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The paper presents isolation basin stratigraphy in bottom sediments from nine lakes in the Teriberka area on the Kola Peninsula, northwestern Russia. Isolation contacts in these basins, identified from lithological and diatom analysis, were used together with 25 radiocarbon dates, to construct a relative sea-level (RSL) curve for the Holocene. Records of marine water re-influx were found in the sediment sequence from one lake, located at c. 17 m a.s.l. The re-influx of marine water seems to be caused by the mid-Holocene (Tapes) transgression and tsunami event. The RSL curve indicates several phases in the postglacial evolution of the Kola coast. An early phase of rapid sea-level fall of c. 32 m around 11,500 cal yr BP, at a rate of c. 40 mm per year, corresponds to glacio-isostatically induced emergence following deglaciation at the Younger Dryas and beginning of the Holocene. In the time interval between c. 11,000 and 7600 cal yr BP, either a stillstand or a slight rise in relative sea level, cresting at about 21 m a.s.l., is suggested in the Teriberka area. This is followed, after c. 7300 cal yr BP to the present day, by a slow glacioisostatic emergence with an average rate of about 2–3 mm per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peatlands store massive amounts of organic carbon, but the fate of this carbon remains unclear as global climate continues to warm. The age of peatland inception and the main drivers of peat initiation are one of the most important issues in Holocene paleoecology, especially for the numerous but under investigated peatlands in European Russia. This paper introduces new peatland initiation ages for 44 mires in three areas located in the central part of European Russia within the Polesie landscape belt. This region is characterised by waterlogged sandy plains and flat surface topography. Phases of peatland initiation were compared with Holocene fire regime derived from macro-charcoal data as well as with regional climatic reconstructions. We found that peat inception in the region started around 12,000 cal yr BP, but the most active phases of peatland initiation took place during the periods 8500–7500, 7000–6000, 5300–5800, 4000–3500 and 1700–1200 cal yr BP. Expect for rapid peat growth during the early Holocene, peatland initiation mostly coincided with warm climatic periods and increased fire frequency. Forest soil paludification in poorly drained Polesie landscapes was presumably enhanced by reduced evapotranspiration and changes in water balance due to disturbance of forest cover after wildfires. We expect that rising air temperature in the current century will cause higher fire frequencies and may encourage waterlogging of forests and ecosystem transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of pollen, diatom, charcoal, and sediment analyses from Lake Bol'shoye Zavetnoye, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus, north-western Russia. The main goal is to contribute to the discussion of Neolithic land use in north-eastern Europe. The article aims to answer questions related to Stone Age hunter-gatherer economy, ecology, and anthropogenic environmental impact through a comprehensive combination of multiple types of palaeoecological data and archaeological material. According to diatom data, Lake Bol'shoye Zavetnoye was influenced by the water level oscillations of Ancient Lake Ladoga during much of the Holocene. Intensified human activity and prolonged human occupation become visible in the Lake Bol'shoye Zavetnoye pollen data between 4480 BC and 3250 BC. During the final centuries of the Stone Age, a new phase of land use began, as several anthropogenic indicators, such as Triticum, Cannabis, and Plantago lanceolata appear in the pollen data and a decrease in Pinus values is recorded. In general, the results indicate that socio-cultural transformations could have taken place already from the mid-5th millennium BC onwards, including new ways of utilizing the environment, perhaps also in the field of subsistence, even though the livelihood was based on foraging throughout the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their huge extent, the peatlands of Russia are an under-exploited source of data on palaeoenvironmental change. We investigated the Holocene history of Staroselsky Moch, an ombrotrophic peatland in the Tver Region of European Russia by analysis of testate amoebae, peat physical properties, plant macrofossils and pollen. The peatland developed through a classic hydroseral succession in the early Holocene with a sharp decline in mineral input to 6200 cal. BC followed by an abrupt transition from fen to bog vegetation around 5500 cal. BC. Through the Holocene, the peatland has accumulated carbon at a mean apparent rate of 21.5 g C m−2 yr−1 suggesting that carbon accumulation rates in peatlands of European Russia lie close to the global average, and contrasting with a short sequence of eddy-covariance data which implies a net loss of carbon. The testate amoeba record shows considerable variability which may be driven by climate, but changes are not well replicated in the macrofossil or pollen data. We tentatively infer (1) a phase of early Holocene warming commencing around 7200 cal. BC, (2) dry peatland surface conditions c. 3700–3900 cal. BC, (3) a shift to wetter conditions from c. 3900 cal. BC, and (4) drier conditions from c. 400 cal. BC onwards. More robust and precise hydroclimatic reconstructions for this region will require the development of a regional transfer function and the replication of results between cores and sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]