Man-Induced Landscape Evolution in the North Caucasian Piedmont of Russia

Paleosols buried by colluvial deposits and artificial agricultural terraces were investigated to reconstruct natural and man-induced environmental change in the central North Caucasus. The profiles buried under ancient man-made agricultural terraces (1000-1500 years B.P.) are similar to recent surface Chemozems. Minor differences in thickness, humus and carbonate content of Ah horizons are due to anthropogenic disturbance before burial or diagenesis. This indicates that a steppe ecosystem persisted in the central North Caucasian piedmont during late Holocene. The sections of colluvial sediments in downslope positions show alternation of coarse stony slope deposits and well developed though truncated paleosol profiles. This indicates that periods of soil formation and low activity of colluviation alternated with dramatic intensification of mass movement on slopes. The early medieval anthropogenic deforestation may have destabilised slopes and activated development of the upper layer of the coarse colluvium. Pedofeatures related to ancient cultivation were detected in the paleosol below this layer.