This paper reviews the data on quaternary palynological sequences collected in the Czech Republic, attempts to store them in the Czech Quaternary Palynological Database (PALYCZ) and outlines a possible use for regional syntheses. Work on pollen stratigraphies done over the last hundred years has yielded a very large amount of data for this region. These data can be used globally for various types of environmental reconstructions and are of local importance, especially when combined with local databases. For data to be included in PALYCZ it has to meet certain criteria, the determination of the pollen of herbaceous plants must be well resolved and radiocarbon dated. As of 31 December 2008, we had reviewed 177 pollen profiles. Data from 152 sequences are already stored in PostgreSQL® in relational tables, which allow a broad range of queries to be addressed using the html protocol. The data collected since 1959 by 15 authors contain raw pollen counts together with 14C dates and various metadata on locality. All the pollen samples were ordered using non-metric multidimensional scaling. Display of the ordination diagram incorporating the appropriate millennial time slices revealed a common pattern in all data. The quality of data is also discussed in the context of the history of the research and methods used. Database access can be found at http://botany.natur.cuni.cz/palycz.
V průběhu poslední doby ledové a na začátku doby poledové se odehrávaly dramatické změny v globálním klimatu. Mezi důležité a zajímavé otázky současné paleoekologie patří nejen rekonstrukce a interpretace různých fází glaciální a raně postglaciální vegetace a klimaticky podmíněný vývoj společenstev, ale i vývoj vlivu člověka, který nakonec vedl ke vzniku kulturní krajiny. and Dramatic changes occurred in global climates during the last ice age and at the beginning of the Holocene. Reconstruction and interpretation of various stages of glacial and early postglacial vegetation, the climatically induced development of no-analog communities and human impact developments, which ultimately led to the evolution of the cultural landscape, are very important questions in palaeoecology.