Understanding climate fluctuation nowadays is forefront of the research. Reconstructing lake level is an ideal tool to learn about recent climate change. Several high resolution diatom based analyses were carried out in lowland and mountain lakes in the last couple of years. However, the use of species level approach is time-consuming and financially is not affordable. Furthermore, the lack of local training sets and the continuously changing taxonomy are the drawbacks in recognising general trends in the hydrological process. The trait-based methods in terrestrial botany already proved their usefulness and were successfully applied in the phytoplankton and phytobentos research as well. This project besides traditional – species level analyses – would make possible trait-based paleoecological reconstruction. Approaching climate fluctuations trait database of wider environmental variability is needed for the Carpathians. Aiming to build a database oligotrophic habitats are going to be sampled, from the Carpathians. The last stage of ontogeny of the mountain lakes is typically the overgrowing by bryophytes and filling in. Selecting sampling sites we are aiming to cover all ontogenetic phases of the lakes. Cryptogams will be collected and their traits will be measured from Maramures, Calimani and Rodnei Mts, as well as from the South Carpathians. Special emphasis will be laid upon the complex analyses of Scots pine habitats, as established indicator of cryptic refugia. The re-assessment in the case of Lake Saint Anna, Ighiel and mountain lakes of Retezat ontogeny will be carried out by testing if climate response is independent of different species composition of each lake.

Project page:

http://buczko.eu/cryptic/index.php