Palaeoecological peatland study highlights human impact on the environment of Western Siberia's taiga

Taiga is one of the world’s largest boreal forest areas that, together with peatlands, span extensive regions of Siberia. Over the past, it has been subject to changes influenced by natural factors and human activity, which utilized available timber and raw materials for their needs. However, Western Siberia's coupled taiga and peatlands history remains insufficiently studied. We lack a comprehensive understanding of the extent to which indigenous people, including the Khanty, influenced taiga through logging, grazing, or controlled fires before the intensive forest exploitation that commenced in the 20th century. Therefore, our research focuses on the palaeoecological reconstruction of environmental changes over the past 1600 years in the Khanty-Mansiysk region (Western Siberia). We employed pollen, testate amoebae, and charcoal from Shapsha bog to reconstruct past dynamics of taiga vegetation and associated changes in the peatland. Our results demonstrate that indigenous communities probably had minimal impact on the natural environment. We also recorded a forest fire at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. It may have transformed the ecosystem by raising water levels, enhancing peat accumulation, and fostering peatland growth. Our records indicate that human activities began significantly impacting the environment from the 16th century. The Russian colonization of Siberia is likely responsible for these changes, as it involved organized action of taiga deforestation for purposes such as building settlements, creating trade routes, and developing agriculture.  In connection with colonization, Russian settlers took over local areas near the peat bog from the indigenous population and created the town of Shapsha.

This research was funded in the framework of the National Science Centre grant No. 2021/41/B/ST10/00060 and INTERACT No. 730938 - PeatHOT project, and within the frame of the IDUB (Excellence Initiative—Research University) programme (003/13/UAM/0007 and 003/13/UAM/0008).