Estimation of the continental sedimentation rate in the Belgorod soil-sediment sequence
Authors interpret the data on the soil and sedimentary strata of the Central Russian Up-land (key sites Alexandrovsky and Yamskaya steppe, Belogorie reserve). We used the soil morphology data to reconstruct the evolutionary changes of the environment during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The sedimentation rate was calculated using a linear approximation of the radiocarbon data. Typical values of the sedimentation rate are of the order of 0.1 mm/year. It was shown that the main source of sediment and sediment layer growth are residual products of soil formation formed in the process of tree waste, forest litter, and humus transforming into clay cutans, ferromanganese nodules and calcareous murrams, original and secondary minerals which turn into sedimentary rocks. During Holocene (10000 years) 420 sm sediment accumulated, their layers changed with the change of natural zones in course of decreasing impact of retreating glacier: tundra, taiga, coniferous broadleaved forest, forest steppe, steppe. Stable climatic optimum with real steppes and typical chernozem established on the territory 5500 years ago. Within this period of time 220 sm layer of loess loam got accumulated there. The residuals appear inside the soil profile during transformation of litter, soil-forming rocks, and mineral eolian sediment. The estimated sedimentation rate can be used to describe the mechanisms of formation of soil-sedimentary sequences.