ИСТИНА

The Holocene environmental history and climate changes was reconstructed by multi-proxy records of pollen, plant macrofossils, testate amoebae and charcoal from 6 model areas located in different landscapes within the forest area of European Russia. The obtained results show that the main area of European Russia was occupied by birch-pine forests in the early Holocene. Climate warming at about 9-8.8 ka BP (thousand calibrated years before present) caused significant changes in vegetation almost synchronously all over European Russia. At this time, spruce forests spread into the northern part of the modern taiga zone. The Valdai upland was occupied by coniferous-broadleaved forests, and in the period of 7.5-5.5 ka BP broadleaved forests dominated. Vegetation of the Smolensk-Moscow upland and the north-western part of the Mid-Russian upland was formed by deciduous forests, mainly broadleaved, since 9.2 ka BP. Pine and birch forests persisted in the Meshchera lowlands for 7.0 ka BP due to frequent fires and low fertile sandy soil. The plant cover of the territories located in the taiga and broadleaved forest vegetation zones did not change throughout the middle and late Holocene, despite remarkable climate fluctuations. Transformations of landscapes were caused only by human impact. Vegetation dynamics in the areas located in the modern zone of coniferous-broadleaved forests were influenced by expansion of spruce, which occurred transgressive from North to South. Coniferous-deciduous forests occupied the Valdai upland at 5.5 ka BP and at 2.5 ka BP these forests spread into Smolensk-Moscow upland and Meshchera lowlands. The phases of expansion of spruce forests coincided with the stages of cooling and increase of climate humidity. The next, almost synchronous boundary of changes in the landscape structure in all key areas is defined as the last 300 years. During this period, modern anthropogenic landscapes were formed.