•Positive effect of species mixing on stand production, diversity and tree growth.•Higher production potential of mixed stands compared to monospecifics.•Decreasing resilience of tree species to ...climatic extremes and air pollution with its increasing share.•Increasing radial growth of beech and spruce in mountain areas.•Higher ecological and economic benefits of mixture in conifer-broadleaved stands.
Mixed forests play a key role in terms of stability, production potential and adaptation to climate change. Norway spruce PA, Picea abies (L.) Karst and European beech (FS, Fagus sylvatica L.) are among the most important tree species in Europe. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of the species composition of these two tree genera on the production, structure, diversity and growth of mixed Fageto-Piceetum acidophilum stands in the Krkonoše Mountains, in the Czech Republic. The following 5 variants (ratios) of mixture were compared in 6 replications (30 research plots in total): PA 100%, PA 75:25 FS, PA 50:50 FS, PA 25:75 FS and FS 100%. Based on 178 tree core samples, the research also focused on the influence of climatic factors (temperature, precipitation) and air pollution (SO2, NOX, AOT40F) on the radial growth of these tree species of particular variants. Mixed forests showed a timber production higher by 7.7% (-10.8 to 31.5%) in comparison to spruce monocultures, and by 47.3% (21.9–79.7%) compared to beech monocultures. The largest production as well as the highest diameter increment were documented in PA 75:25 FS (656 m3 ha−1). In addition, this variant had the lowest extreme decreases/fluctuations in radial growth in both tree species. Over the last 50 years, the increment in beech increased by 7.9% and by 2.5% in spruce. The cyclical behavior in the radial growth of both tree species occurred in the short-term solar cycles of 9–11 and long-term periods of 50–75 years, while the spruce showed higher cyclic intensity. The concentration of both SO2 and NOX had a significant negative effect on the radial growth of spruce. In both tree species, the negative effect of air pollution lessened with their decreasing share in the stand. Similarly, precipitation and temperature had a more significant effect on the growth of monospecific variants in both tree species, especially in beech. Temperatures, when compared to precipitation, had a greater effect on the radial growth of both tree genera, especially during the vegetation period. In terms of diversity, mixed stands achieved significantly higher structural (diameter, height, crown) differentiation and overall diversity compared to monospecific variants. In general, mixed stands can achieve higher production potential, diversity and especially resistance to climate extremes and air pollution in relation to climate change in the water-sufficient highland and mountain areas of the Czech Republic. Differences between mixed stands vs. monocultures, i.e. the effect of tree species mixing, depend on suitable ratios of tree species and their spatial pattern.
A comprehensive palaeogeographic reconstruction of ice sheets and related proglacial lake systems for the older Saalian glaciation in northern central Europe is presented, which is based on the ...integration of palaeo-ice flow data, till provenance, facies analysis, geomorphology and new luminescence ages of ice-marginal deposits. Three major ice advances with different ice-advance directions and source areas are indicated by palaeo-ice flow directions and till provenance. The first ice advance was characterised by a southwards directed ice flow and a dominance of clasts derived from southern Sweden. The second ice advance was initially characterised by an ice flow towards the southwest. Clasts are mainly derived from southern and central Sweden. The latest stage in the study area (third ice advance) was characterised by ice streaming (Hondsrug ice stream) in the west and a re-advance in the east. Clasts of this stage are mainly derived from eastern Fennoscandia. Numerical ages for the first ice advance are sparse, but may indicate a correlation with MIS 8 or early MIS 6. New pIRIR290 luminescence ages of ice-marginal deposits attributed to the second ice advance range from 175 ± 10 to 156 ± 24 ka and correlate with MIS 6.
The ice sheets repeatedly blocked the main river-drainage pathways and led to the formation of extensive ice-dammed lakes. The formation of proglacial lakes was mainly controlled by ice-damming of river valleys and major bedrock spillways; therefore the lake levels and extends were very similar throughout the repeated ice advances. During deglaciation the lakes commonly increased in size and eventually drained successively towards the west and northwest into the Lower Rhine Embayment and the North Sea. Catastrophic lake-drainage events occurred when large overspill channels were suddenly opened. Ice-streaming at the end of the older Saalian glaciation was probably triggered by major lake-drainage events.
•Reconstruction of Middle Pleistocene ice advances in northern central Europe.•Integration of palaeo-ice flow data, till provenance and luminescence ages.•Extensive ice-dammed lakes were formed by the blocking of drainage pathways.•Successive catastrophic lake-drainage events occurred during deglaciation.
The Moravian Sahara dune field located in southeastern Czechia represents a unique aeolian system preserving the Late Glacial environment. Until now, the main focus has been concentrated on defining ...its multigenerational development and examining the environmental factors controlling its formation. However, current studies have failed to bring robust chronologies, so environmental and temporal comparisons with the main aeolian phases in Europe could not be made. Here, we present a study combining chronological and environmental interpretations. To do so, four boreholes were drilled to obtain the samples for optically stimulated luminescence, quartz grain morphoscopy and sediment maturity estimation. The results show that the Moravian Sahara dune field developed episodically between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Younger Dryas, with the peak occurring during the Oldest Dryas. Quartz grain analysis revealed that the phases of wind-blown sand deposition were short and that the dune sediments had three different sources. Furthermore, it appears that the katabatic winds propagated to the study area during the LGM and Late Pleniglacial and were replaced by westerlies since the Oldest Dryas. Finally, the chronology of aeolian activity in the study area shows that Moravian Sahara dune field development was antecedent to the European Sand Belt and shares more similarities with the landforms in the Carpathian Basin located further south.
•Moravian Sahara dunes formed between the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas.•Peak of the aeolian activity was during the Oldest Dryas.•Phases of aeolian activity resemble those of the Pannonian Basin.•Last Glacial Maximum katabatic wind propagated from Fennoscandian Ice Sheet.•Multiple wind-blown sand sources from fluvial and Neogene marine strata were traced.
This volume critically investigates how art historians writing about Central and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries engaged with periodization. At the heart of much ...of their writing lay the ideological project of nation-building. Hence discourses around periodization – such as the mythicizing of certain periods, the invention of historical continuity and the assertion of national specificity – contributed strongly to identity construction. Central to the book’s approach is a transnational exploration of how the art histories of the region not only interacted with established Western periodizations but also resonated and ‘entangled’ with each other. In their efforts to develop more sympathetic frameworks that refined, ignored or hybridized Western models, they sought to overcome the centre–periphery paradigm which equated distance from the centre with temporal belatedness and artistic backwardness. The book thus demonstrates that the concept of periodization is far from neutral or strictly descriptive, and that its use in art history needs to be reconsidered. Bringing together a broad range of scholars from different European institutions, the volume offers a unique new perspective on Central and Eastern European art historiography. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, historiography and European studies.
Most previous research found that within-family resemblance on social outcomes and intelligence is mostly due to genetic factors with a limited role of the shared environment, with the exception of ...educational attainment. Hypotheses about a gene-environment interaction with SES, with a presumably smaller role of genetic factors in families with low social status, have been only partially confirmed. However, these results do not necessarily generalize to all societies, and data from Central or Eastern European countries is currently deficient. In the current work we replicate using data from the Hungarian Twin Registry that intelligence, income, and educational attainment are substantially heritable, with limited role of the shared environment. In contrast to studies in Anglo-Saxon or Western European countries, we found an influence of the shared environment on standardized high school test scores, especially history. Both genetic and shared environmental (but not nonshared environmental) correlations were substantial, in line with generalist genes and shared environments but specific nonshared environmental effects. The results show that the heritability of social traits is observable in Central/Eastern Europe, but they highlight a potentially problematic aspect of Hungarian high school final tests, as students' family of origin appears to be a potent determinant of grades.
•Central/Eastern European societies are unique but sociogenomic studies are rare.•Twin study of intelligence, income, years in education and high school final exam grades•Intelligence, income, years education and mathematics grades substantially heritable•Shared environmental effects on finals grades in humanities
•Załęże Gully is the second known deposit of the chocolate flint in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland.•New deposit of the chocolate flint is characterized and its past availability evaluated.•The ...petrographic characteristics of the Załęże chocolate flint is presented.
One of the valued chert raw materials used by prehistoric communities in Central and Eastern Europe was chocolate flint. Despite finding artefacts made of it over a wide area, for many years, it was thought to occur only in one location - in the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. However, the discoveries of recent years have shown that deposits of this raw material also occur in another region of Poland, in the northern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland (KCU). The result of intensive field surveys conducted in this area is the finding of a new outcrop of chocolate flint in Załęże gully (Lesser Poland voivodeship) described in this paper. Based on the results obtained from the radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments co-occurring with the flint deposit, a history of the paleogeographic development of this gully has been proposed. Access to the deposit in its present form is limited to modern times, but it was likely accessible elsewhere in this area. Macroscopic and microscopic (using optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy) examinations showed a high similarity with the material of other KCU provenance from the prehistoric mine in Poręba Dzierżna, site 24. In the vicinity of Załęże gully there are many archaeological sites where chocolate flint artefacts were found. Preliminary research suggests that they could have been made from the raw material from the newly discovered outcrop. The new location of chocolate flint occurrence in the KCU region described here is another premise to re-think the existing interpretations related to the extraction, use and distribution of this important chert raw material in prehistoric times in Central and Eastern Europe.
PDF
