B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 35. 2004 (Budapest, 2004)

Erdei, B.; Bruch, A. A.: A climate analysis of Late Oligocene (Egerian) macrofloras from Hungary

There are numerous works treating the relative position, palaeogeography and development of the particular tectonic units of the area (BÁLDI 1983, CSONTOS et al. 1992, KÁZMÉR and KOVÁCS 1985, NAGYMAROSY 1990). The Late Eocene palinspastic reconstruction of the Outer Carpathian flysch nappes indicates that the entire Intra-Carpathian area must have been located several hundreds of kilometres to the south and west of its present position (OSZCZYPKO and SLACZKA 1985, CSONTOS et al. 1992). The more southerly latitudinal position of the Hungarian localities may account for the climatic distinction, i.e. higher values of MAT, between the Italian palyno- and the Hungarian macrofloras. However, this question may be solved by comparing the data with others on a larger geographical scale, which may reflect palaeogeographical or latitudinal differentiations. SUMMARY The climate analysis of five Hungarian Late Oligocène fossil plant assemblages adopting the Coexistence Approach gave consistent results for most localities. A warm temperate climate corresponding to Cfa-type sensu KÖPPEN ( 1931 ) is resulted by the quantitative estimation of four climate variables (mean annual temperature - MAT, temperature of the coldest month - CMT, temperature of the warmest month - WMT and mean annual precipitation - MAP). Values of MAT conform to that suggested by KVACEK and HABLY (1991) for the Eger-Wind assemblage. The seasonal variation in rainfall has not been predicted from the datasets in this study. Earlier systematics- and morphology-based, non-quantitative climate reconstructions (HABLY 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994) suggested humid subtropical climate for the Kesztölc, Vértesszőlős, Andornaktálya and Pomáz assemblages. As compared to the palaeoclimate estimates of contemporaneous palynofloras from the Eastern Alps completed by BRUCH (1998) the Eger-Wind/pollen and Treubach assemblages display well comparable climate with that of the Hungarian Egerian floras, intervals of MAT for the Govce and Como palyno-floras indicate lower minimum values of MAT which may be resultant either from palaeogeography or from methodology, i.e. palyno-floras versus leaf-floras used for climate calculations - more regional vs local climate signal given by their floralists.