Mid- and Late Holocene vegetation dynamics and fire history in the boreal forest of European Russia: A case study from Meshchera Lowlands

Abstract

Climate, fire, and human activities strongly affected the development of vegetation communities during the Holocene, yet the relative importance of these individual factors remains unclear in many areas. This paper presents new multi-proxy records of environmental change for the Meshchera Lowlands (the central part of the East European Plain) during the Holocene. Changes in regional vegetation during the Mid- and Late Holocene were influenced by climate, fire regime and human impact, as indicated by pollen, plant macrofossil, charcoal and testate amoebae analysis from several peat cores, along with reconstruction of tree cover from pollen assemblages. Since 8500calyrBP, the vegetation history represented a series of consecutive phases of birch, birch-pine and pine-broadleaf forests, with introduction of spruce after 2500calyrBP. Maximal abundance of broadleaf tree species was detected from 4700 to 2000calyrBP. Vegetation dynamics were strongly influenced by human activity since 1400calyrBP. High fire frequency was recorded for the periods 8500–4500calyrBP and 3500–2000calyrBP, when the fire return interval varied from 40 to 80years. Since 2000calyrBP, the fire return period exceeded 500years suggesting a significant decline in fire frequency during the last two millennia.