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{"title":"Does the returning farmland to grassland (retiring grassland) improve the soil aggregate stability in erosion and deposition sites?","authors":"Wuyi Li ,&nbsp;Yuanyue Xia ,&nbsp;Xiaohong Tan ,&nbsp;Fengling Gan ,&nbsp;Lisha Jiang ,&nbsp;Xiuying Xu ,&nbsp;Youjin Yan ,&nbsp;Yuchuan Fan ,&nbsp;Junbing Pu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109023","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109023","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil aggregate stability is considered one of the key parameters that reflect soil structure and quality, which is significantly influenced by soil erosion after returning farmland to grassland (retiring grassland). However, the responses of soil aggregate stability to retiring grassland at erosion and deposition sites remain unclear, especially the complex geological background of karst trough valley. Thus, soil samples were collected from erosion (dip/anti-dip slopes) and deposition sites under retiring grassland and farmland in karst trough valley. The results revealed that the bulk density (BD), total nitrogen (TN), and mean weight diameter (MWD) were significantly lower at erosion sites compared to deposition sites (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). Compared with those in the farmland, the soil organic carbon (SOC), macroaggregate (&gt; 0.25 mm) proportions, and MWD of the retiring increased significantly, by 31.78 %, 65.86 %, and 204.69 %, respectively. In addition, SOC, TN, and total phosphorus (TP) at erosion sites were significantly positively correlated with soil aggregate stability (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). The partial least path model (PLS-PM) revealed that erosion and deposition sites and retiring grassland significantly affected soil aggregate stability. This study refers to the “Grain for Green” project under the context of karst rocky desertification and elucidates changes in soil aggregate stability caused by changes in soil physicochemical properties and aggregates in retiring grassland at erosion and deposition sites of karst trough valley.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109023"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143824395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of the potential effects of forest vegetation cover on surface temperature in different geographical and climatic regions of Shaanxi Province, China","authors":"Minghui Wang ,&nbsp;Jincheng Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109020","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109020","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forest vegetation significantly influences local climate by regulating land surface energy balance, with land surface temperature (LST) serving as a key parameter for assessing these effects. However, the specific impacts of forest cover changes on LST across diverse mid-latitude topographic landscapes remain underexplored. Using a space-for-time substitution approach, this study integrated LST, evapotranspiration, and albedo data from the orbital Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor with land cover and precipitation datasets to quantify forest regulation of LST across northern, central, and southern Shaanxi Province from 2013 to 2021. The results indicate that the cooling effect of forests relative to croplands initially strengthens and then weakens in the southern mountainous region (−0.05 ± 0.202 °C), Guanzhong Plain (−0.052 ± 0.18 °C), and northern Loess Plateau (−0.034 ± 0.124 °C), while cooling relative to grasslands exhibits a stable increasing trend (−0.008 ± 0.294 °C, −0.021 ± 0.563 °C, and −0.029 ± 0.131 °C, respectively). Notably, forest cooling is more pronounced in plains and plateaus than in mountainous areas and exhibits strong seasonal variability. Mechanistically, evapotranspiration differences between forests and open land increase with latitude, whereas albedo differences show greater spatial variability. These findings provide insights into afforestation strategies in mid-latitude regions, optimizing climate benefits while enhancing adaptation to future environmental changes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109020"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143825395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Irrigation reshapes weathering and pedogenesis in calcareous soils of tropical dryland (NE Brazil)","authors":"Lucas Resmini Sartor ,&nbsp;Francisco Ruiz ,&nbsp;Priscilla Alves da Costa ,&nbsp;Daniel Pontes de Oliveira ,&nbsp;Ricardo Espíndola Romero ,&nbsp;Valdomiro Severino de Souza Júnior ,&nbsp;Marcelo Metri Corrêa ,&nbsp;Miguel Cooper ,&nbsp;Tiago Osório Ferreira","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Irrigation is crucial for improving crop productivity in dryland agricultural systems. As drylands are expected to expand due to future climate scenarios, understanding the effects of irrigation on soil properties for sustainable soil management is vital. In this context, our study investigates the impact of 23 years of irrigation on the soil morphology and mineralogy of a Eutric Calcaric Cambisol in the semi-arid region of Northeastern Brazil. Two soil profiles – one irrigated (IRR) and one non-irrigated (NIRR), located 40 m apart – were studied. Detailed mineralogical analyses, including thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray diffraction modeling, and micromorphological description of thin sections were conducted. Irrigation promoted an increase in proportion of smectite layers in the soil, as evidenced by the formation of a new mixed-layer clay phase (illite–smectite). This process was probably triggered by carbonate dissolution and subsequent cationic enrichment of the soil solution. As a result, there was an increase in soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), clay activity, and K⁺ and Ca²⁺ concentrations in IRR. Regarding soil micromorphology, irrigation induced changes in the relative c/f distribution, shifting from enaulic to porphyric. The granular and moderately developed subangular blocky structure shifted to a strongly developed subangular block structure with depth, while stipple-speckled fabrics changed to striated birefringent fabrics. Our results emphasize that an increase in irrigated croplands may reshape pedogenesis and soil fertility, consequently affecting soil functioning in these dryland soils.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109040"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143824397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changes in vegetation types alter soil respiration under the erosion and deposition topography in karst trough valley","authors":"Hailong Shi ,&nbsp;Lisha Jiang ,&nbsp;Xiaohong Tan ,&nbsp;Fengling Gan ,&nbsp;Yuanyue Xia ,&nbsp;Wuyi Li ,&nbsp;Xiuying Xu ,&nbsp;Youjin Yan ,&nbsp;Yuchuan Fan ,&nbsp;Junbing Pu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil respiration is a critical component of the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle and is significantly influenced by soil erosion and deposition topography. However, the effects of erosion and deposition topography on soil respiration remain unclear, particularly within karst valleys with different vegetation types. Therefore, we selected five vegetation types (abandoned land (bare soil with sparse weed), grassland, sloping farmland (corn field), brushland, and forest) and conducted in situ monitoring to examine the impacts of vegetation types and erosion-deposition topography on soil respiration. Additionally, a structural equation model was developed to identify key driving factors. The results indicated the following. 1) The environmental factors, soil organic carbon content, soil water content (SWC), soil temperature (ST), and electrical conductivity (EC) at the erosion site are significantly greater than those at the deposition site. 2) The soil respiration rate at the erosion site was higher than that at the deposition site with the anti-dip slope showing the highest soil respiration rate (11.2 µmol·m^−2·s⁻¹) in the forest, followed by the valley depression and the dip slope. The average soil respiration rate peaked at 3.15 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹ in August and reached the lowest value of 0.27 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹ in January. 3) The relationship between the soil respiration rate and soil temperature exhibited an exponential increase. Additionally, the soil temperature and soil organic carbon content had significant direct effects on soil respiration with path coefficients of 0.71 and 0.25, respectively, whereas erosion and deposition topography and vegetation type had indirect effects. Our findings highlight the effects of erosion and deposition topographies and vegetation types on soil respiration in the karst trough valleys and provide a theoretical foundation for enhancing carbon storage and regulating the carbon cycle in the karst trough valley ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109027"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143824401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The variability of grain size metrics in gravel-bed rivers","authors":"Daniel Vázquez-Tarrío ,&nbsp;Alain Recking","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.108974","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.108974","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grain size in gravel-bed rivers can be highly variable at the reach scale. Quantitative characterisation of the different sources of this spatial variability has many implications. For example, for how grain size sampling is programmed in gravel-bed rivers, or how this variability is considered in the propagation of uncertainties associated with the use of models and equations that employ grain size metrics as input parameters (e.g. bedload models, flow friction equations). In this paper we have undertaken a re-analysis of a large database of 462 grain size distributions (GSDs) of gravel-bed rivers compiled from previous studies. In a first step, we explore this database to identify which distribution model best describes the GSD of the collected data. Five different probability distribution models (PDFs) (lognormal, log-logistic, Weibull, Pareto, and log-raised cosine) and one empirical GSD model (Recking’s similarity model) are tested. Weibull and Recking’s models are the ones showing a best fit to the general shape of the GSD. This first analysis allows us to identify the minimum parameters we need to focus on to adequately characterise grain-size variability, namely the central tendency (e.g., <em>D₅₀</em>), the variability around this central tendency, a parameter characterising the tail towards the fine terms (e.g. % of sediment &lt; 2 mm) and another for the coarse tail (e.g. <em>D</em>_<em>84</em>). In a second step, we do a statistic analysis on those datasets where more than one GSD sample was collected across the same river reach, with the aim of identifying trends in reach-scale variability in these parameters. For each shape-defining and scaling parameters of the different distribution models we report a good fit to a normal or log-normal distribution at the reach-scale. Finally, we show how the information derived from our analysis can be combined with statistical resampling methods for maximising the information that can be obtained from most conventional grain size characterisations in gravel-bed rivers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 108974"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Temporal variation of luminescence sensitivity and environmental changes during the mid-late Holocene recorded in estuarine coastal deposits from South China","authors":"Chenyang Hou ,&nbsp;Jianhui Jin ,&nbsp;Mingming Ma ,&nbsp;Gengyu Liu ,&nbsp;Zhiyong Ling ,&nbsp;Junjie Wei ,&nbsp;Daiyu Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Predicting sediment movement and tracing their origins is crucial on the constantly changing earth’s surface. Luminescence has a special potential for determining the provenance of sediments. Its benefits include being suitable for quartz and feldspar, which are ubiquitous in geology. Because of its characteristics, luminescence can be used for investigate, tracking changes in transport rates, and determine the sources of sediment. Clarification of the tracer effect of luminescence on the provenance also means that it can be used as an indicator of landscape or environmental evolution. More work is needed to test the application of luminescence properties in different deposition environments to expand the capabilities and scope of its application. We selected a core from a comparatively enclosed region on the South China coast in order to investigate the connection between luminescence properties and landscape change. Using grain size and other proxies, we investigated the sedimentary environment. Tested the luminescence sensitivity, and established a luminescence chronology of the area dating back to the Middle and Late Holocene. And it turns out, the change in quartz luminescence sensitivity in the closed area with uniform lithology of the source rocks is controlled by the changes in sedimentary dynamics and the history of burial and transportation. Therefore, it is further suggested that luminescence sensitivity can be used as an indicator to identify landscape changes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109022"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143816101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sediment apportionment in paired, small watersheds with runoff convergence from no-tillage forage and grain production in the subtropics","authors":"Éderson Diniz Ebling ,&nbsp;Franciele de Bastos ,&nbsp;Rennan Cabral Nascimento ,&nbsp;Pedro Daniel da Cunha Kemerich ,&nbsp;Danilo Rheinheimer dos Santos ,&nbsp;Yuri Jacques Agra Bezerra da Silva ,&nbsp;José Miguel Reichert","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109028","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109028","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Areas with diversified livestock farming and intense agricultural use can lead to soil degradation, particularly in environmentally fragile regions. We collected samples of suspended sediments and potential sediment sources for five years (between 2016 and 2020), and determined geochemical tracer properties using inductively coupled plasma optical emission and X-ray fluorescence. We applied a combined sampling strategy based on land uses, being agricultural areas and unpaved roads, and erosion forms of drainage channels. In paired watersheds occupied with dairy and grain production, draining into one of the largest artificial lakes in southern Brazil. The geochemical tracers (Mn, Ti, and Fe) were chosen based on the conservativeness test, Kruskal-Wallis, and LDA correctly classified 77% of the sediment sources in both watersheds. The average RMSE and MAE for virtual mixtures were, respectively, 17% and 16% in the north watershed and 18% and 17% in the south watershed. The MixSIAR model showed unpaved roads contributed to most sediments (38% and 55%), followed by channel banks (37% and 30%) and crops (25% and 15% for the north and south watersheds, respectively). Unpaved roads are allocated perpendicular to the main contour lines, flow accumulation channels, surface flow direction, and landscape slopes. Thus, roads concentrate runoff and sediment from agricultural fields. The sediment apportionment reveals the need to focus on runoff control and road maintenance to reduce the risk of sedimentation and contamination of reservoirs, avoiding the loss of storage capacity for the supply of water and production of hydroelectric power.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109028"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vegetation and climate change during the Miocene revealed by the pollen record of Otindag Dune field, northern China","authors":"Jiale Wang ,&nbsp;Yali Zhou ,&nbsp;Xingyue Zhao ,&nbsp;Jiangli Pang ,&nbsp;Jun Zhang ,&nbsp;Yaqi Tian ,&nbsp;Yingying Cui","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109026","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Elucidating the processes and trends of aridification in inland Asia holds significant theoretical and practical importance for the evolution of the East Asian monsoon. The Otindag Dune field, situated in a semi-arid region of northern China, there is a scarcity of studies on the Neogene aridification history. Based on pollen analysis of the BYNE section, a red clay profile, combined with biomization method and coexistence approach, this study presents a reconstruction of vegetation and climate from∼17.35 to 16.12 Ma. The pollen records indicate that during∼17.35–16.12Ma, herbaceous plants dominated by <em>Artemisia</em>, Amaranthaceae, and <em>Humulus</em> were more prosperous. Tree plants were dominated by the warm and humidity-loving <em>Quercus</em>, <em>Betula</em>, and Juglandaceae. Overall, the climate was relatively warm-wet, corresponding to the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO). Accompanied by fluctuations in moisture levels, vegetation primarily comprised temperate forest steppe, temperate steppe, and temperate mixed forest. Through comprehensive analysis of pollen records from the late Miocene lacustrine deposit, the decreasing trends in the <em>Artemisia</em>/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratio and the arboreal to non-arboreal pollen (AP/NAP) ratio indicated a shift from humid to arid conditions, as well as the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) from the middle to late Miocene. The coexistence approach suggests that mean annual precipitation during the middle Miocene exceeded that of the late Miocene by approximately 100mm, further supporting the notion that the middle Miocene was wetter. A comparison of pollen records of the Otindag Dune field with those from the Tibetan Plateau and Loess Plateau, along with other Asian climate records, reveals significant consistency. The intensification of inland aridification in the Otindag Dune field throughout the Miocene is likely influenced by global cooling and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, but the tectonic spreading of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and North China Plate also contributed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109026"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shallow soil depth and low soil moisture constrain soil pCO2 on hillslopes: Insights from field experiments and model comparisons","authors":"Sibo Zeng ,&nbsp;Yongjun Jiang ,&nbsp;Zaihua Liu ,&nbsp;Qiufang He ,&nbsp;Ze Wu ,&nbsp;Xing Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109019","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) in soil is a key parameter that affects both soil CO₂ efflux and rock weathering processes. However, there is a lack of systematic studies of soil pCO₂ and its driving factors in hillslope areas with a thin soil cover. We compared the results of a nearly three-year (2017–2019) monitoring study of hillslope soil pCO₂ in four experimental plots (cultivated cabbage, natural grass, broadleaved forest, bamboo forest) in a subtropical karst trough valley in Southwest China. We found that high soil pCO₂ occurred in the plots dominated by woody vegetation, while a higher soil temperature and soil water content (<em>SWC</em>) occurred in the two herbaceous plots. In addition, the deepest soil depth (∼40 cm) had higher <em>p</em>CO₂ than the shallower soil depth (∼20 cm). We also found that <em>SWC</em> was the most important factor driving soil pCO₂ changes (62.25 %, 54.94 %) in the two experimental plots under woody vegetation, whereas soil temperature was the main driver (91.46 %, 98.13 %) of soil pCO₂ changes in the two plots with herbaceous vegetation. We applied several different models to simulate changes in soil <em>p</em>CO₂ in field plots close to the experimental plots and found that these previous models need to incorporate soil depth as a controlling factor to generate accurate <em>p</em>CO₂ results. The application of a modified soil <em>p</em>CO₂ model showed that previous soil pCO₂ simulations at the rock-soil interface on global hillslope and karst hillslope areas may be overestimated by nearly 79.0 % and 65.3 % respectively. These findings have potentially significant implications for future soil pCO₂ simulations at regional and global scales.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109019"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143816102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconstruction of the prehistoric environment on the basis of analyzing the chernozem used for the construction of the Neolithic long barrow at the Dušníky site (Czech Republic)","authors":"Barbora Strouhalová ,&nbsp;Petr Krištuf ,&nbsp;Martin Janovský ,&nbsp;Jan Novák ,&nbsp;Jan Turek ,&nbsp;Jan Fišer ,&nbsp;Hana Grison ,&nbsp;Kristýna Hošková ,&nbsp;Michal Hejcman","doi":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.catena.2025.109010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Neolithic long barrow of Dušníky in Central Bohemia (Czech Republic) was intensively investigated in 2021. The archaeological observations of the site, together with a set of pedological (chemical composition, paleomagnetic properties, near-infrared spectroscopy, radiocarbon dating, and micromorphology) and archaeobotanical analyses (anthracology, and phytoliths) of the soil and related sediment, were used to obtain reliable information about the construction of the barrow and paleoenvironment of the site.</div><div>We assume that the barrow was piled up over the grave of a ten-year-old boy. The construction material of the mound is the humic horizon of the surrounding chernozem; the original soil surface under the mound was not affected. Afterwards, a ditch was dug around the barrow. The subsoil sand dug up during this process was intentionally deposited at the foot of the barrow. This sand embankment together with the surrounding chernozem and mound gradually eroded into the ditch. After the ditch was filled, the mound further eroded into the surrounding area. Currently, the site is nearly invisible because it has been destroyed by millennia-long agriculture. The current surviving height of the barrow is appr. 80–100 cm.</div><div>We conclude that the site at the moment of the construction of the barrow (3633–3522 cal. BC) was not occupied by Neolithic people, it has only a funerary character. The vegetation at the site at the time of arrival of builders of the barrow was an open woodland dominated by <em>Pinus</em>, with the rare presence of <em>Quercus</em> and <em>Juniperus</em> and the presence of steppe grasses. This study fills the gap in the knowledge of Neolithic populations in central Bohemia. Even if situated in the region of fertile chernozems in Bohemia, the site carries no traces of occupation before the construction of the barrow.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9801,"journal":{"name":"Catena","volume":"255 ","pages":"Article 109010"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}