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The article presents the results of archaeoparasitological and palynological research of the cultural layers located in the ancient Artesian settlement in the Eastern Crimea. The study revealed the species composition of parasites and palynological spectrum in the cultural layers. Parasite eggs distribution over the layers indicates high content of eggs in almost all periods of the citadel’s existence. High abundance of geohelminth eggs in the studied samples, which might belong to both humans and domestic animals, indicates the unsatisfactory sanitary state of the settlement and the constant risk of infection with geohelminthiasis and intestinal infections possessing the same fecal-oral route of transmission. Features of the studied spore-pollen spectra do not allow a detailed reconstruction of the vegetation dynamics in the vicinity of the Artezian fortress at the turn of the millennium. The major reason is complexity of spectra formation: in addition to pollen deposited from the air (pollen rain), a significant proportion consists of pollen grains brought from other sources. Furthermore, interpretation of the spore-pollen spectra is complicated by presence of a large number of microcharcoals and burnt pollen grains. Despite the above-mentioned challenges in the study of samples from the cultural layers of the Artezian archaeological site using spore-pollen method, we have determined that the inhabitants of the settlement probably used animal dung as fuel, and that at the turn of the millennium, forestless open landscapes covered with steppe vegetation were predominant around the settlement. An important result of the study is the demonstration of unexplored opportunities to investigate cultural layers by archaeoparasitological and palynological methods and of the obtained data use as a source of bioarchaeological information.

Micromammalian fauna and palynological spectra have been studied in two cave-type localities of the Iordanskogo Ravine in the Northern Urals (Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve): the Studyony canopy and the Filin niche. The cave sedimentation conditions have been reconstructed on the basis of the paleofauna and palynological data. The fossil small mammal assemblages and the spore–pollen spectra are indicative of the spread of shrubby swampy tundra with forest islands in the Upper Pechora region at the end of the Middle Valdai (Byzovaya Interstadial, MIS 3) and tundra-steppe landscapes under the progressive climate drying during the Last Glacial Maximum. During the Late Glacial, tundra-like shrubs prevailed, and the climate was much colder than the recent one. The rodent fauna was dominated by tundra and tundra-steppe species. In the Early Holocene, the climate warming lowered the role of xerophytic shrubs, replaced by birch–spruce–pine forests. In the rodent fauna, the proportion of tundra and tundra-steppe species decreased by more than a factor of three. During the Late Holocene, dark coniferous forests with fir and Siberian pine became widespread. Rodent associations acquired a typical taiga appearance: the forest inhabitants accounted for more than half of all remains (60–80%), while the tundra species were absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of diagnostics of the beginning of agrarian development of coniferous–broad-leaved forests in northwestern European Russia and its specificity regarding changes in the zonal forest cover and its anthropogenic modifications inherent in the forest and field-meadow landscape based on studying pollen spectra from key sections. It was established that the onset of the agrarian development of the forests in the region under consideration dates back to 2300–2600 cal years BP. Judging by the continuous presence of cultivated plant pollen in the diagrams, it becomes ubiquitous and irreversible after 1500 cal years BP. The corresponding indicators and plants are given. The presence of plant pollen grains in the diagrams makes it possible to establish the time and nature of agrogenic changes in the vegetation composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lithostratigraphic, palaebotanical, and chronometric (radiocarbon dating) data on small and medium lakes around Lake Imandra (Kola region) are reported. The investigation of the sedimentary sections of modern lake basins has resulted in identification of various sediment facies, determination of the main stages of lake formation, and reconstruction of the Holocene vegetation dynamics.

Palynological samples, plant megafossils, and fossil wood taken from the upper Lipovtsy Subformation (Porechye open-pit coal mine in the Il'ichevka coalfield, Razdol'naya River Basin, southern Primorye), as well as coal samples for determining coal-forming plants from dispersed cuticles are analyzed. The taxonomic composition of the identified palynomorphs from the coals and interstratal clastic sediments indicates the Aptian age of host deposits. The palynological spectra from the lower humic-rhabdopissite coal seam are dominated by Gleicheniaceae and Cyatheaceae accompanied by Dicksoniaceae and Ginkgocycadophytus. In the palynological spectra from the upper coal seam, the share of Gleicheniaceae substantially decreases, though they remain dominant; simultaneously, single angiosperm pollen grains appear in them. The spectra from the clastic rocks are dominated by Polypodiaceae and Cyatheaceae. The taxonomical composition of the gymnosperms is relatively diverse, although their abundance is low. The share of angiosperms increases with respect to both their diversity and abundance. The angiosperm pollen, found for the first time in the Aptian deposits of the Razdol'naya River Basin, provides grounds to assume that these pants appeared earlier than previously thought (early Albian). The coal-forming plants of the Il'ichevka coalfield are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palynological data on soil profiles of burozems from Petrov Island offer a means of identifying two periods in their evolution: a cold period that was responsible for the development of podzolized burozems, and a subsequent warm period accompanied by an intensification of accumulative-humic and illuvial-humic soil-formation processes, and this did account for the peculiar morphological structure of contemporary burozems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]