Late Quaternary pedogenesis in periglacial zone of northeastern Europe near ice margins since MIS 3: Timing, processes, and linkages to landscape evolution
Abstract
Two paleosol-sedimentary sequences Koskovo and Puzbol developed within the nearest periglacial zone of Valday glaciation of the East European Plain (56.7°–58.5° N, the Upper Volga River basin) were studied to reconstruct soil mantle and landscape evolution since Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. The sequences are formed on terraces at 130–141 and 172 m a.s.l., constituted by ancient (Early Valday (Würm) or Late Moscow (RissII)) lake clayey sediments. The buried paleosols are represented by system of horizons Hb–G3b (Histosol), Agb–G3b and AGb horizon (Umbric Gleysol). The 14C age of the paleosol humus and peat varied between 50,300–39,700 cal. BP. These paleosols were developed under forest-tundra and pine-spruce forests with the meadow plant communities and the areas of swampy vegetation according to palynological data from Puzbol. They represent the northernmost occurrence of the MIS3 fossil soil in Europe dominated by the features of gleyzation, cryogenic aggregation, cracking, and humus and peat formation. Clay coatings in the Middle Valday paleosols and pedosediments are products of Holocene pedogenesis.
The upper lithological layers covering the MIS3 paleosols are loess-like (mantle) loams underlain by clayey Late Pleistocene lake deposits. They mark the presence of wide extraglacial lakes with existed within the Upper Volga basin during the maximum advance of the Valday glaciation (MIS2). Based on the stratigraphy of the studied sections, the highstands of these Late Quaternary lakes might exceed ≈170 m a.s.l.
For the first time it was possible to date the age of humus-clay coatings developed in the Bthk3 horizon (c.1.6–2.0 m) of Puzbol where in the upper part of the section the Cutanic Albeluvisol formed. The Early Middle Holocene age of humic acid of humus-clay coatings (≈10,900 cal. BP) and carbonate nodules 7500–8180 cal. BP refer to the first stage of pedogenesis of this polygenetic soil, which occurred from pre-Boreal to the Atlantic period, and was characterized by dark humus accumulation and carbonate precipitation in a poorly drained landscape. The 14C age of the fulvic acids of these coatings (≈6130 cal. BP) is indicative of the beginning of the second stage, dominated by clay illuviation under a better drained, leaching environment.