The chapter presents the most important data of the Polish Lublin Polesie. Polesie Lubelskie is a unique natural area. It is the peripheral western part of Polesie proper – a vast geographical and historical region that spans the territory of southern Belarus and northern Ukraine, and has western outposts in Poland and eastern ones in Russia. Polish Polesie is home to a great variety of species of vascular plants and bryophytes. This is influenced by the diversity of biological communities which include water, peatland, meadow, poor grassland, moor, forest, shrub, and synanthropic ecosystems. Polish Polesie has 1,305 species of vascular plants and about 200 species of bryophytes. The fauna of Polesie Lubelskie is also species-rich. Polesie Lubelskie has for many years been considered one of the most valuable natural areas in the Lublin Province and in Poland. To preserve the region's natural resources, including the diversity of natural habitats and the sites of rare species of plants, animals, and fungi, various protection measures have been taken in this area for many years
TopBackground
Polesie Lubelskie is a unique natural area. It is the peripheral western part of Polesie proper – a vast geographical and historical region that spans the territory of southern Belarus and northern Ukraine, and has western outposts in Poland and eastern ones in Russia. Polesie Lubelskie is distinguished by exceptional bio- and geodiversity, with a wealth of unique plant and animal species and morphogenetically diverse (denudational, karst, glacial, lacustrine, organogenic) landforms found in the apparent monotony of the landscape. The area is dominated by wetlands, which are considered to be the most endangered components of this environment, and at the same time ones that are extremely sensitive to its changes. Wetlands determine the stability and ecological resistance of entire ecological landscapes. Among them stands out a compact group of lakes with a complex genesis (which bears the features of a lakeland) and accompanying functional systems with valuable and unique natural characteristics: extensive peat bog complexes, small, wooded peat bogs, and mires, and more or less strongly transformed river valleys. Due to the role they play in the environment, wetlands are counted among areas of extremely high natural value.
In the last few decades, the area of Polesie Lubelskie has been subject to increasing human interference in the naturally formed biotic and abiotic structures, which has disrupted the functioning and the biocenotic balance of the area's ecosystems. In the mid-twentieth century, most of the peat bogs located here were drained, including the largest peat bog complex of Krowie Bagno. In the western part of Polesie Lubelskie, the Wieprz-Krzna Canal was built in the zone of the surface watershed of the rivers Vistula and Bug to regulate and stabilize the area's water balance. Several lakes were incorporated into the Canal's system. In the south-western part of Polesie Lubelskie, in turn, the hard coal mine “Bogdanka” has been operating since mid-1970s, in which coal is excavated using the caving method. Excavation leads to a far-reaching transformation of the hydrological regime of this part of the area (uncontrolled development of subsidence depressions and the resulting changes in the course of local watersheds). Unfortunately, more mines are planned to be constructed in the vicinity of the border of the Polesie National Park. Despite considerable anthropogenic pressure, Polesie Lubelskie remains an area of high natural and cultural value, which leads to the development of tourism in this area.
Location of Polesie Lubelskie
Polesie Lubelskie is the western part of the large region of Polesie, which extends over the territories of southern Belarus and northern Ukraine. It lies within Western Polesie (Polesie Zachodnie), which covers part of the Vistula and Bug inter-river basin in Poland, with an area of 5559 km2. It is situated between the northern edge of the Lublin Upland (Wyżyna Lubelska) and the valley of the river Krzna, which flows into the Bug. Polesie Lubelskie includes the catchment area of the upper course of the river Tyśmienica, which flows into the river Wieprz, and in the east it reaches the valley of the Bug. On the southern side, it adjoins the Lublin Upland (the Central European Highlands zone), and in the west and north it borders on the area of Middle-Polish Lowlands.
The bottoms of river valleys and the large depressions outside those valleys are filled with Holocene sands, peat and peaty silts. Among the organogenic Holocene sediments, fen peats occupy the biggest area. They form large, compact peat bogs, especially in the western part of the Łęczna-Włodawa Lakeland (Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie) (Harasimiuk, Dobrowolski 2010). The largest of them are Krowie Bagno, Durne Bagno, Bagno Bubnów and Bagno Staw. The thickness of the peat bogs is very diverse and ranges from several dozen centimetres to over 10 meters.
The contemporary relief of Polesie Lubelskie is the product of complex morphogenetic processes, mainly erosion and accumulation, which have been shaping this area from the recessional phase of the Odranian Glaciation to the Holocene. Morphogenetically, the region is clearly divided into two parts. The northern part consists of strongly denuded, flat ground-moraine plains cut by a complex system of valleys with very poorly developed watershed zones, with numerous bifurcation zones between the basins of the rivers Wieprz and Bug (Dobrowolski, Harasimiuk 2002). The differences in elevation are small and do not exceed 25 m.