1100-years history of transformation of the East European forest-steppe into arable land: Case study from Kursk region (Russia)

Abstract

Large parts of the East European forest-steppe are covered by agricultural and pastoral landscapes with decreasing proportions of semi-natural meadow steppes and fragments of semi-natural woodland. Although numerous palynological records indicate that a total deforestation occurred in the last 500 years, the details of the transformation from natural vegetation into an agrarian landscape are still lacking as well as an evaluation of the political role in this process. This study focuses on the vegetation and fire history at the northern edge of the forest-steppe in the Kursk region (Russia) and aim to reconstruct the transformation process in its historical context. New pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and charcoal records with decennial to centennial resolution obtained from the Seim River region enable a comprehensive reconstruction of the local and regional landscape history over the last 1100 years. The palynological records provide unique insights into the heterogeneous vegetation cover of microregions and evidence spatial asynchronous deforestation and crop field creation. The findings highlight a crucial role of political systems on the formation of agro-pastoral landscapes with small remaining forest patches of today. The heterogeneity of the natural vegetation distribution before major deforestation as well as the duration of human impact should be considered in ecosystem restoration projects.