Despite the abundance of charcoal material entrapped in soils, they remain relatively less studied pyrogenic archives in comparison to the sedimentary paleofire records (e.g., lacustrine and peat deposits), and that is especially the case in most of Russia’s territory. We report here on the deep soil archives of the Holocene forest fires from the Pinega District of the Arkhangelsk region (64.747° N, 43.387° E). Series of buried soil profiles separated by charcoal layers and clusters were revealed in specific geomorphological traps represented by the active and paleokarst subsidence sinkholes on sulfate rocks overlaid by glacial and fluvial deposits. We combine the study of soil morphology and stratigraphy with a set of radiocarbon data on charcoal and soil organic matter, as well as the anthracomass analysis, to extract a set of paleoenvironmental data. A total of 45 radiocarbon dates were obtained for the macrocharcoal material and the soil organic matter. The maximum temporal “depth” of archives estimated from the radiocarbon dating of macrocharcoal reached 10,260 ± 35 cal yr BP. Soil formation with Podzols established at the inter-pyrogenic stages repeatedly reproduced within the period of ten thousand years, while the dominant tree species was Pinus sp. According to the macrocharcoal data, the intervals between fires have shortened in the last thousand years. Dendrochronological estimates suggest the occurrence of fires in almost every decade of the 20th and early 21st centuries. This is the first study of the millennia-scale soil record of forest fires in this particular region of Russia.

The increasing number of fires leads to the constant increase of the proportion of pyrogenic soils in Russia. The objective of this study is to determine t

The fires themselves have become important factor, which controls ecosystems, pedological processes and climate.Our work are aimed as the decoding of the soil archives, which contain unique information about the direction and rates of the soil formation; the interactions between fire and vegetation composition and studying the long-term dynamics of vegetation.The primary study objects are charcoal layers in pyrogenic soils, preserved in particular geomorphological traps of various karst landscapes in the North part of European Russia. Such layers, as pyrogenic archives are represented by several (up to dozens)  interlayers, that are separated by buried soil profiles.The main method is pedoanthracological. About 100 charcoal particles from all interlayers in different podzol soils were studied. The age interval was between early Holocene and modern time.Results. The bulk of all coals was represented by pine, the rest by spruce. Coals belonging to other tree species (for example, birch) were absent. That is, only indigenous coniferous forest always burned.Conclusions. Over the entire period of soil and sediment formation, the vegetation cover in the region has not changed. It is possible that the time period required to restore indigenous forests and the chronology of the cyclicality of fires are interconnected.The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Project No. 19-23-05238.