A bi-partite Ferdynandovian succession from Łuków, Eastern Poland:a new palynostratigraphic approach

Abstract

The paper presents a new approach to the Middle Pleistocene lacustrine deposits at the Łuków site (Łuków Plain, E Poland). The resultsof pollen analysis document a rarely found complete Ferdynandovian pollen succession with evidence of two warm periods of interglacial rank and two cold ones. New geological and palynological data are presented and interpreted against a background of earlier researchby Rühle and Sobolewska from 1969, including a comparison with the nearest complete Ferdynandovian succession at Zdany (SiedlceUpland) and with the stratotype section of Ferdynandów. The proposed division of the Łuków sequence into two warm periods separatedby a succession typical of glacial periods has been based on a new division of Ferdynandovian pollen succession applied for the first timeto the Podgórze B1 pollen profile. Two warm units and the intervening cold one in the Łuków pollen sequence correspond to theclimatostratigraphical units Ferdynandovian 1 and 2 separated by the cooling/glaciation (Ferdynandovian 1/2) and can be related to theCromerian Complex.