Summary:

Field studies have been carried out on marshland areas in the Promotion Forest Complex Rychtalskie Forest. Marshland areas are characterized by very large water storage capacities. Total annual outflow is relatively small - about 4% of a total annual precipitation and it occurs only in winter half-year and in May. Ground water levels lie shallow, about 1 m under the surface area. The forecast of water condition change in the investigated areas, expressed by ground water changes, was based on negative trend of precipitation. It has been assumed that, essential changes on marshland area ecosystems will occur, when - average ground water levels come down by about 50% of the present state. It has been es-timated that it will happen after around 100 years. Pragmatic actions should aim to totally stop water outflow from these areas. It was found that surface water had better water quality than ground water. First of them had the results in the interval ranging from the border of detect ability to the upper limit of the 2nd class of purity whereas second to the 5th class of purity. In surface waters the parameter with the poorest value in all seasons was chemical oxygen demand (ChZT). The highest level was recorded in the spring season of 2006. Poor quality of ground waters was determined by inorganic elements such as ammonia and soluble phosphates. Depending on the seasons they reached values characteristic of quality classes III, IV and V (being the worst in spring of 2006). As a result of conducted analyses no significant processes of anthropogenic pollutants were found in surface and ground waters of ombrogenic forest marshes in the Lasy Rychtalskie Promotional Forest Complex. Also other analyses conducted within the framework of this study and which results are not described in this paper (e.g. dioxin monitoring, magnetometry) confirmed the absence of considerable amounts of pollutants, particularly heavy metals and biogens in those areas (Miler et al. 2004-2007). However, in the longer perspective we need to consider elevated concentrations of pollutants in waters in connection with the forecasted water deficit, resulting from the downward trend for total annual precipitation. However, this is a rather long-time perspective.