Climatic Fluctuations Reflected in Slope and Fluvial Systems of Polish Carpathians and their Foreland During Upper Quaternary

• Published in: Studia Geomorphologica Carpatho-Balcanica
• Main Author: Starkel, Leszek
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2015
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sgcb-2015-0009; https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sgcb.2016.49.issue-1/sgcb-2015-0009/sgcb-2015-0009.pdf

Abstract On continents, besides lake and bogs, we observe non-continuous sedimentation where particular layers or whole members represent time intervals of various lengths separated by breaks of different origin. Both, fluvial and slope sediments or forms carry climatic signal. By analyzing sources of sediments, factors of transfer, duration of deposition we reconstruct climatic changes (mainly temperature, precipitations and circulation of water). We order the collected records after age and tracing longitudinal profiles of slopes and river valleys. The slopes and valley floors inform us about spatial differentiation of extreme climatic-hydrological events and on their reflection in degradation or aggradation. All this information sums up the records collected in various projects or commissions like IGCP-158 and GLOCOPH (Starkel ed. 1982–1996; Starkel et al. 2007), Climatostratigraphy of the Holocene of Polish territory (Starkel et al. 2013) as well INTIMATE (Starkel et al. 2015; Gębica et al. 2015). It may be concluded that fluctuations in temperature combined with expansion of permafrost were the leading factors in transformation of landscape of analyzed area of Southern Poland during last cold stage, which is in contrary to the Holocene, when variations in humidity especially in frequency of extreme events played a leading role. The continental records very well express the role of transitional phases.