Natural evolution of forest-steppe soils in the southwest of the Central Russian Upland during the Holocene

摘要

Palaeosol studies of burial mounds of the Bronze Age in the forest-steppe zone of Belgorod oblast, Russia, testify that the soils of modern forest and steppe ecosystems differed already in the Sub Boreal period of the Holocene. In this context, an assumption of the old age of forest-steppe ecosystems in the south of the Central Russian Upland is suggested. Soil evolution in the Late Holocene was controlled by the generally increasing humidity of the climate with corresponding changes in the soil cover.