Recent and subfossil malacofauna of Witkowe Rocks in the Jerzmanowice area (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Southern Poland)

Abstract

Malacological analysis was carried out on the deposits filling small karst forms within Witkowe Rocks in the southern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland (Southern Poland). The study included six profiles and was supplemented by observations of the contemporary mollusc fauna inhabiting the area. Four types of subfossil faunal assemblages, characterised by different taxonomic composition and zoogeographic and ecological structures, were identified. The observed diversity of malacofauna indicates that the sediments filling the analysed forms accumulated in different climatic phases of the Holocene. In the oldest deposits, cold-loving taxa no longer found in the Upland were common. These sediments represent the Early Holocene or Late Glacial. The younger generation of fillings included an assemblage with shade-loving taxa with high thermal tolerance representing the Early Holocene. In the most recent fills, assemblages with composition and structure similar to contemporary malacocoenoses are present, varying depending on local environmental factors and corresponding to the period of the last few hundred years. No significant anthropogenic conversion of habitats was identified within Witkowe Rocks, and the observed diversity of malacofauna is due to natural factors operating at a local scale.