Global warming affects, among many other things, groundwater recharge conditions. Over recent decades, this phenomenon in the Carpathians has been emphasized by the changing role of snowmelt recharge in winter and spring. The aim of the study was to assess baseflow trends in 20 medium-sized Carpathian catchments in Poland and Slovakia. The baseflow was calculated using Eckhardt’s digital filter. The trend analysis was performed using the non-parametric method separately for the series representing the baseflow throughout the whole year, and separately for seasons. The most evident changes were noted for the low baseflow in the summer and autumn, especially in foothill catchments. Statistically significant decreases in the low daily baseflow were expressed as a relative change, and ranged from −9% to −66% per 10 years for the summer, and from −12% to −82% per 10 years for the autumn. In winter and spring, trends in the low baseflow were not significant, except in high mountain catchments where 14% of increases in the low baseflow were noted in the winter and spring. The results indicate the changing role of snowmelt recharge in the Carpathians and the increasing problem of groundwater depletion in the summer and autumn, mainly in foothill areas.

Flysch-type aquifers in the Eastern Carpathians usually feed periodic and low-discharge springs. However, in some areas, such as in the upper part of the Połonina Wetlińska Massif, perennial springs with a relatively high discharge were identified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify recharge and groundwater flow patterns of three high-discharge springs based on the response of spring discharge to rainfall and on the relationship between specific electrical conductivity of water and spring discharge. The relation between spring discharge and rainfall was investigated by cross-correlation analyses. Generally, cumulative rainfall over a period from 10 days to 3 months is most strongly correlated with discharge; however, the response time of spring discharge varies throughout the year. Faster response to rainfall occurs in the spring after snowmelt, while in the summer and autumn months the response time increases. Two flow systems were identified: 1) a relatively deep, fissure-pore flow system with a long response time to precipitation and 2) a shallow, fissure-dominated system with a short response time, which is superimposed on the longer response. A small range of specific electrical conductivity combined with the varying discharge of two springs suggests that dilution of groundwater by rainwater does not play a significant role. The differences in the studied springs’ response to rainfall can be attributed to the recharge area, regolith features and local bedrock structures, i.e. occurrence of joints and faults, monoclinal dip of rock layers and gravitational slope deformations including ridge-top trenches, which, thus far, have been underestimated in determining groundwater storage capacity in the flysch part of the Carpathians.

Wpływ pokrycia terenu oraz jego zmian na rozmieszczenie stanowisk bobra europejskiego w Magurskim Parku Narodowym

The sediment-landform assemblages preserved in many alpine valleys record glacier fluctuations during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, encompassing the moraines formed during the Egesen stadial as well as Early Holocene and Neoglacial advances. This paper is concerned with the moraine evolution in the Fiescher Valley, a relatively large glaciated alpine valley system in the Berner Alps, which hosts the fourth-largest glacier in the Alps. A geomorphological and sedimentological analysis, supplied with Schmidt-hammer exposure age-dating, was used on the preserved moraine sequence along a 7-kilometre section of the valley. Calibrated Schmidt-hammer weathering results provide evidence of the multiphase glacier readvances of the Fischer glacier during the Younger Dryas and Early Holocene. The exposure age of Holocene boulders strongly differs with the time of moraine formation as a result of the incorporation of more weathered boulders that originated by earlier glacier fluctuations and rockfall activity. We thus infer that the previously formed Middle Holocene moraines were overridden by the much more extensive LIA advance. Sediment transport pathways in the Fiescher Valley were dominated by subglacial active erosion and transportation pathways of massive crystalline rocks, discernible via the large proportion of subrounded and subangular clasts. We found that significant and multiple glacial remodelling is arguably the most efficient way to reduce the initial platy shape of granitic and gneiss clasts, but a dependence between clast form and roundness with distance is hardly visible.

Magura National Park, located in Beskid Niski Mountains, is poorly researched in the field of hydrology. The aim of this study is to recognize the water cycle patterns in Krempna stream catchment (located in Magura NP). To reach this goal, hydrological mapping was taken. 173 (9,9/square kilometer) water outflows in catchment were surveyed; mean spring water temperature was 13,8°C (ranging from 8 to 19°C) and mean SEC was 345 µS×cm−1 (ranging from 70 to 1000 µS×cm−1). The results, compared with existing studies, indicate low water resources and a rapid transformation of rainfall into runoff in the studied catchment.