The Use of Soils Buried Under Embankments from Animal Burrows for Paleosoil and Paleoecological Reconstructions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52575/2712-7443-2026-50-1-131-148Keywords:
Belgorod region, forest-steppe, animal burrow embankments, buried soils, background soils, evolution of soils, Holocene, paleoecological reconstructionsAbstract
A new method for paleosoil and paleogeographic reconstructions in soil evolutionary research was tested. This method compares soils buried beneath earthen embankments from forest animal burrows with modern (background) ones formed in similar topographic and lithologic conditions in immediate vicinity of the burrows. This method is proposed to be classified as a soil chronosequence method. The study was conducted in the forest-steppe zone of the Belgorod region. The authors examined the soils associated with earth embankments from a fox burrow (the "Dolzhik" site in the Belgorod district, the Seversky Donets river basin) and a badger burrow (the "Roshcha" site in the Yakovlevsky urban district, the Vorskla river basin). A reconstruction of the ecological conditions (at the "Dolzhik" site) suggests that forests of preindustrial period (several centuries ago) were more densely packed, which contributed to more active podzolization in forest soil profiles than today. In even earlier periods (according to the research at the "Roshcha" site), the climate was drier than today, which reflected in the presence of more pronounced signs of chernozem formation in the soil buried under the badger burrow deposits compared to the background gray forest soil profile. This suggests the initial presence of meadow-steppe landscapes in the place of today's broadleaved forests of the forest-steppe zone, and the subsequent expansion of forests into the steppe, which occurred in the Late Holocene under the influence of climate change toward greater humidity.
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