Spatial vegetation patterns based on palynological records in the loess area between the Dnieper and Odra Rivers during the last interglacial-glacial cycle

In the area under study, the common features of vegetation development were conditioned by a general trend of climatic changes during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. They overlapped with the vegetation changes, expressed by the eastward rising proportion of open landscape elements, which resulted from the increasing continentality of climate. The proportion of trees and shrubs in plant communities during interstadials was also influenced by the proximity of refuges occurring in the Carpathians and Sudetes, and the situation of the examined profiles in river valleys, which were also natural refuges. Other differences in vegetation composition between individual sites resulted from their different meso- and micro-palaeomorphologic situation.