Charcoal in alluvium of mountain streams in the bieszczady mountains (polish carpathians) as a carrier of information on the local palaeoenvironment

Abstract

Fragments of charcoal are present in floodplain alluvium of the San and Strwiaz rivers in the Polish part of the Bieszczady Mountains, Polish East Carpathians. They occur as single clasts or in lenses in the basal part of fine-grained alluvium, together with unburnt wood debris, or in the mid-dle part of the vertical sequence of the floodplain alluvium. 14 samples of charcoal from the upper courses of the San (ca. 50 km) and the Strwiaz (ca. 10 km) were dated with radiocarbon. The ob-tained dates fall mainly in the 15th through 19th century interval; only one sample is markedly older (9th-10th century). Taxonomic composition of the charcoal source wood was also studied and com-pared with that of coeval forests. Correlation of the charcoal age with the history of economic devel-opment of the studied region indicates that charcoal is of anthropogenic origin: older charcoal from intense slash-and-burn deforestation, while younger charcoal was produced by local industries. © 2013 Silesian University of Technology.