Reconstruction of vegetation and soil-forming conditions in the South of taiga zone (West Siberia)

Abstract

The pedocomplex of Kireeva’s gully (deciduous forest zone, the South of Tomsk region) is investigated. It includes except modern four buried soils of different ages from 1000 to 7000 years. Soil texture is a key indicator for differentiating of lithogenesis cycles; fractional composition of humus allows to reconstruct soil formation conditions, and phytolith assemblages – plant communities in each stage of pedogenesis. It is established that the formation of the pedocomplex is determined by the processes of denudation from the adjacent slopes of erosional plain and gully-terraced complex. The phytolith assemblages of buried soils differ from that of modern soil. On the certain stages of formation of the pedocomplex, recorded in buried humic horizons, were developed: marshy meadow waterlogged with groundwater, marshy meadow (forest), herbaceous forest, wet steppe meadow, modern herbaceous-cereal meadow. Each of the plant communities was formed under climatic conditions corresponding to different subzones of the modern vegetation of West Siberia – from the southern taiga to forest-steppe.