Soil Record of the Holocene Paleofires
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Conclusion
Subsidence sinkholes in the karst landscapes (north of Arkhangelsk region, Russia) contain
well-preserved soil record of the local pyrogenic events throughout the most part of the
Holocene, as well as the data on stages of soil formation during this period
The maximum temporal "depth" of archives estimated upon the study of 3 sinkholes is
10,261±40 cal BP. Since this time, the paleofire record encompasses every millennium
except for 5000-4000 cal BP
8 out of 34 14C determinations in a consecutive row demonstrate distances of more than
200 cal BP between 2σ ranges (95,4% probability) of neighbor-determinations. Thus, these
14C dates reliably distinguish individual paleofires at a threshold of "charcoal inbuilt age"
common to the tree species in the Holocene history of the region
Soil formation at the inter-pyrogenic stages maintained a uniform direction for at least
10,000 yrs and profiles of Podzols were regularly replicated
In situ record of paleofires in numerous pyrogenic-soil archives located in a regular grid of
sinkholes complements the ex situ sedimentary charcoal record in lakes and bogsView entire presentation