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Subfossil markers of climate change during the Roman Warm Period of the late Holocene

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Abstract

Abundant bog oak trunks occur in alluvial deposits of the Raba River in the village of Targowisko (southern Poland). Several of them contain galleries of the great capricorn beetle (Cerambyx cerdo L.). A well-preserved subfossil larva and pupa, as well as adults of this species, are concealed in some of the galleries. These galleries co-occur with boring galleries of other insects such as ship-timber beetles (Lymexylidae) and metallic wood borers (Buprestidae). A dry larva of a stag beetle (Lucanidae) and a mite (Acari) have been found in the C. cerdo galleries. Selected samples of the trunks and a sample of the C. cerdo larva were dated, using radiocarbon and dendrochronological methods, to the period from 45 bc to ad 554; one sample was dated to the period from 799 to 700 bc. Accumulation of the channel alluvia containing the bog oak trunks is synchronous with the Roman Warm Period (late antiquity/Early Mediaeval times). The most recent part of this period correlates with massive accumulations of fallen oak trunks noted from various river valleys in the Carpathian region and dated to ad 450–570. The results indicate that C. cerdo was more abundant within the study area during the Roman Warm Period than it is today.

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Acknowledgements

We especially wish to thank R. Paw for providing much of the data that made this work possible. The authors wish to acknowledge the generous cooperation of Z. Miąsko (gravel pit operator) who permitted access to the gravel pit property. We are also grateful to the gravel pit staff for their kind cooperation during this study. We thank R. P. Banyś and M. Urbańczyk-Zawadzka from the Radiology Department of John Paul II Hospital for their help and expert technical assistance with CT scans. We would like to thank J. Błoszyk (Department of General Zoology, Adam Mickiewicz University) for identification of the mite Oodinychus ovalis and R. Laskowski (Department of Ecotoxicology, Jagiellonian University) for information on his observations of C. cerdo in Niepołomice Forest. We would also like to especially thank the three anonymous reviewers, along with Ewa Stworzewicz, Katarzyna Maj-Szeliga, and Michał Gradziński, for their valuable comments, suggestions, and help.

Funding

The authors received a support from the Jagiellonian University (RJ: K/ZDS/007303; SK: K/ZDS/006320; AU: K/ZDS/007305).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 3a, 30-387, Kraków, Poland

    Renata Jach & Alfred Uchman

  2. Department of Entomology, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland

    Stanisław Knutelski

  3. Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818, Warszawa, Poland

    Helena Hercman

  4. Oil and Gas Institute – National Research Institute, Bagrowa 1, 30-733, Kraków, Poland

    Marek Dohnalik

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  1. Renata Jach
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Correspondence to Renata Jach.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Appendix S1

Interactive 3D image of a digital reconstruction of a C. cerdo adult inside a gallery dated from the Roman Warm Period (ad 344–536; sample INGUJ254P5). (MPG 7884 kb)

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Jach, R., Knutelski, S., Uchman, A. et al. Subfossil markers of climate change during the Roman Warm Period of the late Holocene. Sci Nat 105, 6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1533-x

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