Development of modern forest zones in the Beskid Niski Mts. and adjacent area (Western Carpathians) in the late Holocene: AÂ palaeobotanical perspective

The Beskid Niski Mts. and the foothill area of the Carpathians are under-represented in pollen data due to the unfavorable conditions for peat formation. This contribution is a review supplemented by new palaeobotanical data dedicated to the late Holocene history of local forests. Pollen, wood and other plant macrofossils as well as a new approach to isopollen mapping were used to reconstruct the migration of late-successional trees between ca. 3500 and 1900 BC. This time interval was define as a critical period in the development of the modern vegetation belts. We documented a quite late arrival of hornbeam, ca. 3500 BC, from the south and south east as well as optimal development of oak-lime-hornbeam forests forming the foothill belt between 2600 and 1600 BC. The migration of beech occurred ca. 3250-2750 BC and was followed by fir ca. 2800-2500 BC. Beech-fir forests already developed c. 2500 BC, and became common since ca. 1850 BC in the lower montane belt. On a regional scale, transformation of vegetation coincided with phases of climate moistening. The auxiliary role of the Corded Ware culture settlement, exploiting for the first time the upper landscape zone in the Carpathians, in the establishment of the new types of woodland, was indicated. Local differences in permanent deforestation of extensive areas were also analyzed. The beginning of this process in the lower landscape zone took place in the Roman Iron Age or in the Early Medieval time. In the upper landscape zone, it occurred in the Late Medieval or modern times, particularly as a result of the Wallachian colonization in the 15th and 16th century AD.