News & Events

Another step to reveal the secrets of the past of our flora hidden by the sediments of high mountain lakes

The autumn stage of fieldwork conducted at the IB PAN as part of the NCN PIONEER project has come to an end. Our scientists (Michał Ronikier, Tomasz Suchan, Anna Janiczek, Katarzyna Izworska) together with Michał Słowiński and Mateusz Kramkowski, invaluable collaborators and specialists from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences, collected sediment cores from two more high-mountain lakes: Popradské Pleso (High Tatras, Slovakia) and Mały Staw (Karkonosze Mountains, Poland). The fieldwork was a big challenge from a logistical and technical point of view, e.g. due to the need to transport a large amount of equipment in mountainous terrain. It also required different solutions than those used last time (see the report from the winter expedition): the cores were samples from a platform placed on floats, using the UWITEC device and the Więckowski piston coring device. In total, three sediment cores were obtained, about 5 m long (Tatra Mountains) and 8 m long (Karkonosze Mountains), hopefully reaching the Late Glacial layers. The next stage of research planned for the coming months will be the isolation of ancient environmental DNA, which will be used to reconstruct the past assemblages of plant populations in the Central European mountains from the last glaciation until today. There is one more winter expedition to the Tatra Mountains ahead of the scientists.

Research conducted by our scientists met with great interest. Recent fieldwork has been mentioned in the media, e.g. in Teleexpress and Radio Wrocław (in Polish).

A mountain pond surrounded by a forest in autumn colours and mountains. A platform with three people floats on its surface

Sampling from a floating platform; Popradské Pleso (High Tatras, Slovakia).
Photo: Michał Ronikier.

Three people in reflective vests walk across a meadow with a mountain pond in the background

Preparations for works on the Mały Staw Lake in the Karkonosze Mountains.
Photo: Michał Ronikier.

The surface of the pond is wrinkled by the wind. Around the pond are rocky and grassy slopes, partly covered with dwarf pine

Mały Staw Lake (Karkonosze).
Photo: Michał Ronikier.

A pond in an autumnal mountain landscape. A platform with research equipment and a pontoon are moored on its shore

Popradské Pleso (High Tatras, Slovakia).
Photo: Michał Ronikier.

A person in a muddy wetsuit stands on the edge of a platform and holds a long device submerged in the water

Sediment core collection; Popradské Pleso (High Tatras, Slovakia).
Photo: Tomasz Suchan.

Three people seen from the waist down in work clothes stand at a winch mounted in the middle of a floating platform

Work on the platform.
Photo: Tomasz Suchan.

Three men and a woman stand on a floating platform. One of the men proudly displays a long sample of sediment

Fragment of a sediment profile taken with the Więckowski probe.
Photo: Tomasz Suchan.