Assessing the vegetation history of european chernozems through qualitative near infrared spectroscopy

Chernozems are considered to be typical soils of continental steppe environments. Nonetheless, they exist in many areas in Central Europe, where the climate is convenient for the growth of trees and forest vegetation. Otherwise, these areas of Central Europe have been under intensive human influence since the Neolithic period. The natural conditions of the distribution of chernozems in Central Europe cannot be identified without taking into account relevant palaeoenvironmental data. Qualitative near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was proven to be an innovative method to discover the vegetational origin of soil organic matter (SOM). In our study, we developed a special NIRS reference library for chernozems and soils on loess that is based on two reference groups: soils under grassland and soils under woodland. In order to explore their palaeoenvironmental history in Central Europe, we applied the reference library on a set of 23 sites of European chernozems. We concluded that the majority of the examined chernozems have a grassland past, but some of them had also existed under woodland. The chernozems, which are currently under woodland, have a grassland past. Landscape management is a crucial factor for the pedogenesis of chernozems in Central Europe since the Neolithic. Therefore, it is inappropriate to subscribe the development of these soils just to one scenario or to consider the presence of chernozems as an undoubtable proxy for continuous grassland in the Holocene.