Mollusc successions reveal northward postglacial shifts of Alpine species ranges (Bohemian Massif, Czech Republic)

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110116
Author(s):  
Lucie Juřičková ◽  
Jakub Menšík ◽  
Jitka Horáčková ◽  
Vojen Ložek

The Alps are an important hotspot of species diversity and endemism, as well as a presumed glacial refugium of several species’ groups including land snails. The recent ranges of Alpine endemics are well known, but their fluctuations during the postglacial period mirroring local climate changes are understudied. By analysing five Late Glacial and Holocene mollusc successions from two areas in the southernmost part of the Bohemian Massif (Czech Republic) situated about 100 km north of the Alps, we reveal details of these fluctuations. The Alpine endemic rocky dweller Chilostoma achates had reached the southern part of the Bohemian Massif already in the Late Glacial and disappeared in the Mid-Holocene canopy forest optimum. On the contrary, the northern boundaries of Alpine canopy forest epigeic snails extended further north than today at the turn of the Middle and Late-Holocene, pointing to a more favourable forest microclimate. The earliest known occurrences of several temperate canopy forest central European species, especially Causa holosericea and Discus perspectivus, imply the role of different areas in the Alps as their glacial refugia.

2018 ◽  
Vol 465 ◽  
pp. 234-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Svoboda ◽  
Petr Pokorný ◽  
Ivan Horáček ◽  
Sandra Sázelová ◽  
Vojtěch Abraham ◽  
...  

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 905-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarosław Wilczyński ◽  
Maciej T Krajcarz ◽  
Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo ◽  
Witold Paweł Alexandrowicz ◽  
Barbara Miękina ◽  
...  

The study of past environments, their ecology, and detailed changes through time has become an important task of environmental science. Records of paleoenvironment usually vary between regions owing to different influences of local climate, vegetation, relief, and depositional processes. Therefore, studying local sequences thoroughly allows paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstructions for particular regions, but it also provides important data that complement the global record. The Żarska Cave is an exceptional site, which owing to its thick and undisturbed Holocene sediments with very rich paleobotanical and paleozoological materials has become the most complete example of the uppermost Upper Pleistocene and Holocene cave deposits in the Polish uplands. The aim of our study was to understand paleoenvironmental changes in southern Poland, from the late Glacial to the late Holocene, which has been targeted by use of a detailed geological analysis accompanied by analysis of a wide range of paleobotanical, paleozoological, and archeological assemblages. All the results obtained have permitted characterization of the paleoenvironmental changes occurring in the area of the Polish Jura during the last >15 ka years. A particularly well-represented sequence covers the Allerød interstadial, which revealed the presence of forests with associated shade-loving mollusks and rodents. The beginning of the Holocene was clearly identified with an increase of shaded forest habitats, which developed in a still relatively cold climate with continental features, and with the first appearance of mesophilous deciduous trees. During the middle Holocene, unusual evidence for maple forests is documented, which developed before the formation of beech forests, typical for the late Holocene. The obtained sequence has great significance not only for the Polish Jura region, but also has wider implications for southern Poland and the vast area of the northern Carpathian foreland.


1987 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Furrer ◽  
C. Burga ◽  
M. Gamper ◽  
H.-P. Holzhauser ◽  
M. Maisch

Abstract. A Statistical analysis of published and compilated snowline data for the late-glacial Stades of Gschnitz, Clavadel, Daun and Egesen is presented. The calculation of snowline and snowline-depression (compared to the extent of 1850) is based on the 2: 1 -equilibrium line method. The Interpretation does not show significant differences in snowline-depression between the Lower Engadin (Eastern Alps) and the Mont Blanc area (Western Alps). The larger deviations from the averages can be explained by the glacier individuality (morphology, topography of the ice surfaces) and the rarely considered variations ot the "constant" 2 :1-ration. Geographical patterns, which could imply changes in paleo-precipitation, cannot be found in the investigated area. The Quaternary Vegetation history provides evidence for climatic changes and timberline fluctuations which took place during the Late-Glacial and Holocene and also provides a framework for biostratigraphical results. During the Oldest Dryas a heliophile Artemisia-Chenopodiceae-Helianthemum- Thalictrum-Ephedra-Juniperus-Betula nana pioneer Vegetation covered the icefree areas in Switzerland. The oldest pollen spectra found in clay gyttja Sediments are dated between 13,000 and 14,000 y BP by the radiocarbon method. The development of the Swiss Central Alpine wood belt since the Late-Glacial is shown in Fig. 11. Postglacial alterations of the geomorphological activity in the Alps can be reconstructed by radiocarbon dating of fossil soils found in moraines. earth-flows and talus deposits. The results show that the geomorphological activity was very slow up to 4500 y BP; but the second part of the postglacial period was marked by often changing phases of activity and stability. Differing qualities of the evidence relating to glacial history and the absence of glacier advances within several periods of the Holocene make it impossible to reconstruct a complete curve of the glacier movements. With the aid of a graphical diagram which includes both evidence on glacier fluctuations and dendroclimatological analysis, it will be shown that the Alpine glaciers probably oscillated inside different "levels".


2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolína Lajblová ◽  
Petr Kraft

Abstract The earliest ostracods from the Bohemian Massif (Central European Variscides) have been recorded from the Middle Ordovician of the Prague Basin (Barrandian area), in the upper Klabava Formation, and became an abundant component of fossil assemblages in the overlying Šarka Formation. Both early ostracod associations consist of eight species in total, representing mainly eridostracans, palaeocopids, and binodicopids. The revision, description, or redescription of all species and their distribution in the basin is provided. Their diversification patterns and palaeogeographical relationships to ostracod assemblages from other regions are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Stansell ◽  
◽  
Donald T. Rodbell ◽  
Joseph M. Licciardi ◽  
Mark B. Abbott ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Lukáš Krmíček ◽  
Jaromír Ulrych ◽  
Emil Jelínek ◽  
Roman Skála ◽  
Simona Krmíčková ◽  
...  

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