Site Introduction

The Sudetes are a Central European mountain range that extends for around 300 kilometers along much of the border between Poland and the Czech Republic, and partly into eastern Germany. The region is geologically diverse—with lower, rolling hills in the western end of the range, and higher peaks in the east—and has been subject to various volcanic, metamorphic, and erosive processes through its phases of mountain building. Today, continuous forest is restricted to the higher regions, while the foothills have been subject to deforestation for settlements and agriculture over many centuries. Many of the beech, sycamore, and ash trees that were once dominant here—as well as some of the region’s peatlands—were replaced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by monocultures of Norway spruce.

In the eastern portion of the Sudetes is Poland’s Karkonosze National Park (established in 1959), a fifty-six square kilometer area of forest-covered, steep, rocky mountains with numerous glacial landforms that were carved in the Pleistocene.11The geological epoch preceding the current one (the Holocene), extending from 1.806 million years ago until around 11,000 years ago. The park includes Śnieżka Mountain—the highest peak of the Sudetes at 1,603 meters—on the top of which stands a Roman Catholic chapel that was completed in 1681 and an observatory from 1974. The GSSP22A GSSP is a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, which defines the lower boundary of a chronostratigraphic unit on the geologic time scale. It is sometimes referred to as a “golden spike”, after the marker which is, in some cases, driven into the boundary. candidate core was extracted around 300 meters west of the peak, on a peatland plateau. 

The human history of the Sudetes extends back millennia: there is evidence of Paleolithic33Refers to a time period extending from the first use of stone tools by hominins around 3.3 million years ago to the end of the Pleistocene (the geological epoch preceding the current one, the Holocene). It is subdivided into the Lower, Middle, and Upper Palaeolithic. settlements and Neolithic44Refers to a time period beginning around 12,000 years ago with the first fixed human settlements and the domestication of animals and cereals. agriculture, as well as the exploitation of river-deposited gold by Celts in the third century BCE. The region’s rich metal ore and lignite (or brown coal) stores encouraged a history of extraction and industry that started in the eleventh century. By the twentieth century, mines, factories, and power plants operated by all three neighboring countries had contributed to making the region one of the most polluted in Europe. In the 1980s, it was dubbed the “Black Triangle” on account of its extremely high levels of industrial pollution and the concomitant effects on human health—a fact that prompted the signing of a 1991 agreement between the three nations to attempt to improve and protect the area.

Location of the Core

The core was collected from Równia pod Śnieżka, a rain-fed, sphagnum-moss peatland on a high plateau (1350–1450 meters above sea level) to the west of Śnieżka peak. Peat forms when acidic, cold, nutrient-poor, water-saturated, and anoxic conditions prevent full decomposition of plant remains, which therefore accumulate and preserve a continuous archive of atmospheric and environmental conditions. The Śnieżka peat archive provides a particularly useful geological record since it is exclusively rain fed (so does not get local signals from groundwater); is on a flat plateau (so that deposited water stays in place); has a relatively fast accumulation rate (which provides lots of material for analysis); and is in a mountain environment (which is good for observing background levels of atmospheric pollution, since higher altitudes are less vulnerable to local sources). Despite the Śnieżka peatland’s position in the Black Triangle, atmospheric pollutant levels are more similar to locations in northern Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Belgium than to the local areas. This long-range sensitivity is owing to the fact that the site is close to the highest peak of the Sudetes, and long-range signals are not blocked by any mountainous barriers. The fact that the peatland is extensive and protected within a national park ensures the possibility of future sampling.

The Core and Results

The fifty-centimeter-long Śnieżka peatland core (SN0) contains a record that extends from 1931 to 2020, when it was collected. SN0 corroborates analyses done on two previous cores—SN1 and SN2—that were collected from the same area in 2012 (fifteen meters away from the SN0 location). Radioactive material from both mid-century nuclear testing and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 enables accurate dating of the peat layers.

The cores record traces of global industrial activities, with spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs)55A spheroid-shaped form of black carbon particle produced during high temperature oil and coal combustion. SCPs are a distinct marker of human influence on the planet, and can now be found in environmental archives on every continent, including very remote areas such as the high Arctic and Antarctica. and spheroidal aluminosilicates (SAPs)66A spheroid-shaped form of fly ash composed of aluminum, silicon, and oxygen, produced during high temperature oil and coal combustion and found globally. from fossil fuel combustion appearing around 1950 and peaking in the 1970s. Pre-1950 SAPs (from the heating of mountain cottages) are irregular in shape and measure up to fifty micrometers, while post-1950 SAPs become much smaller (less than 1–9.5 micrometers) and rounder—a result of high-temperature coal combustion, which indicates long-range transport from the tall chimneys of power plants. Meanwhile, the appearance of various trace elements—lead, zinc, copper, nickel, and chromium—are indicative of regional industry in the Black Triangle area. Analyses of lead isotopes combined with the history of coal production and prevailing wind patterns enabled the source of these signals to be identified. Chromium and nickel deposits—starting in the 1880s and peaking in 1920—are likely a result of nickel ore smelting and stainless steel production by the Krupp company in Germany. A second peak in 1970 is attributed to general Black Triangle activity.

Some distinct biological changes are also visible in the SN1 core. At 37.5 centimeters (around 1950), pollen of the invasive species Ambrosia artemisiifolia (or common ragweed, native to the Americas) begins to appear, while various humidity-sensitive testate amoebae77A single-celled eukaryote with a shell-like cell wall. species decrease and disappear as a result of rising temperatures and a drop in the peat water table. 

Collection and Analysis

Three peat monolith cores, SN0, SN1, and SN2, were extracted using a Wardenaar corer from the Śnieżka peatland. SN0 was collected in August 2020; SN1 and SN2 were collected in June 2012. The Wardenaar corer—specially designed for sampling peatland—is a rectangular stainless steel box with sharp cutting edges at the base. SN1 and SN2 were sliced into one-cm-thick slices for analysis, while SN0 was sampled intact. 

All cores were analyzed for bulk density, ash content, macrofossils, and SAPs. SN0 was analyzed for carbon and nitrogen content, carbon and nitrogen isotopes, radionuclides, SCPs, and mercury, and was dated using lead-210. SN1 was dated using carbon-14 and lead-210 and was also analyzed for stable lead isotopes, radionuclides, pollen, testate amoebae, SCPs, trace elements, and rare earth elements. Work on SN2 was less detailed; aside from physical description, it was analyzed for trace elements, stable lead isotopes, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. Age control was provided using carbon-14.

The Research Team

The Śnieżka team consists of scientists from Poland, France, Argentina, and the UK, with the majority working at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł is the main principal investigator (PI) and is responsible for all project logistics, conceptualization, interpretation, and geochemical analysis. The co-PIs are Edyta Łokas, from the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kraków, who is responsible for radionuclides measurements and interpretation, and Beata Smieja-Król from the University of Silesia in Katowice, responsible for SAP analysis and interpretation. 

The Śnieżka project was developed in 2011 and received funding from Narodowe Centrum Nauki. The team collaborated with Francois de Vleeschouwer and Gael Le Roux, who were responsible for rare earth elements measurements and climatic interpretation. Mariusz Gałka did macrofossil analysis, while Mariusz Lamentowicz and Katarzyna Marcisz were responsible for testate amoebae analysis. Piotr Kołaczek and Monika Karpińska Kołaczek were responsible for pollen and nonpollen palynomorphs analysis and carbon-14 modeling. Michał Woszczyk did carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur content; Tomasz Krzykawski did X-ray powder diffraction (XRD); and Tomasz Mróz did lead-210 measurements for SN0. As a consequence of joining the HKW Anthropocene Working Group project, the team also cooperated with Sarah Roberts, Neil Rose, and Handong Yang, who were responsible for SCP and mercury measurements, as well as Arnoud Boom, responsible for carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses.

Principal investigators (listed alphabetically):
Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, Adam Mickiewicz University
Edyta Łokas, Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN

Contributing Scientists/Researchers (listed alphabetically):
Agnieszka Bondyra, Adam Mickiewicz University, Testate amoebae analysis
Arnoud Boom, University of Leicester, Carbon and Nitrogen isotopes
Andy Cundy, University of Southampton, Pu isotopes (inter-laboratory comparison)
Francois De Vleeschouwer, Universidad de Buenos Aires, REE and PCA Analysis
Jolanta Dopieralska, Isotopic Laboratory, Poznan, Pb stable isotopes
Mariusz Gałka, University of Lodz, Macrofossils analysis
Piotr Kołaczek, Adam Mickiewicz University, Pollen analysis
Tomasz Krzykawski, University of Silesia in Katowice, XRD Analysis
Mariusz Lamentowicz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Testate amoebae analysis
Gael Le Roux, Université de Toulouse, ICP measurements
Katarzyna Marcisz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Testate amoebae analysis
Tomasz Mróz, Jagiellonian University, 210Pb Analysis
Sarah Roberts, University College London, SCP analysis
Neil Rose, University College London, SCP analysis
Marcin Siepak, Adam Mickiewicz University, ICP measurements
Beata Smieja-Król, University of Silesia in Katowice, SEM mineralogical analysis
Michał Woszczyk, Adam Mickiewicz University, Carbon, nitrogen, sulphur analysis