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Geography and Natural Resources

2019 year, number 2

PRE-AGRARIAN LANDSCAPES IN SOUTHEASTERN MESHCHERA: RECONSTRUCTION FROM PALEOECOLOGICAL DATA

E.Yu. NOVENKO1,2, I.V. MIRONENKO1, D.A. KUPRIYANOV1, V.M. MATASOV1, M.V. BOBROVSKY3
1Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Leninskie Gory, 1, Russia
lenanov@mail.ru
2Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Staromonetnyi per., 29, Russia
3Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Moscow oblast, ul. Institutskaya, 2, Russia
maxim.bobrovsky@gmail.com
Keywords: голоцен, доантропогенные ландшафты, спорово-пыльцевой анализ, палеоэкологические рекон струкции, ландшафтное картографирование, полесье, Мещёрская низменность, Holocene, pre-anthropogenic landscapes, pollen analysis, paleoenvironment reconstructions, landscape mapping, Polessye-type landscape, Meshchera Lowlands

Abstract

This paper presents new results of paleolandscape studies in the southeastern part of Meshchera Lowlands. The reconstruc tions of pre-agrarian landscapes in the key area located in Klepikovskii district of Ryazan oblast were made using data of pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of peat deposits and results of morphological analysis of the soil profile in the key area, based on detailed maps of the contemporary landscape structure of the study area. The findings showed that prior to economic develop ment of Southeastern Meshchera, broadleaved forests of oak, lime, elm and ash and spruce-broadleaved forests grew in the dominant geosystems of moraine-fluvioglacial plains under favorable edaphic conditions. It is found that the beginning of an thropogenic transformations of the natural environment in dates back to about 1400 cal BP. It is established that since that time, primary forests were intensely cut down and burned to be replaced by agricultural lands and secondary forests. Spore-pollen spectra showed a sharp decrease in the share pollen from broadleaved species, an increase in the proportion of pollen from pine and birch, tree species characteristic of secondary stands, an increase in the abundance of pollen from herbs, and the appearance of pollen from cultivated cereals, weeds and species of disturbed habitats. Soil profiles showed old arable horizons and prolific evidence of fires. On the basis of data obtained, it is established that modern forest communities are the result of a long-lasting transformation of vegetation under the effect of the anthropogenic factor. The study revealed intense disturbances in vegetation cover over the course of the last 300 years caused by deforestation.