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The Full-Glacial Forests of Central and Southeastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Katherine J. Willis ,
Edina Rudner  and
Pal Sümegi
Katherine J. Willis
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB, United Kingdom
Edina Rudner
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy and Geology, Kossuth Lajos University, P.O. Box 4, Debrecen, H-4010, Hungary
Pal Sümegi
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy and Geology, Kossuth Lajos University, P.O. Box 4, Debrecen, H-4010, Hungary
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Abstract

The presence of trees in central and southern Europe during the last full-glaciation has long been a matter of debate. A low but persistent presence of fossil tree pollen in central and southern European full-glacial paleoecological sequences has been interpreted either as representing long-distance pollen transport from southerly refuges or as representing in situ refugial populations. Here we present macroscopic charcoal results from 31 sequences located throughout Hungary that provide unequivocal evidence for the presence of at least seven different tree types between approximately 32,500 and 16,500 14C yr B.P. This evidence is presented in conjunction with molluscan and pollen analyses to indicate that during the last full-glaciation, trees grew as far north as Hungary, probably in microenvironmentally favorable sites. These areas provided an important cold-stage refugium for the European flora and fauna.

Keywords

full-glacial forestscentral Europecharcoal analysismolluscan analysispollen analysispaleoecology
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , March 2000 , pp. 203 - 213
Copyright
University of Washington

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