The laboratory was founded in 2004 on the basis of the group of archaeological soil science.

The research topic of the laboratory is to study the influence of climate change and anthropogenic activities on the evolution and current state of soils in the European part of Russia. The contribution of climate and anthropogenic activities to the development and current state of soils in the European part of Russia is assessed as both factors determined the current state of soils.

Within the framework of the “climate block”, the changes in Holocene dynamics of moisture level and temperature as critical factors in soil functioning are studied. The object of study in this case are paleosols of different ages, covered by natural and artificial soil deposits. These are primarily kurgan mounds, floodplain soils, deluvial plumes at the foot of the slopes and other objects with a book-like solid-phase memory. The main stages of the evolution of soils in the steppe zone of the south of the Russian Plain and Trans-Urals over the past 6000 years were reconstructed in connection with the dynamics of mean annual precipitation and the changes in arid and humid climatic e.

Based on the results of a study of qualitative and quantitative parameters of organic carbon, salt, carbonate content particularities in buried and modern soils of different ages in the steppe zone, as well as a comprehensive study of the state of soil microbial communities, a previously developed system of diagnostic paleosol characteristics reflecting the intensity and direction of environmental changes in the second half of the Holocene has been improved. It was established that for the period of 2001–2018 in the European territory of Russia, the most noticeable increase in temperatures is accompanied by a decrease in precipitation, which contributes to climate aridization and the formation of soil drought.

Global and regional patterns of changes in moisture and soil formation in the Holocene in the steppe zone are divided. Connections between soil formation, fluctuations in levels of the Caspian and Aral Seas and super-secular solar activity have been identified.

In addition to studying the paleoclimatic information contained in the solid matter of soils, the information potential of the biological memory of soils is revealed. The degree of sensitivity of the structural and functional state of the soil microbial community in relation to climate change is revealed, as well as the duration of preservation of paleoclimatic information recorded in biological memory at the level of microbial biomass, the activity of enzymes of the nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycles. It was developed the concept of biological memory of soils.

This term is proposed to be understood as the ability of the soil microbial community to change its structure and biological activity as a result of the input of additional organic substrates of anthropogenic nature into the soil, and to maintain these changes indefinitely long period of time. This makes it possible, using quantitative and qualitative methods of soil microbiology and enzymology, to reconstruct the initial input of various organic substrates into soils in different archaeological contexts.
Within the framework of the “anthropogenic” block, the role of human activity of the ancient population of the steppe zone and the Caucasus in the formation of the modern soil cover of the regions is studied.

For the mountainous zone of the Caucasus, an important task is to study the scale and consequences of agricultural development of slopes and the creation of erosion-resistant artificial relief forms – agricultural terraces, as well as assessing the possibilities of their use in modern agricultural production. For the steppe zone, cattle breeding remains an important factor in the evolution of soils over the past 5,000 years. Such a long stage of natural-anthropogenic development affects the current state of soils. The objects of research, in this case, are soils within the potential economic zones of ancient and medieval settlements, as well as soils in the vicinity of modern farms along a gradient of pasture load.

A comprehensive study of all of the above objects opens up the possibility of obtaining unique information about the scale and direction of potential soil changes under various climate development scenarios and anthropogenic activities that took place during the historical period. A retrospective analysis of the transformation of the physicochemical properties and biological activity of soils in response to climate fluctuations and human activity in the past will make it possible to predict the responses of soils and ecosystems in various natural zones of our country in the context of the implementation of certain climate change scenarios under conditions of increasing anthropogenic load.