Holocene timberline fluctuations in the mid-mountains of Central Europe

Abstract

Central European Hercynian mountain ranges – Krkonoše Mts., Hrubý Jeseník Mts. and Vosges, Schwarzwald, Harz – represent the only islands of alpine forest-free area between the Alps and Western Carpathians in the south and the Scandes in the north. Based on data from previously published pollen profiles and on newly taken cores, comparison of the development of the alpine timberline position is presented. The Labský dul profile in the Krkonoše Mts. spans the whole Holocene, the Keprník profile in the Hrubý Jeseník Mts. brings information from ca 2500 BP to the present. The exceptional position of the Krkonoše
Mts. in terms of permanent presence of alpine forest-free area throughout the Holocene was confirmed. In other mountain ranges, the alpine forest-free areas probably vanished or were restricted only to the exposed peaks during the periods of positive temperature anomalies in the Middle Holocene. Later in the period 4000–500 BP, forest free areas reappeared, although the relative contribution of climatic and anthropogenic causes to their formation remains unclear. Taking into account the supposed extent of temperature oscillations in the Middle
and Late Holocene and the existing pollen records the authors assume that the alpine timberline in the Hercynian mid-mountains of Central Europe varied only slightly.