peatlands 1 taitto.indd - International Peat Society

Symposium “Mountain and Upland
Peatlands” in Poland
A symposium on “Mountain
and Upland Peatlands” was
held in Kielce - Biale Lugi
on 21 to 22 June 2004. The
main objective of the event
organized by the Institute
of Geography and the Institute
of Biology of the
Swietokrzyski University in
Kielce, was to introduce the
results of studies conducted
in the Biale Lugi Peat Reserve
to a broad group of Polish
peatland researchers, all
members of the Polish National
Committee of the IPS.
During plenary and poster sessions,
the participants had an opportunity to
present the results of their studies in
different regions: the Sudety Mountains,
Roztocze, Lublin Upland, Volyn
Upland, Przedborz Upland, Silesia
Upland, Miechów Upland, Racibórz
Basin, Tuchola Forests, Polanowska
Plateau and Bialystok Plateau. A few
studies of mires outside of Poland
were presented either as a lecture - the
Upper Harz region, or as published ab-
30 PEATLANDS International 1/2006
stracts - the Petersburg region (Kobak
K., Krankina O.), the Gulf of Finland
(Smagin V.A.), the Ukrainian Beskid
Mountains (Kalinovych N.) and the
carbonate bogs of Poland and Slovakia
(Wolejko L.).
Three presentations covered more
general issues, such as the terminology
used to defi ne wetlands (Bajkiewicz-
Grabowska E.), high and transitional
moors of southern Poland (Wozniak
N.), and an assessment of the accumulation
rate of Holocene biogenic
deposits (Krupinski K.). On 21 June
2004, four plenary and one poster sessions
took place in the Senate Hall of
the Swietokrzyski University, followed
by an informal evening meeting around
the dinner table.
Field trip
On 22 June, a trip to the Biale Lugi
bog was organized. At the top of the
dune, towering over a fl at-toppedmound
of a raised bog dominated by
phytocenoses of Ledo-Sphagnetum
magellanici and Sphagnetum magel-
Biale Lugi bog, a Sphagnetum magellanici association. In the central part, S. Zurek and P.
Gwiazda are boring in the mire. On the right is Dr D. Urban.
Text and photos: Slawomir Zurek
lanici, the botanists and zoologists of
the Swietokrzyski University reviewed
the current state of the fl ora and fauna
of the mire: vegetation (Przemyski A.,
PhD), lichens (Prof. Cieslinski S.), fungi
(Luszczynski J. PhD), bumble-bees
(Bak J., PhD), amphibians and reptiles
(Ichniowska-Korpula B., PhD) and
mammals (Wypiórkiewicz J., PhD).
The stratigraphy of the peatland
was presented by Prof. S. Zurek
followed by the presentation of P.
Gwiazda, MSc, a member of the Student
Geographers’ Scientifi c Society
of the Swietokrzyski University, who
described the studies of two stratigraphic
cross-sections, one from the
central part of a raised bog, and the
other from a region of fen with alder
woods and riverside carrs. The latter
cuts across the Czarna River, which
overfl ows due to fl ooding caused by
beaver. A 3.5 m deep bore, in the
central part of the mire, disclosed the
characteristic strata of the profi le:
slightly decomposed raised bog peat
(0.4 m), highly decomposed cottongrass
peat (70-80% decomposition)
with layers indicating fi res (0.7 m),
medium decomposed transition bog
peat (1.4 m) and slightly decomposed
sedge-moss peat (0.8 m) deposited in
the Younger Dryas (315-320 cm layers,
dated 10880±250 BP acc. to radiocarbon
dating) overlying a layer of loam
and sand with gravel. After the presentation,
the participants walked around
the peatland and searched for familiar
species of plants. The seminar ended
in the afternoon and the participants
were transported to Kielce.
All printed materials, including the
book “Biale Lugi Peat Reserve”, were
handed out before the lectures.
Presentations
The presentations on 21 June took
place during four plenary sessions, two
in the morning and two in the afternoon,
followed by a poster session.