Formation, succession and landscape history of Central-European summit raised bogs: A multiproxy study from the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains

• DOI: 10.1177/0959683612455540
• Publication Date: 2012-08-08T05:00:41Z
• Authors: Lydie Dudová; Petra Hájková; Hana Buchtová; Vĕra Opravilová
• Keywords: Ombrotrophic; Testate amoebae; Macrofossil; Mire

Central-European raised bogs, developed on mountain summits, are specific ecosystems of high conservation importance, but their history remains largely unknown. Pollen, macrofossils, testate amoebae and peat characteristics were analysed in a sequence the Vozka bog (Hrubý Jeseník Mountains, Eastern Sudetes, Czech Republic). Past water chemistry water-table depths reconstructed by transfer functions calibrated from recent amoeba data long-term environmental averages. Peat initiation started middle Holocene (approximately 4200 bc) process paludification, resembling development Atlantic blanket bogs. Around 100 bc vegetation changed Eriophorum vaginatum-poor fen to ombrotrophic-bog similar situation. A hiatus was revealed between ad 1320 1954. It can be explained either human activities, or an extreme drought causing decomposition previously accumulated peat. Local independent landscape inferred pollen records. In Holocene, mixed spruce-elm-hazel woodland recorded close treeline. During 2400–800 gradual transition spruce-fir woodlands with admixture beech took place, approximately 800 spruce fir became dominant. The major impact 1230 connected settlement mining foothills.