Daniel Okupny

• PhD
• Researcher at University of Szczecin

Research into the interaction of abiotic and biotic components of the environment addresses the need to integrate data from these two spheres. The geoarchives of palaeodata contain autochthonous and allochthonous material, both organic and mineral. The present article aims to trace these relationships during the Younger Dryas cooling, being a perio...

This study presents multidisciplinary analyses of soil cover and archaeological faunal remains from the late Eneolithic fortified settlement of Gordineşti II-Stînca goalȃ in Moldova. Associated with the Tripolye culture, the site dates back to the late 4th millennium BC. Significant cultural and economic shifts characterize this period, marked by a...

During an interdisciplinary study of the mire “Torfowisko pod Małym Śnieżnikiem”, a very old specimen of the Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) was encountered. The aim of the present work was to perform a detailed examination of this tree, to compare it to other spruce trees on the mire, and to provide support for establishing protection for this tree...

During an interdisciplinary study of the mire “Pod Małym Śnieżnikiem”, a very old specimen of the Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) was encountered. The aim of the present work was to perform a detailed examination of this tree, to compare it to other spruce trees on the mire, and to provide support for establishing protection for this tree stand. Tre...

Detailed palaeogeographical studies of the accumulative fan in the Serteyka River valley in W Russia and underlying biogenic deposits were carried out. The base of a representative core of biogenic sediments in the distal zone is dated to 1291 BC, while its top to 1631 AD. In this paper, palynological, plant macrofossils, Chironomide and Cladocera,...

The preprint you can find here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5040981

Makohonienko M. and Słowiński M. 2023. Was Gordineşti II-Stînca goală abandoned due to cultural changes or environmental impacts? The case of the late Trypillia settlement in northern Moldova. Sprawozdania Ar-cheologiczne 75/1, 51-75. This study aims to provide information on cultural and environmental factors influencing the development and declin...

A great history in a small wetland: human-environment relationships on the East European Plain in the last 13 thousand years

W latach 2022 i 2023 podjęto prace geologiczno-geobotaniczne i chronostratygraficzne zmierzające do rekonstrukcji rozwoju wybranych torfowisk wysokich i przejściowych w Masywie Śnieżnika. Celem pierwszego etapu tych badań jest określenie genezy badanych torfowisk oraz wyznaczenie początku ich rozwoju na podstawie oznaczeń wieku radiowęglowego spągu...

The Younger Dryas-Holocene transition represents a period of significant thermal change, comparable in magnitude to modern warming, yet in a colder context and without the effect of anthropogenic disturbance. This is useful as a reference to tackle how biodiversity is affected by temperature in natural conditions. Here, we addressed the thermal cha...

The Warta River valley was greatly influenced by the ice sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A small peatland locatedin the Warta drainage system is here used as a palaeoarchive of climatic and habitat changes during the Late Glacial (Weichselian). The Ługi sediment profile was investigated using multi-proxy (pollen, Chironomidae, Cladocera an...

The vicinity of the Rozprza archaeological site (central Poland) has been the area of a series of palaeoecological studies tracking the environmental history of the Luciąża River valley up to ca. 13,200 cal. BP. Numerous subfossil palaeomeanders of different sizes have been discovered in the valley floor. Here, we present the first results of multi...

The Wietrzychowice Cultural Park protects one of the last preserved megalithic barrows constructed by the Funnel Beaker Culture societies at the Kuyavia Lakeland (Central Poland). The nearby archaeological site at Śmieły located on the shore of Karaśnia Lake provided numerous Mesolithic and Neolithic remains such as flint artefacts, potsherds, arro...

In the rich of archaeological sites dated from the late Palaeolithic to the Modern Period region of the Serteyka River, deposits of an extensive accumulative fan were studied in detail. In the lower sector of the present-day Serteyka River valley, the strict chronology and depositional conditions of an extensive accumulative fan deposits were studi...

The vicinity of the Rozprza archaeological site (central Poland) has been the area of a series of palaeoecological studies tracking the environmental history of the Lucią˙ za River valley up to ca. 13,200 cal. BP. Numerous subfossil palaeomeanders of different sizes have been discovered in the valley floor. Here, we present the first results of mul...

This article aims to trace in detail the periods of rapid changes during the Late Glacial period based on a subfossil Cladocera analysis and a palynological, geochemical, and statistical analysis. At the end of the Older Dryas, the water level in the reservoir was low, with quite cold waters and inconvenient conditions for developing Cladocera-domi...

The subject of the work is a reconstruction of environmental conditions in the Lower Oder River Valley in the early Middle Ages with use multi-proxy research. This was considered in terms of natural determinants of the development of hydrogenic habitats in the estuary section of a large lowland river, but at the beginning of a headland of natural m...

The mercury content in peat layers of seven peat bogs in the Małopolska region (Wolbrom in the Kraków-Często-chowa Upland and Otrębowskie Brzegi, Puścizna Wysoka, Puścizna Mała, Przybojec, Puścizna Długopole and Bór na Czer-wonem in the Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin) was determined to a depth of 100 cm at a resolution of 1-2 cm. Geochemical background and...

The transition to the Neolithic on the East European Plain was a very different process to the Western model, featuring a long-lasting hunter-gatherer economy and late introduction of agriculture. The authors present results from multiproxy research on a 13.5m-deep core of organic deposits from the Serteya mire as part of an international research...

The global climatic trend of the Younger Dryas is clearly registered in the Greenland ice core archives and is printed in terrestrial biogenic deposits. Abiotic landscape components, too, were subjected to changes. The article aims to indicate the dynamics of geomorphological processes activated in response to the cooling and to detect markers of t...

Moats and other historical water features had great importance for past societies. The functioning of these ecosystems can now only be retrieved through palaeoecological studies. Here we aimed to reconstruct the history of a stronghold’s moat during its period of operation. Our spatio‑temporal approach allowed mapping of the habitat changes within...

Environmental changes during the Holocene impacted the development of all civilizations, and it is important to understand the power of this influence through, for instance, the reconstruction of these changes. However, when the climate and environmental conditions of the deep past are analyzed, researchers need to rely on various types of proxy da...

East European lake-river systems have hydrological regimes typical for continental climate zones. The Postglacial development of the basins and regional palaeoclimatic pattern in the Holocene implied a specific succession of biota communities passing through lakes’ subsequent stages in the water level, trophic state and habitat availability. The Gr...

Sesja naukowa "Paleogeografia Schyłku Vistulianu", Popów 2022

The Baligówka peat bog is one of the peat bogs of the Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin—the largest complex of wetlands in the Polish Carpathians. Its area has declined in the past as a result of drainage and peat exploitation, which caused a bad hydrological condition and it is gradually overgrown by non-peat bog medium and high vegetation. The research uses...

The aim of the article is to characterize the early Neolithic settlement region of Targowisko in SE Poland. It is located on the northern edge of the Western Carpathians, 30 km east of Krakow. It functioned during the development of the entire Linear Pottery culture (LBK) and the subsequent Malice culture (MC), in the period from 5300 to 4500 BC. T...

Published version available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365873722_The_spatial_and_temporal_reconstruction_of_a_medieval_moat_ecosystem

Sedimentological and geochemical records of biogenic and mineral sediments, coupled with palaeobotanical and palaeozoological analysis from the gravel pit in Długopole (Western Carpathians, S Poland) allowed for the reconstruction of climate and palaeoenvironmental changes on the Czarny Dunajec Fan (part of the Orava Basin) during the Upper Plenivi...

Mires are common in the landscape of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, but they are rarely explored by Earth scientists. In addition to numerous morphological depressions filled with biogenic sediments, mires also occur within river valley, usually upstream from gaps. The intensification of marsh formation within the Białka River valley (left-side tri...

Fens have been forming in the river valleys of central Poland since the Bølling and went through a transformation from fully aquatic to semiterrestrial habitats during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition. This drove plant and invertebrate communities and left a distinct pattern in chemical sediment composition, which is why river valley peatlands...

This paper presents the results of a study on the content of lithogeochemical components (organic matter, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn) and grain-size composition of mineral matter in the bottom sediments of Morzycko Lake (Myślibórz Lakeland, NW Poland). This lake is large (342.7 ha) and deep (69 m). The catchment has a typical forested charact...

The aim of this article is to provide information on environmental changes in the Targowisko region in the Early Neolithic as a natural response to settlement and economic activity of the human population in that area. The discussion is based on lithological, geochemical, and palynological analyses, as well as the analysis of Cladocera within strat...

Five sections of sediment from mire infillings located in different part of the catchment small river valley in central Europe were studied by lithological and geochemical analysis in order to examine the response of aquatic ecosystems to the environment changes during Late Weischselian (LW). Differentiation of geochemical composition and grain-siz...

This paper presents selected results from efforts to date organic matter taken from deposits of three landslides in Poland’s Gorce Mts. i.e. the ones located below the Jaworzyna Kamienicka, Kudłoń and Góra Gębowa peaks. The material for dating was taken from two landslide peat bogs and one closed depression filled with mineral deposits. The ranges...

The paper presents the results of a palaeoecological study of Neolithic archaeological layers from a wetland, multilayer site, Serteya II (Western Russia). It contains , domestic structures, rich organic artefacts, skeletons, and ecofacts preserved within lacustrine deposits that are extremely important on a European scale. We employed a set of spe...

Chironomid (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae play an important role in a wide range of aquatic ecosystems. The study focuses on Chironomidae trophic guilds and morphological types as indicator traits in reconstructions of habitat changes in shallow water bodies. Mentum and ventromental plates are important mouthparts whose shape depends on food type a...

The article presents the results of a study on sediment deposition processes in the palaeolake shore zone, at the multilayered Serteya II archaeological site in Western Russia. In recent years, geomorphological, palaeopedological and palaeoecological research was undertaken in strict cooperation with archaeological fieldwork. The Serteya II site oc...

The Orawa-Nowy Targ Basin is one of only a few areas in the Polish Carpathians with high relative cover of peatlands (12 %). This fraction is declining progressively due to several centuries of peat exploitation for fuel, gardening and balneology. The peatland at Ludźmierz near Nowy Targ is regionally important for its high biodiversity but has bee...

Mokradła i torfowiska jako temat zajęć terenowych w edukacji geograficznej Streszczenie Celem artykułu jest charakterystyka torfowisk Kotliny Orawsko-Nowotarskiej jako miejsca do przeprowadzenia zajęć terenowych z geografii i przyrody. Wskazano unikatowość mo-kradeł oraz pełnione przez nie funkcje w środowisku geograficznym. W oparciu o kwerendę li...

Sediment geochemistry and lithology were studied in Gostyń Lake in the eastern part of the Myślibórz Lakeland (part of the Western Pomeranian Lake District). The research was undertaken because relatively shallow lake basins without ground supply contribute to the intensification of water circulation through evaporation. Late Glacial and Holocene p...

The results of geochemical assays on biogenic sediments filling a fossil lacustrine basin at Wąwelnica, in the Szczecin Hills, within the left-bank part of the Oder River catchment are presented. The data reveal a natural Holocene sedimentation sequence similar to that found for other sites in central Europe. The geochemical record of palaeo-enviro...

The Serteyka River valley is one of the most important archaeological localities in North- Western Russia. The State Hermitage Museum has conducted research in Serteya since the 1970s. The pile-dwelling remnants located within the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin (GSPB) are the most prominent excavation. The investigation using precise underwater tec...

The fast sedimentation rate of Rozprza palaeo-oxbow deposits gives a chance for tracking environmental changes in the end of the Late Vistulian very thoroughly. The range of palaeoecological analyses were done, resulting in reconstructions of vegetation history, climate and habitat changes. The chironomid-inferred summer temperatures indicate the s...

The accumulative fan was formed at the mouth of a well-developed system of erosive cuts in the lower Serteyka River valley in western Russia. The length of the fan reaches 70 m, and its thickness is up to 2 m. The erosive cuts (gullies) were formed on the steep and short slopes of the tunnel valley (transformed later into the river valley) and diss...

Peatlands form environmental archives of trace element deposition. In this regard they are particularly valuable for areas such as the Arctic, where regular pollution monitoring is either impossible or extremely costly. The aim of this study was to assess pollution in the Solovetsky Islands (65° 05' N, 35° 53' E) by examining the spatial variabilit...

This paper presents the Late Glacial stage of the development of the Białe Ługi peatland in the southern Holy Cross Mountains, based on a comprehensive palaeoenvironmental data. A complex analysis of palynology, Cladocera, sed-imentology, geochemistry and 14 C dating were used. Organic deposition was initiated during the Oldest Dryas. The sedimenta...

presented during International Field Symposium of the INQUA PeriBaltic Working Group "From Weichselian Ice-Sheet Dynamics to Holocene Land Use Development in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg" in Greifswald University

The research was conducted at the Kwiatków site,1 in the Koło Basin (Central Poland). It included a fragment of a low terrace and the valley floor of the Warta river valley. The archaeological investigation documented over 100 wells that archaeological material indicates are associated with the Przeworsk culture. Geomorphological, lithological and...

Zarys treści. W artykule zaprezentowano analizę geochemiczną profili torfowych z dwóch torfowisk, położonych w Polsce Południowej, dokumentujących przedział czasowy od okresu atlantyckiego (od 4900 BC Wolbrom i od 4200 BC Otrębowskie Brzegi) do czasów współczesnych. Jej wyniki poddano analizie statystycznej z użyciem programu PAST, celem porównania...

In the examined part of central Poland, there are numerous kettle-hole basins filled with mineral and biogenic sediments of the Eemian Interglacial and Early Weichselian. These basins are located in varied geological and geomorphological locations with variable thicknesses of the sediments and deposits. The infillings were investigated by lithologi...

The lower part of the Serteyka River has been the place of intensive archaeological research since the 1960s. Over this period, 60 archaeological sites have been discovered from the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic to the Middle Ages. The landscape of the study area was determined by the situation in the Valdai (Vistulian, Weichselian) glaciation z...

The Rozprza stronghold functioned as a seat of a noble family since at least the early14th century AD in the form of the motte-and-bailey residence. The remains of the residence are situated in the central part of mid-Luciąża River valley, on the river terrace remnant adjoining a strongly expanding floodplain. The situation and state of preservatio...

Chironomidae (Diptera) subfossil remains are used as a reliable proxy for climatic reconstructions. They respond rapidly to climate changes and larval head capsules preserve well in sediment deposits. Thanks to the diverse ecological preferences and ubiquity of Chironomidae, they also play an important role in reconstructions of past ecological con...

The main axis of the Serteya region is the Serteyka River Valley – the tributary of the Western Dvina River in the Baltic Sea Basin. The area is situated within Vitebsk Lakeland or Western Dvina Lakeland. Numerous (ca. 60) archaeological sites from the Paleolithic to Middle Ages have been discovered in the lower, ca. 10-kilometres long, section of...

Społeczności pradziejowe, zwłaszcza te oparte o gospodarkę przyswajalną, preferowały szczególne krajobrazy pod względem środowiskowym. Ważna była bowiem ich znaczna geo- i bioróżnorodność, które zapewniały obfitość źródeł pożywienia i zróżnicowanych surowców naturalnych. Mikroregion Serteji położony jest w obwodzie Smoleńskim w zachodniej części Ro...

Grodzisko w Rozprzy położone jest w dnie doliny Luciąży. W morfologii terenu widoczne są zarysy dookolnej fosy o szerokości 21 m. W 2015 r. ze ściany wykopu archeologicznego pobrany został profil osadów do badań paleoekologicznych. Obok informacji dotyczących roślinności lądowej rosnącej w otoczeniu grodziska, uzyskano też dane obrazujące funkcjono...

The article deals with geological and geomorphological conditions of the construction and functioning of wells from the Roman period of the Iron Age in a settlement on the Amber Road. This settlement is located in Central Poland (in the vicinity of Kwiatków village), on a flat surface of the lower terrace of the Warta River valley, among the dry ch...

Wet moat depositional environment is similar to small lake basins such as ox-bows, and can be examined with the use of multiproxy palaeoecological methods. However, palaeoenvironmental research on moat fill is not often undertaken during archaeological works. The Medieval stronghold at Rozprza (Central Poland) was located in the valley floor of the...

Spring-fed fens in Wardzyn represent the rare group of alkaline mires supplied by artesian groundwater. Using multidisciplinary methods (including sedimentological, hydrometric and hydrochemical, pollen, macrofossil, malacological, geochemical, radiocarbon dating, and stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses) we have been able to (1) reconstruct t...

The article presents the results of geological and palaeobotanical studies of the Kopytkowo swamp, located in the Middle Biebrza Basin. The work was carried out in the vicinity of a measure point for streams of greenhouse gases in Kopytkowo. The basin of the described swamp developed as a result of a cut-off of a river channel and a subsequent floo...

The peat bog near the village of Bydlin in the Silesian-Cracovian Upland was subjected to geochemical, palaeobotanical and malacological analyses. The mire is located in a subsidence basin in a carbonate karst area. The sequences of biogenic deposits was identified based on materials obtained from drillings (maximum depth of 4,20 m). The sedimentar...

The history of the Ner River valley is well documented in Kolonia Bechcice (NKB) palaeochannel sediments. It was cut-off from the riverbed in the Younger Dryas. Its history may be divided into five distinct phases. During the Younger Dryas, the NKB was a relatively deep, oligotrophic water body. From the onset of the Holocene, the lake became a eut...

We use a range of environmental variables to explore the possible drivers influencing the biota, especially the composition of aquatic invertebrates, during the Younger Dryas (YD) and Early Holocene (EH) in different river valley sites: a well-developed meandering river and the confluence zone of headwater streams. Using pollen, macrofossil, cladoc...

We reconstructed 3300 years (3500 BCE and 200 BCE) of the development history of the Rąbień peatland located in central Poland, using pollen, macrofossil, testate amoebae, Cladocera, Chironomidae and geochemistry. Central Europe, particularly Poland, is characterised by a transitional climate that is influenced by continental and Atlantic air masse...