THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EASTERN EUROPEAN TAIGA IN LATE CENOZOIC

Abstract

The authors suggest a new aspect of origin and development of the East European boreal forest. Innovative ideas and new data allowed to analyze the genesis of the ecosystem cover by creating a series of model reconstructions of different historical periods with different intensity and forms of human activity. Paleobiological reconstruction of teriofauna and denroflora since the late Pliocene to the present allows assuming that the initial vegetation type for boreal forests was Pliocene coniferous-broad-leaved savanna-looking forests of Northern Eurasia, where large herbivores (giant species of the mammoth complex) affected biota the most. At the end of Pleistocene the loss of the key species’ role of large and giant herbivores for grassland ecosystems was a crucial step in the irreversible transformation of the terrestrial ecosystem. During Holocene forest vegetation split into boreal (taiga), nemoral-boreal and nemoral zones as a result of human activities.

Keywords

• boreal forests
• palynological and osteological database
• keystone species
• model reconstructions
• ecosystems history
• Pleistocene
• Holocene.
• Holocene