Převážná část bohatých radiolaritových industrií z moravské strany Bílých Karpat pochází z mladého neolitu, příp. počátku eneolitu. Nalézá se ve zvláštním typu stanic, jež nenaplňují kriteria trvalého zemědělského osídlení (nedostatek zahloubených struktur, keramiky a broušených nástrojů), avšak ani parametry dílenských stanovišť (vzdálenost od vlastních výchozů, pokročilá redukce suroviny, srpové čepelky). Jediné dvě lokality, které snad můžeme kulturně klasifikovat (gravettien?), leží bezprostředně nad řekou Vlárou (Bylnice II a Vlachovice), což souhlasí se sídelním vzorcem zmíněné kultury. V blízkosti zdrojů radiolaritu lze očekávat stopy všech mladopaleolitických skupin s výjimkou bohunicienu, kde je radiolarit vzácností. Přestože se radiolarit nejvíce šíří ve starší době kamenné, zůstávají paleolitické artefakty na moravské straně v Bílých Karpat velmi sporé. Některé z nich lze však datovat již do středního paleolitu. V neolitu a eneolitu, kam by měla spadat domnělá těžba (bezpečně zatím nedoložená), využití této suroviny rapidně klesá, a to i na východní Moravě. Pokud budeme extrakci a distribuci silicitů přisuzovat jen praktické funkce, nebudeme schopni tyto rozpory uspokojivě vysvětlit. and Major part of the abundant radiolarite industries from the Moravian side of the White Carpathians dates to the Late Neolithic or to the onset of the Eneolithic. These industries come from a special type of sites, which meet neither the criteria of a permanent agrarian occupation (lack of recessed structures, pottery and polished tools) nor the parameters of workshop localities (some km away from primary outcrops, advanced core reduction, sickle blades). The only two localities, which might perhaps be culturally classified (Gravettian?), are situated immediately above the river Vlára (Bylnice II and Vlachovice), corresponding herewith to the settlement pattern of the said culture. In the neighbourhood of radiolarite deposits we can expect evidence of all Upper Palaeolithic groups except Bohunician, in which this material is rare. Even though radiolarite spreads widely mostly in the Palaeolithic, artefacts of this period remain very sporadic on the Moravian side of the White Carpathians. However, some of them can be dated to the Middle Palaeolithic already. In the Neolithic and Eneolithic, in which the supposed mining activity (not yet reliably proved) should have taken place, the exploitation of this raw material decreases rapidly, as well in Eastern Moravia. If we attribute the extraction and distribution of siliceous rocks only with practical purpose, we will not be able to explain these contradictions in a satisfactory way.
Semi-dry grasslands in the White Carpathian (Bílé Karpaty) Mountains on the Czech-Slovak border are famous for their extremely high species richness. In places they contain more than 130 species of vascular plants per 100m2 and for some plot sizes they hold world records in the number of vascular plant species, but the reasons for this are poorly understood. Here we ask whether the high number of species in these grasslands can be explained by local ecological factors. We compared the White Carpathian grasslands with similar grasslands in adjacent areas in the west (southern Moravia) and the east (Inner Western Carpathians), which are on average notably poorer in species than those in the White Carpathians. In both of these areas, we sampled grasslands that were among the species richest in the regional context and had a similar physiognomy, species composition and ecology as those in the White Carpathians. We found 75 sites with >70 and >25 species of vascular plants per 100 m2 and 1 m2, respectively, in which we recorded species composition and local environmental conditions, including precipitation, soil depth, soil pH and nutrient concentrations, above-ground biomass production and nutrients in plant biomass. Although the White Carpathian grasslands were considerably richer in species than the richest grasslands in the adjacent regions, there were no differences in the values of the factors studied that could provide an unequivocal explanation of their high species richness. However, the values of the factors studied were within the ranges reported in the literature as conducive to high species richness in temperate grasslands. We conclude that the high species richness recorded in the White Carpathian grasslands cannot be explained by a single factor. It results from a unique combination of regional factors (long history of these grasslands, large size of individual grassland areas and their existence in a landscape mosaic with forests, scrub and small wetlands), local abiotic factors (soil pH, soil nutrient status, moisture regime and resulting grassland productivity that are suitable for many species from the regional species pool) and management (low fertilizer input and mowing once a year in late spring or summer).