Chumak N. Palaeoenviroments in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains (the Gorgan region) during the Holocene (based on pollen data)

In the dissertation, the Late Glacial and Holocene environmental changes in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains (the Gorgan region) are reconstructed on the basis of pollen data. The methodology of palaeogeographical interpretation of fossil pollen data has been refined on the basis of the modern pollen rain observation. The Holocene short-period vegetational development stages have been derived from the pollen study of the peat-bogs "Pid Borom" and Pidluzhzhya, and alluvial deposits near the town Zhydachiv. These stages are as follows: the Older and Younger Dryas, the Allerod (three phases), the Preboreal and Boreal (two subperiods in each of them), the Atlantic and Subboreal (three subperiods in each of them), and the Subatlantic (three subperiods, consisiting of six phases). Succession of the main trees, as well as the time of their culmination, in the forest of the Gorgan region of the Carpathian Mountains has been determined during the Late Glacial and Holocene. On the basis of statistical and palaeofloristic methodologies apllied to pollen data, quantitative climatic characteristics (mean annual temperature, mean January and July temperature and annual precipitation) have been reconstructed for the Late Glacial and Holocene stages in the area studied. The natural pattern of climatic and vegetational changes in this area is shown, as well as the beginning and results of human impact on vegetational cover.