Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

Anthropogenic causes of wetland loss and degradation in the lower Kłodnica valley (southern Poland)

100%

Wójcicki K. J., Woskowicz-Ślęzak B.

Environmental & Socio-economic Studies

2015

vol. 3

issue 4

20-29

Loss and degradation of wetlands is now one of the most important environmental issues on a global scale. Previous research based on analyses of cartographic materials allow for quantification of changes in wetland area in recent centuries. The results of lithological research of peat cores, reported in this publication, have established that the processes of anthropogenic loss of wetlands can be much older and in the Kłodnica valley were initiated in the first millennium BC. As a result of increased mineral sedimentation accompanying soil erosion some peatlands have been fossilized whilst the area of others has been reduced. In total, the surface area of peat-forming wetlands in the bottom of the Kłodnica valley decreased by over 60% between the time of the Lusatian Culture settlement and the Middle Ages. Post-peatland habitats are recently used for agricultural or colonized by non-peat forming vegetation. These processes have played a more important role in the degradation of peatland ecosystems than the direct human impact in historic times. Changes in hydrographic networks, land drainage and regulation of water levels in rivers and canals in the last century have contributed to further reducing the wetland areas by almost 50% compared to the 1880s. These processes, however, have mainly affected ephemeral non-peat forming wetlands.

Makroszczątki roślinne w torfie w analizie paleośrodowiskowych uwarunkowań osadnictwa na przykładzie stanowiska Łane Małe w dolinie Kłodnicy

100%

Wójcicki K. J., Kloss M.

Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae

2008

vol. 6

issue 1

449-460

Results of archaeological studies from the territory of Poland show that prehistorical settlements were often founded on the banks of lakes and mires. Botanical composition of organic deposits allows reconstructing historical plant communities and palaeohydrological conditions of the settlement, the subject of research was a peatland situated in the neighborhood of the archaeological site at Łany Małe. The latter is located on hillslopes of the Kłodnica valley (Upper Silesia, southern Poland). Peat formation at the Łany Małe site took place in the Pre-Boreal Period as an effect of the valley floor paludification. In the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods as well as the Early Bronze Age, swampy alder forests occupied the entire area of the peatland. At that time, the fen surface was relatively easily accessible for humans, especially for people of the Funnel Beaker Culture in the Middle Neolithic Period. It was then when, probably, the ground water level dropped down and peat decay processes took over those of peat production. In the Hallstatt Period, during the presence of the Lusatian Culture settlement, there was subsequent increase in biotope moisture. Forest communities became more open and trees were gradually displaced by grasslike plants, especially of sedge (Carex) genus. In the Fate Roman Period (the Przeworsk Culture settlement) and in the early Middle Ages, the peatland was subject to inundation due to frequent flooding, the peat accumulation was then halted by the delivery of fine-grained products of soil erosion.

Refine search results

1 Environmental & Socio-economic Studies

1 Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae

2 Wójcicki K. J.

1 Kloss M.

1 Woskowicz-Ślęzak B.

1 2015

1 2008

Search results

Anthropogenic causes of wetland loss and degradation in the lower Kłodnica valley (southern Poland)

Makroszczątki roślinne w torfie w analizie paleośrodowiskowych uwarunkowań osadnictwa na przykładzie stanowiska Łane Małe w dolinie Kłodnicy