Vegetational and climatic changes in Ukraine during the last interglacial

Abstract

In Ukraine, pollen studies of the most complete palaeosol sequences of the last interglacial, located in palaeodepressions, have demonstrated that these palaeoarchives are quite comparable in the levels of palynological information, which they yield, to lake and peat deposits. Trends in vegetational development during the last interglacial, well-established in western and central Europe, are traced in Ukraine but its regional particulars, dependent on palaeoclimate changes, are also recognised. The results of pollen studies presented here have been obtained from the forest belt in the north of Ukraine (the Muzychi and Stari Bezradychi sites), the forest-steppe in its central and western parts (the Vyazivok, Yaseny, Lypova Gully, Tovtry and Neporotove sites), the steppe of central and eastern Ukraine (the Sazhavka, Kryva Luka, Novorayske and Dokuchaivsk sites), from the Carpathian Mountains and Transcarpathia (the Sadzhavka and Sokyrnytsya sites). and from the Crimean Mountains (the Kabazi II and Emine-Bair-Khosar sites). The assignment of these pollen successions to the last interglacial is confirmed by chronostratigraphy and pedostratigraphy. Some sites discussed herein have been in part described (Gerasimenko, 2005, 2006; Gerasimenko et al., 2019). Schematic maps for vegetational types during the different phases of the last interglacaial are drawn on the basis of the summary of the data on Ukraine by different authors.