Synantropijne stanowisko Erysimum wittmannii Zaw. (Brassicaceae) w BeSkidzie Sądeckim

A new local population of a Carpathian endemic plant species, Erysimum wittmannii, was found in Szczawnica in concrete-filled crevices between large stones on a steep slope falling to the Dunajec River, slightly downstream from the stream Grajcarek, when walking from Krościenko. This is certainly its largest, although anthropogenic, local population in the Polish Carpathians. On 14 July 2020, it included 45 fruiting individuals and two flowering ones.

Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Channel Patterns of Polish Carpathians Rivers from the Galicia and Bucovina Map (1861–1864)

Historical maps are often the only source of information allowing for the regional reconstructions of river channel patterns in the past. In the Polish Carpathians, analyses of historical channel patterns were performed mostly in river reaches scale. In this paper, the Galicia and Bucovina map (1861–1864) (the Second military survey of the Habsburg Empire) was used to reconstruct and map the historical channel patterns of seven rivers from the Polish Carpathians. It was found that, in the nineteenth century, rivers in the western part of the study area (Soła, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec) supported a multi-thread channel pattern, whereas rivers in the eastern part (Wisłoka, San, Wisłok) present a mostly single-thread channel pattern. These differences probably result from the higher relief energy and precipitation, lower proportions of forests in the catchments, and more frequent floods favouring high sediment supply to the fluvial system, and thus the formation of multi-thread reaches in the western part of the study area. At the local scale, the most important factor supporting multi-thread channel pattern development was the availability of gravel sediments in the wide valley floor sections. The formation of anabranching reaches with a single mid-channel form was probably associated with the channel avulsion process. There is no clear evidence linking the change in the channel pattern type with an abrupt change in the river channel slope. This study confirms the usefulness of the second military survey map of the Habsburg Empire for the regional reconstruction of river channel pattern types.

Drought Trends in the Polish Carpathian Mts in the Years 1991–2020

Mountains are highly sensitive to the effects of climate change, including extreme short- and long-term weather phenomena. Therefore, in spite of relatively high annual precipitation totals, mountains might become endangered by droughts. The paper presents drought trends in the Polish Carpathians located in Central Europe. Data from the period 1991–2020 from 12 meteorological stations located in various vertical climate zones of the mountains were used to define drought conditions using the following indices: Standardized Precipitation (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration (SPEI), Relative Precipitation (RPI) and Sielianinov. Additionally, four forest drought indices were used in order to estimate the impact of drought on beech as a typical Carpathian tree species, i.e., the Ellenberg (EQ), Forestry Aridity (FAI), Mayr Tetratherm (MT) and De Martonne Aridity (AI) indices. Statistically significant but weak trends were obtained for the 6-month SPI for four stations (indicating an increase in seasonal to mid-term precipitation), for the 1-month SPEI for three stations, for the 3-month SPEI for four stations, and for MT for all stations (indicating an increase in drought intensity). The analysis of dry month frequency according to particular indices shows that at most of the stations during the last decade of the study period, the frequency of dry months was much higher than in previous decades, especially in the cold half-year. Two zones of the Polish Carpathians are the most prone to drought occurrence: the peak zone due to the shift in climatic vertical zones triggered by the air temperature increase, and the forelands and foothills, together with basins located about 200–400 m a.s.l., where the mean annual air temperature is the highest in all the vertical profile, the annual sums of precipitation are very diversified, and the conditions for beech are already unfavorable.