Studia Quaternaria

The assemblage of lacustrine ostracods found in the Eemian Interglacial sediments at Kruklanki (Masurian Lake District, northeastern Poland) contains 18 species belonging to 13 genera. The most dominant species are Candona neglecta Sars, 1887, Limnocytherina sanctipatricii (Brady et Robertson, 1869), Limnocythere inopinala (Baird, 1843) and Candona candida (O.F. Muller, 1776). Cyclocypris serena (Koch, 1838), llyocypris decipiens Masi, 1905, Pseudocandona insculpta (G.W. Muller, 1900) and Leucocythere mirabilis Kaufmann, 1892 are recorded for the first time from the Eemian of Poland; the latter two species are also new for the Eemian lacustrine deposits of Europe. The ecological requirements of the recognised ostracod species as well as their geographic ranges in the Quaternary of Europe are summarised. Based on these data, past habitat type is estimated as a deeper littoral of a lake with reasonably cold, well-oxygenated and calcium-rich waters. The present state of knowledge of the Eemian ostracods from Poland is reviewed and their comparison with the Eemian ostracod assemblages from Europe is briefly given. Comparison of the ostracod fauna! assemblage from Kruklanki with those from other Eemian sites in Poland enables to establish and describe one general type of ostracod assemblages characteristic for lacustrine littoral in this interglacial.

In this study we compared chydorid cladoceran (Chydoridae) taxa and assemblages from sediments of 6 Polish and 6 Finnish lakes and investigated if the difference in climate of these two countries can be detected in the cladoceran data. The data were analysed in terms of I) average relative proportions of chydorid taxa during the history of each lake and by 2) redundancy analysis (RDA) to explain the present effect of environmental variables (altitude, area, maximum depth, mean annual temperature, mean summer temperature and length of the growing season) on species abundances. The redundancy analysis (RDA) enabled us to distinguish groups of taxa I) with a high thermal preference 2) associated with small, cold-water lakes and 3) associated with shallow lakes. There are clear differences in the dominant chydorid taxa and in the relative proportions of many other chydorid taxa between the two countries since the end of the last glaciation. Although these differences first of all appear to reflect the climatic difference, the influence of many other environmental factors, controlling the living conditions of particular chydorids have been raised and considered. Further studies with larger data are needed before the role of climate can be reliably separated from other elements of environment.

Pollen grains of Apiaceae from the profile at Błędowo, Mazovia region, Central Poland were identified. Pollen of this family occurs in higher frequencies in the Late Glacial, the beginning of the Holocene and in the periods under strong human influence. Transfer of pollen of Apiaceae from plants to lake deposits is different for particular species and depends rather on insect activity during the season as well as on the activity of their predators and/or the oscillation of animal populations than the selectivity in insect feeding. Different environmental conditions around the sites, which result in various patterns of transfer agents can cause some difficulties in interpretation of vegetational changes inferred from pollen data.

Quaternary paleoclimatic signals from the Levant have been frequently correlated with the most widely used stratigraphic divisions of high latitudes. In this article, relevant data, underlying concepts and new information are critically reviewed to highlight sources of uncertainty. Comparison between four sites from the Bekaa Valley demonstrate the problem of correlations and paleoenvironmental diversity of the region.

The Reserve Dury, Tuchola Pinewoods, Poland, includes five depressions with no outflow filled up with biogenie sediments. They undergo terrestrialization processes to a high degree. In four of the basins there are still some open water areas surrounded by floating mire with raised and transitional bog plants. For the needs of protection service officers some palynological and geological research were carried out. All the geological cores were described in detail following the Troels-Smith system. The deepest core Dury I was selected for pollen analysis. Ten Local Pollen Assemblage Zones (L PAZ) show the history ofregional and local plant communities. On the basis of two air photographs, modem dynamics of floating mire in four basins were evaluated. The results allow us to correlate the geological layers, to describe the Late Glacial and Holocene succession of plant cover at Dury I site, and to show the stages of filling-in of basins with lacustrine sediments and peat.