Pollen record and landscape reconstruction of the small forest-steppe natural archive Oskino-09

Lacustrine-peat sediments from the small forest-steppe natural archive Oskino-09, spanning about 7000 years were studied by pollen method. Radiocarbon dating was obtained for four samples; the age of the deposits was determined using the Bhron age model. In the southwest of Western Siberia, meadow-steppe landscapes occupied the largest areas in the middle of the Holocene 7.5-4.7 cal ka BP because of reduced effective moisture due to warming. A subsequent gradual decrease in temperatures and a decrease in evaporation led to an improvement in moisture and provided birch resettlement 4.7-2.0 cal ka BP, with short interruptions ca 3.3 and 2.5 cal ka BP. The expansion of pine forests and the advancement of taiga to the south were revealed ca 2.0 cal ka BP. Signs of the human impact were not so significant in antiquity and the Middle Ages and do not confirm the assumption of the forest-steppe belt formation due to anthropogenic deforestation on the southern border of the taiga.