Holocene dynamics of the alpine timberline in the High Sudetes

The study focuses on the High Sudetes that represent the most distinctive islands of alpine forest-free area among hercynian mid-mountains of Central Europe. Based on data from newly taken cores and previously published pollen profiles, comparison of the development of the alpine timberline position is carried out. The first of the analysed pollen profiles — the Labský důl core in the Krkonoše Mts spans the whole period of the Holocene, the Keprník and Mezikotlí profiles in the Hrubý Jeseník Mts bring information from the Subboreal/older Subatlanticum turn to the present. An exceptional position of the Krkonoše Mts in terms of permanent presence of the alpine belt throughout the Holocene was confirmed. Three oscillations of the alpine timberline during the Lower Holocene were detected in the profile from the Labský důl site. In the Hrubý Jeseník Mts a temperature dependent forest-free area existed at least since Subboreal to the present.