The Early Holocene vegetation changes in the vicinity of the Gorbunovo peat bog in the Middle Urals (Russia) (original) (raw)
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Diversity, 2020
Peatlands are remarkable for their specific biodiversity, crucial role in carbon cycling and climate change. Their deposits preserve organism remains that can be used to reconstruct long-term ecosystem and environmental changes as well as human impact in the prehistorical and historical past. This study presents a new multi-proxy reconstruction of the peatland and vegetation development investigating climate dynamics and human impact at the border between mixed and boreal forests in the Valdai Uplands (the East European Plain, Russia) during most of the Holocene. We performed plant macrofossil, pollen, testate amoeba, Cladocera, diatom, peat humification, loss on ignition, carbon and nitrogen content, δ13C and δ15N analyses supported by radiocarbon dating of the peat deposits from the Krivetskiy Mokh mire. The results of the study indicate that the wetland ecosystem underwent a classic hydroserial succession from a lake (8300 BC–900 BC) terrestrialized through a fen (900 BC–630 AD) ...
Postglacial history of East European boreal forests in the mid‐Kama region, pre‐Urals, Russia
Boreas
The Ural Mountains are an important climatic and biogeographical barrier between European and Siberian forests. In order to shed light on the postglacial formation and evolution of the boreal forests in the European pre-Urals, we obtained a peat sediment core, Chernaya, from the Paltinskoe bog located between the southern taiga and hemiboreal forest zone in the mid-Kama region. We carried out pollen analysis, non-pollen palynomorph analysis, loss-on-ignition tests and radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dated records provide centennial to decennial resolution of the vegetation and environmental history of the European pre-Urals for the last 8.8 ka. The postglacial formation of the pre-Uralian hemiboreal forests reveals four important phases: (i) the dominance of Siberian taiga and forest-steppe in the Early Holocene and beginning of the Middle Holocene (8.8-6.9 ka), indicating a dry climate; (ii) the spread of spruce and European broadleaved trees in the Middle Holocene (6.9-4 ka) under wetter climate conditions; (iii) the maximum extent of broadleaved trees coinciding with the arrival and spread of Siberian fir in the Late Holocene (4-2.3 ka); and (iv) the decline of broadleaved trees since the Early Iron Age (2.3 kapresent) possibly due to general climate cooling and logging. While temperate broadleaved trees possibly spread from local refugia in the Urals, fir arrived from Siberia and spread further west. The carbon accumulation rate of Paltinskoe bog (18.9AE10.16 g C m À2 a À1) is close to the average value of carbon accumulation of northern peatlands. Local development of peat is characterized by non-gradual growth with a phase of intensive carbon accumulation between 3.5 and 2.3 ka. The vegetation was strongly influenced by fire in the Early Holocene and by humans since the Early Iron Age practicing deforestation, agriculture and pasture. Phases of increased anthropogenic activity correlate well with the local archaeological data.
Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation, 2014, Vol. 22, No. 6, 2014
Integrated studies on several peat–gyttja sections, including Mesolithic and Neolithic cultural layers, were conducted for the Shigir and Gorbunovo peatlands of the Middle Urals. The results of plant mac rofossil and pollen analyses were used to reconstruct the history of peat formation, vegetation, and climate changes during the Holocene. The radiocarbon dating of archaeological artifacts and enclosing sedimentary layers were used to reconstruct the stratigraphy and dynamics of peat formation and establish the chronology of habitation of this region in the changing paleoenvironmental conditions.
Understanding the long-term ecological dynamics of boreal forests is essential for assessment of the possible responses and feedbacks of forest ecosystems to climate change. New data on past forest dynamics and peatland development were obtained from a peat sequence in the southern Valdai Hills (European Russia) based on pollen, plant macrofossil, microcharcoal, peat humification, and testate amoeba analyses. The results demonstrate a dominance of broadleaved forests in the study area from 7000-4000 cal yr BP. Picea was initially a minor component of this forest but increased in cover rapidly with climatic cooling beginning at 4000 cal yr BP, becoming the dominant species. Broadleaved species persisted until 900 cal yr BP, with evidence for intensified felling and forest management over recent centuries. Over the last four hundred years there is evidence for widespread paludification and the establishment of Picea-Sphagnum forests. These data demonstrate how modern wet woodlands have been shaped by a combination of climatic and anthropogenic factors over several millennia. The results also demonstrate the value of a multiproxy approach in understanding long-term forest ecology.
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2003
The vegetation history of the Kargaly region has been reconstructed on the basis of pollen analysis of archaeological sediments and one peat bog, the only one found during some years of surveying this area. This latter, Novienky peat bog, located in the steppe transition zone, offers an interesting cultural and natural sequence. Palynological analysis reveals several palaeoecological phases from 4300 b.p. (Bronze Age) to the 18th–19th centuries a.d. (Russian period). Metallurgical activities in Kargaly caused deforestation from the Bronze Age onwards that mainly affected the distribution of birch forests in the region. The palaeoclimatic interpretation of the Novienki pollen diagram is based on the observed changes in the pollen curves of Picea (spruce), Pinus (pine), Abies (silver fir) and Betula (birch). These arboreal taxa are regarded as main climate indicators. The chronology is established on a 14C-dated pollen profile from the lowest peat layer as well as on the regional pollen sequences and archaeological stratigraphies.
Early Mesolithic peat-bog sites on the Upper Volga
Andreas Bauerochse, Henning HaBmann (eds). Peadands. Archaeological sites - archives of nature - nature conservation - wise use. Proceedings o f the European Peatland conference 2002 in Hannover, Germany. Hannover, 2003
Fieldwork carried out by the Upper Volga expedition under the direction of the author during the last 15 years led to the discovery of about 60 peatland sites, twelve of which were excavated. In three of them the early Mesolithic lowest layers were dated from the end of the Younger Dry as to the Pre-Boreal period by pollen and from before 10,300 to 9000 BP (uncal) by 14C. This article gives a summaiy of recent data on environmental changes during this period and the results of excavations of these sites during the period 1992-2001. Subsistence strategies of the early Mesolithic population of the Upper Volga region are discussed. The role of both natural and social factors in the development of the Mesolithic economy in the region is outlined. The economic and cultural type of the hunters-fishers-gatherers, characteristic of the boreal forest zone, was already established in its main features in the Upper Volga area at the beginning of the Mesolithic, and gradually developed in subsequent periods without any crises up to the end of the middle Neolithic.
Radiocarbon Chronology of the Shigir and Gorbunovo Archaeological Bog Sites, Middle Urals, Russia
Radiocarbon, 2012
Two well-known archaeological sites, the peat bogs of Shigir and Gorbunovo (Middle Urals, Russia), have been radiocarbon dated (61 conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry [AMS] dates from various natural and artifact samples). For the first time, a detailed chronology of Early to Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic occupation for this region has been obtained, and a paleoenvironmental history reconstructed. Based on these results, we propose that the Mesolithic settlement of the Middle Urals region started in the early Holocene, at the same time as in central and eastern Europe.
Quaternary International, 2018
Climate change and human activity considerably influenced the temperate European deciduous forests through the Holocene, with the anthropogenic impacts being detected even in currently protected areas. This paper is focused on the area of the Kaluzhskiye Zaseki Nature Reserve, which contains remnants of primary broadleaved forests in central European Russia. Here, we present a new multi-proxy record including pollen, plant macrofossils, charcoal, loss on ignition and radiocarbon dating from the Mochulya peatland supplemented by 14 radiocarbon dates of charcoal fragments from soil pits in the study area. The results show that Mochulya peatland was a fen throughout the most of the time it existed. During the last 4200 cal yr BP the study area was occupied by broadleaved forests of Quercus, Ulmus, and Tilia. Picea became relatively abundant after 2300 cal yr BP. Despite the long-term human impact, vegetation fragments of these forests have persisted in the area until the present. Three main periods of deforestation and frequent fires were identified: 3700-3200 cal yr BP, 2000-1600 cal yr BP (the Early Iron Age) and 1000-400 cal yr BP (the Medieval Period). Whereas human-induced vegetation changes were apparent during the last two periods, vegetation dynamics during 3700-3200 cal yr BP were likely caused, at least in part, by climatic factors.
Holocene environmental history on the eastern slope of the Polar Ural Mountains, Russia
Boreas, 2006
The Holocene environmental history of the eastern slope of the Polar Ural Mountains has been reconstructed using pollen, spores, algae and other microfossils from the Chernaya Gorka palsa section (67805?N, 65821?E, 170 m a.s.l.). An initial oligotrophic lake was formed at the study site c. 9800 Á9500 14 C yr BP. Although tundra communities dominated the vegetation in the area, birch and larch trees might have grown at lower elevations. Dry and disturbed soil habitats also occurred around the lake. Algae (mostly Pediastrum and Botryococcus) started to expand in the lake as climate gradually improved after c. 9500 14 C yr BP. However, the role of mosses (mostly Calliergon and Drepanocladus) was most important for the infilling of the lake basin. Increased temperatures and subsequent improvement of hydrological conditions resulted in vegetation changes: stands of willows developed rapidly and the role of tree birch in the local vegetation increased. The lake was completely filled at c. 8600 14 C yr BP. Peat accumulation started with Bryales mosses and, later, Sphagnum became dominant. Stands of Larix, Picea and Betula became well developed during the Boreal climate optimum. Tree birch began to spread into the tundra. Different Bryales mosses formed peat c. 8000 Á6500 14 C yr BP. Cyperaceae later became the main peat-forming element. Dense spruce canopies with Larix sibirica and Betula pubescens surrounded the study site during the Atlantic period, pointing to the warmest climate during the Holocene. Summer temperatures might have been up to 3 Á48C higher than today. However, a decline of spruce and an increase of birch around 6700 Á6300 14 C yr BP may reflect some climate deterioration. There are no dated deposits younger than 6000 14 C yr BP. It is assumed that Subboreal climate deterioration resulted in the development of permafrost and formation of the palsa at the site. The deposits, now protruding above the surrounding terrain, were eroded by wind, water and cryogenic processes.