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Climate Dynamics and the History of Soil Formation in the Steppe Zone of Eastern Europe in the Holocene

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Abstract

The results of the study of paleosols of different ages buried under kurgan mounds allowed specific features of soil evolution to be determined, and a reconstruction of the climate dynamics in the steppe zone of Eastern Europe over the second half of the Holocene. It has been shown that over the past 6000 years, this area has undergone repeated changes in climatic conditions, causing variations in the boundaries of soil-geographical zones. Humid conditions of the Atlantic period of the Holocene existed until the end of the 4th millennium BC; after that, a trend towards a gradual increase in aridity and soil salinization began. The maximum aridity was at the turn of the 2nd millennium BC. This was followed by several periods of increasing humidity and soil desalinization in the 18th–15th and the 5th–4th centuries BC, interrupted by stages of aridization, erosion, carbonate accumulation, and salinization.

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Funding

Chemical and microbiological analyses of soil was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 17-18-01406). The study of magnetic soil properties was supported by the RFBR (project no. 18-04-00800). Field work were carried out in accordance with State Scientific Programs nos. 0191-2019-0046 and 0191-2019-0048 and the Program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Evolution of Organic World and Planetary Processes”.

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  1. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Pushchino, Russia

    A. V. Borisov, A. O. Alekseev, T. S. Demkina, M. V. El’tsov, P. I. Kalinin, T. V. Alekseeva & T. E. Khomutova

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  1. A. V. Borisov
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  2. A. O. Alekseev
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  3. T. S. Demkina
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  4. M. V. El’tsov
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  6. T. V. Alekseeva
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  7. T. E. Khomutova
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Correspondence to A. V. Borisov.

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Translated by I. Bel’chenko

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Borisov, A.V., Alekseev, A.O., Demkina, T.S. et al. Climate Dynamics and the History of Soil Formation in the Steppe Zone of Eastern Europe in the Holocene. Paleontol. J. 54, 862–871 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030120080067

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