Dominika Łuców

Polish Academy of Sciences | PAN · Stanisław Leszczycki Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization

Although in situ wood thermal processing, as a common practice in European forests in historical times, has been confirmed in many studies, the environmental implications of that process remain poorly explored. In this study, we focused on evaluating the impact of that process on forest vegetation and soil cover heterogeneity in a fluvioglacial lan...

Combining different diverse data on human and environmental history during the Anthropocene is an extremely challenging task, particularly, if one wants to compare written or cartographic data with a whole range of environmental data recorded for more than the past 200–300 years. In this article, our objective was to demonstrate that one of the key...

The vast areas of permafrost peatlands in the West Siberian Lowland (WSL) hold a significant amount of carbon currently at risk due to human-caused global warming. The rapid thawing of about 20-60% of the frozen soils of Western Siberia adds to the destruction of the region's signature palsa landscape and the development of thermokarst lakes or fen...

Duże kontynentalne torfowiska ombrotroficzne w Europie Wschodniej, takie jak torfowisko Gorodziecky Moch, są unikatowym archiwum informacji o regionalnych zmianach środowiska, dlatego są ważnym źródłem rekonstrukcji warunków klimatycznych w przeszłości. Pomimo wielu badań paleoekologicznych, w dalszym ciągu (jednak) niewiele wiemy na temat aktywnoś...

The large continental ombrotrophic peatlands in Eastern Europe are a unique archive of high-quality information about past hydrological dynamics (including long-term droughts) and fire activity. Still, paleoecological reconstructions based on testate amoebae and charcoal analyses for the Holocene are poorly documented. It remains unclear how large...

Minimalizowanie skutków zmian klimatu wskazuje na potrzebę ochrony torfowisk, a także przywracanie zaburzonym i zdegradowanym ekosystemom odpowiednich warunków hydrologicznych, które zapewnią zdolności akumulacji węgla. Z tej perspektywy istotne jest poznanie nie tylko ich aktualnego stanu, ale także ich przeszłości. Dlatego głównym celem było doko...

Agriculture has been the major driver of deforestation in Europe in the last 1000 years. In the past, forests were also exploited for charcoal production; however, the spatial scale/extent of this activity and its impact are unknown. LIDAR data can be used as a noninvasive tool to investigate the small-scale diversity of the land relief, including...

Fires are natural phenomena that impact human behaviors, vegetation, and landscape functions. However, the long-term history of fire, especially in the permafrost marginal zone of Central Asia (Mongolia), is poorly understood. This paper presents the results of radiocarbon and short-lived radionuclides (²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs) dating, pollen, geochemical,...

As one of the worlds' most important carbon stocks, peatlands must be protected and restored. Paleoecology can be regarded as an important tool in peatland restoration and management; as decision making is a complex and intricate task, it should consider the long-term perspective of ecosystem development.

The large continental ombrotrophic peatlands in European Russia are unique archives of high-quality information about regional climate and environmental changes. There is, however, a lack of multiproxy records that allow to understand environmental regional changes (response of peatlands to climate change and human impact) during the Holocene perio...

Global warming has compelled to strengthen the resilience of European forests. Due to repeated droughts and heatwaves, weakened trees become vulnerable to insect outbreaks, pathogen invasions, and strong winds. This study combines high-resolution analysis of a 100-year-old high-resolution peat archive synthesized from the Martwe peatland in Poland...

The exploitation of peatlands in Estonia, which began in the 17th century, has degraded them to a great extent. Consequently, cutover and drained peatlands have become the sources of CO2. Global warming has led to a need for policies focusing on the protection and restoration of drained and degraded peatlands. Hence, to compare the effect/progress...

Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numero...

The Tea Bag Index (TBI) method was used to estimate the litter decomposition rate on peatland exposed for climate manipulation (increased temperature and reduced precipitation) at two contrasting sites differing in water table depth (WTD) dynamics. To manipulate climate on peatland, the prototyped Open Top Chambers (OTC) and automated rain-out shel...

This paper presents the results of multiproxy research (pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossil and testate amoebae) on the biogenic deposits core from Gorodetsky Moch, an ombrotrophic peatland in western Russia (Western Dvina Lakeland). We reconstructed the impact of disturbance on peatland development in the last 300 years by using chronology of the...

Due to their unique flora, hydrology and environmental characteristics, peatlands are precious and specific habitats for microorganisms and microscopic animals. Their microbial network structure and their biomass are crucial for peatland carbon cycling, through primary production, as well as decomposition and mineralization of organic matter. Wetla...

In recent decades, it has been observed that most forest fires in Europe were caused by people. Extreme droughts, which are more often prolonged, can increase the risk of forest fires, not only in southern Europe but also, in Central Europe. Nonetheless, catastrophic fire events are not well recognized in the Central European Lowlands (CEL), where...

Global warming is an important issue which is leading to considerable changes in biomes. Environmental biologists are continuously assessing how global warming is going to impact the current population. Peatlands are one of the most important component of the terrestrial ecosystems which makes only 3% of them but contain around 40% of soil organic...

The article presents the importance of palaeoecology for the study of economic history, historical geography and environmental history. The text introduces the methodological possibilities of palaeoecology. We pay attention to the unused potential of high resolution palaeoecology. By using natural archives (sediments of lakes and peatlands), we are...

Abstrakt. Przed zwiększoną wycinką lasów w średniowieczu torfowiska w Polsce znajdowały się w stanie naturalnym akumulując znaczne ilości węgla. Przez większość holocenu (ostatnie 10 650 lat) lasy stanowiły parasol ochronny dla torfowisk. Wraz z postępującym otwarciem krajobrazu została zaburzona pierwotna dynamika hydrologiczna większości obiektów...

Precipitation is reduced during the growing season and overnights Sun Induced fluorescence and photosynthesis of peatland vegetation response to stress caused by water deficits and increased temperature under conditions of climate manipulation experiment FLUOGPP (2017-2020)

The Serteya region is situated in the recently glaciated area of the Valday (Weichselian, Vistulian) Glaciation. The region is characterized by a mosaic of landscapes of glacial (moraine plains and hills) and glaciofluvial (glaciofluvial plains, subglacial channels) origin with lakes, peats and closed depressions and with poorly developed valleys o...

An increase in extreme weather phenomena has been observed over the last decades as a result of global climate warming. This project aims to investigate the effects of tornado events on the lake and peatland ecosystems of the Tuchola Pinewoods, Northern Poland. Deforestation by tornado events can cause severe perturbations of the soil hydrology and...

With respect to climate change peatlands are highly vulnerable ecosystems. Especially a potential drying in future might result in a major carbon source and release to the atmosphere. We carried out a field climate manipulation experiment at Rzecin peatland in western Poland to assess how increased temperature and reduced precipitation may impact c...