dominated by hornbeam, grew extensively near Sadgora and Ridkivtsi only during the “Medieval Warm Period”.