67. Tarskoe swamp, central Caucasus (North Ossetia, Russia)

TheTarskoe swamp is oneof the largest peatbogs in the central part of theNorthCaucasus, it occupies about 20 ha in the basin between the Lesisty and Pastbishchny ranges (42° 57 ʹ46" N, 44° 43 ʹ32" E; 806 m above sea level [a.s.l.]). The climate is temperate continental with warm and very humid summer and medium cold, snowy winter. The swamp is located in the lower montane belt of broad-leaved forests dominated by Fagus orientalis Lipsky and Carpinus betulus L. with Quercus robur L., and an admixture of Corylus avellana L., Ulmus glabra Huds. and Pyrus caucasica Fed. Swamp vegetation is formed by Carex sp. and Phragmites australis (Cav.) Steud. with Matteuccia struthiopteris L. and Sphagnum sp., with thickets of Alnus glutinosa L. in some places. The swamp was drained for pasture and haymaking in the mid-twentieth century. Two previous studies investigated cores from the Tarskoe swamp (Knyazev et al. 1992; Neishtadt 1955, 1957). However, Neishtadt (1995, 1957) did not provide a dating for the sediment core and Knyazev et al. (1992) did not include the upper part of the core, which might have been removed during peat harvesting. The drilling for the present study was made in 2019 in an undisturbed area of the swamp.