Formation of evolutionary landscape science in Russia

Abstract

In contrast to paleogeography and evolutionary geography, evolutionary landscape science is only a few decades old. This paper traces the history of paleogeographic research and, on this basis, the development of the methodology and methods of evolutionary landscape science. In this country, paleogeographic research began with the reconstruction of vegetation cover based on the edaphic approach. Later, such work started to be based on the integration of palynological data and reconstructions of climatic changes. Actual papers on evolutionary landscape science appeared only in the last decades of the XX century. At the turn of the millennium, work on paleolandscape reconstructions and paleolandscape mapping commenced. The main methods for large-scale paleoreconstructions of landscapes, which constitute the basis for works on evolutionary landscape science, are presented in the given paper. An essential part of the research is the application of the landscape-edaphic approach to specific chronological sections and the compilation of maps of conditionally restored (indigenous) landscapes. Detailed paleolandscape studies in the key areas of forest zones in the European Territory of Russia (ETR) made it possible to reveal some patterns in the evolution of their landscapes in the Holocene.