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

Medzihradszky, Zsófia: Palynological investigation of a late Holocene sequence from Southwestern Hungary

MATERIALS AND METHODS Coring During June 2003 a 560 cm deep core was made in the valley of Újkút creek near Petrivente in the southern part of Zala County (46°27'6" N, 16°50'50" E). For coring we used a Russian sampler and if it was necessary, a spiral sampler as well. The sampling was carried out based on the visible sedimentological changes. In the case of very thick units we have taken several samples from one layer. To detect the recent pollen rain we used microscopic slides covered with thin Vaseline layer as a trap. Laboratory work Because of the presumed low pollen concentration the maceration was started from 10 cm

3 soil. We followed the standard laboratory treatment after RALSKA-JASIEWICZOWA and BERGLUND ( 1986), but considering the big inorganic content of the samples the treatment was completed with the density separation technique elucidated by ZÓLYOMI (1953). For calculating the pollen concentration of the samples we used Lycopodium tablets according to STOCKMARR (1972). Mathematical methods Although the pollen concentration was low, minimum 200 terrestrial pollen were calculated, but in some cases (in 315-350 cm depth) we could determine more than a thousand pollen grains per samples. The pollen sum included the terrestrial pollen types (AP+NAP, excluding aquatics and Filicales). Calculation of pollen percentages, plotting pollen diagrams and multivariate analysis were performed using POLPAL software (WALANUS and NALEPKA 1999, NALEPKA and WALANUS 2003). RESULTS Nowadays Újkút creek is a very narrow stream in a wide valley which in the summer of 2003 became almost completely dry. Most of the landscape is cultivated, with only small, scattered patches of mixed oak forests. The maps of the First Military Survey (FMS 1782-1785) show closed forests around the village, thus certainly the original vegetation cover must have been changed dramatically only during or after the 19th century.