Miocene palaeoclimate reconstrutions from 11 sites in the Ukraine

Miocene deposits (marine and terrestrial) distributed throughout the whole territory of Ukraine contain numerous palaeontological remains including plant macro- and microfossils. The Miocene strata of Ukraine belong to the Central and the Eastern Paratethys and deposits from these regions have been studied palynologically. For the reconstruction of the vegetation of lowland and mountain areas in Ukraine palynological data have been complemented with data obtained from carpological and foliar studies. To obtain quantitative palaeoclimate data to reconstruct the Miocene climate evolution in the Carpathian realm and the Ukrainian Plain a total of 17 microfloral records combined from pollen counts of numerous samples are analyzed with respect to 7 climate variables using the Coexistence Approach.

(Table 1) Maximal daily erythemally effective UVB radiation and total ozone content at Vernadsky Station, Antarctica

One of the research programs carried out within the Czech-Ukrainian scientific co-operation is the monitoring of global solar and ultraviolet radiation at the Vernadsky Station (formerly the British Faraday Station), Antarctica. Radiation measurements have been made since 2002. Recently, a special attention is devoted to the measurements of the erythemally effective UVB radiation using a broadband Robertson Berger 501 UV-Biometer (Solar Light Co. Inc., USA). This paper brings some results from modelling the daily sums of erythemally effective UVB radiation intensity in relation to the total ozone content (TOC) in atmosphere and surface intensity of the global solar radiation. Differences between the satellite- and ground-based measurements of the TOC at the Vernadsky Station are taken into consideration. The modelled erythemally effective UVB radiation differed slightly depending on the seasons and sources of the TOC. The model relative prediction error for ground- and satellite-based measurements varied between 9.5% and 9.6% in the period of 2002-2003, while it ranged from 7.4% to 8.8% in the period of 2003-2004.

Pollen record from a swamp in Ukraine

(1967): In 1956-1962 investigations of swamps from the forest-steppe and steppe of Ukraine were carried out. They were followed by spore-pollen studies of swamp deposits. These materials are partially published in papers devoted to the history of vegetation in the south of Ukraine and re-vegetation of landscape in different phases of Holocene (Artyushenko, Bachurina, 1958; Artyushenko, 1959, 1960; Artyushenko, Kucheryava, 1964). Peat area in the investigated region is very small. In the forest-steppe peat occupies 1.1%, and in the steppe - 0.03% of the whole area (Peat Reserve of the Ukrainian SSR, 1959).