Šúr, a former late-glacial and Holocene lake at the westernmost margin of the Carpathians.

There is a unique palaeolimnological record of the late-glacial and Holocene periods in the former lake Šúr near Bratislava in western Slovakia. The aim of this study was to reconstruct the development of the environment in the locality of the lake, including the gradual infilling of the lake. We reconstructed the development of the lake environment by combining results of a geochemical analysis with analyses of diatoms and plant macrofossils. We also carried out a pollen analysis to assess the changes in the surrounding terrestrial vegetation. The results reveal how the character of the lake has changed over time. At the peak of the glacial period, water flowed through the lake and deposited sand there. Later on the flow of water through the lake ceased and a vast oligotrophic lake developed. During the Holocene, the lake gradually became eutrophic. The pollen record contains evidence of the occurrence of woody species of broad-leaved forest in the late-glacial period in the Carpathians and of the expansion of mixed forests of Fagus and Carpinus in the Holocene around 4500 BP. The development of the vegetation in the locality of lake Šúr is more similar to that at localities in Hungary than those situated north and west of the Western Carpathians.