Lynchets are topographic ledges that are formed by the accumulation of colluvium behind a hedge grown perpendicular to the slope of a hillside. This colluvium constitutes a natural archive for the analysis of agricultural erosion over time, as we demonstrate in this study of a toposequence characterized by two lynchets along a loess slope. The detailed description of the soil catena coupled with OSL dating records the major erosional phases. The earliest phase begins during the late Neolithic at ca. 5,760 ± 500 yr. The upslope hedge is installed at ca. 2,710 ± 200 yr, at the very end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Early Iron Age and the downslope hedge is planted during the Early Middle Ages. Therefore, onwards from 2,710 ± 200 yr, erosion only affects individual plots or sections rather than the entire slope. Our dates also show that the soils on the uppermost portion of the slope had undergone a complete ablation prior to 2,710 ± 200 yr. This early erosional phase, likely Neolithic in age, is consistent with other dates obtained in the northern Alsace region.

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.

The patchy character of the distribution of Chernozems and Luvisols formed on loess is often observable on the pedological maps, on a large scale, in Czechia. The focus of the paper is to examine the features of the soil catena of Hrušov (Czechia), which is characterized by the simultaneous presence of Chernozem, Luvisol and Luvic Chernozem – without obvious environmental reasons. A catena of only 330 meters is considered a system of transformation between these soils. Along with field work and the pedological analysis, we used the soil micromorphology method to understand the processes of pedogenesis. We concluded that the presence of considerably different soil types on a small scale is due to intensive agriculture. We found that the present Chernozem is formed on the Luvisol by retrograde soil evolution, which included a shift in the vegetation, erosion, and recarbonation. The evolution of Luvisol in the lower part of the catena has been considerably modified.

The Kochersberg loess area, west of Strasbourg (France), has been explored in order to reconstruct the Holocene landscape dynamics. Sediments, pollen and plant macro-remains were analysed from an organic rich sediment core, sampled in the thalweg of a small catchment. The several proxies are offering a multiscalar view of landscape evolution from the Neolithic to the Middle Age. At the catchment scale, major changes in the landscape are always associated with intense phases of occupation revealed by archaeological excavations.