Environmental changes in the northern Altai during the last millennium documented in Lake Teletskoye pollen record

Abstract

A high-resolution pollen record from Lake Teletskoye documents the climate-related vegetation history of the northern Altai Mountain region during the last millennium. Siberian pine taiga with Scots pine, fir, spruce, and birch dominated the vegetation between ca. AD 1050 and 1100. The climate was similar to modern. In the beginning of the 12th century, birch and shrub alder increased. Lowered pollen concentrations and simultaneous peaks in herbs (especially Artemisia and Poaceae), ferns, and charcoal fragments point to colder and more arid climate conditions than before, with frequent fire events. Around AD 1200, regional climate became warmer and more humid than present, as revealed by an increase of Siberian pine and decreases of dry herb taxa and charcoal contents. Climatic conditions were rather stable until ca. AD 1410. An increase of Artemisia pollen may reflect slightly drier climate conditions between AD 1410 and 1560. Increases in Alnus, Betula, Artemisia, and Chenopodiaceae pollen and in charcoal particle contents may reflect further deterioration of climate conditions between AD 1560 and 1810, consistent with the Little Ice Age. After AD 1850 the vegetation gradually approached the modern one, in conjunction with ongoing climate warming.

Fire in ice: two millennia of boreal forest fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core

“…1) in summer 2011, and the 410 m long core was transported to the Desert Research Institute in Reno, NV, USA. The core was cut into ∼ 1.10 m long samples with cross sections of ∼ 0.033 m by 0.033 m. These longitudinal samples were analysed in early autumn 2011 using a well-established continuous ice core analytical system (Mc-Connell, 2002;Banta et al, 2008), including determination of BC concentrations using methods described in McConnell et al (2007) and McConnell and Edwards (2008). Annual layer counting based on seasonal variations in a number of elements and chemical species, constrained by the known volcanic markers in the deep NEEM and other ice cores, was used to determine the age model with dating uncertainty of < 1 year.…”

Quantitative reconstructions of mid- to late holocene climate and vegetation in the north-eastern altai mountains recorded in lake teletskoye

“…3С) is based on two radiocarbon dates obtained from wood fragment and remains of moss (Table 1), and the 137Cs content, and was constructed with the Bacon 2.2 package (Blaauw and Christen, 2011) of R software (R Core Team, 2012). The average sedimentation rate, based on changes in the 137Cs and 210Pb contents, was previously estimated as 1.125 mm/yr (Kalugin et al, 2005;Andreev et al, 2007).…”

“…published in recent decades (Gunin et al, 1999;Tarasov et al, 2000;Blyakharchuk et al, 2004Blyakharchuk et al, , 2007Blyakharchuk et al, , 2008Andreev et al, 2007;Schlütz, Lehmkuhl, 2007;Rudaya et al, 2009Rudaya et al, , 2012. However, these records and their resolutions are insufficient for detailed palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, taking into account the size and heterogeneity of the territory.…”

“…The uppermost part of the Tel 2001-2004 core was palynologically examined by Andreev et al (2007), but was never used for quantitative reconstructions. In addition to taxonomy, newly developed statistical approaches strengthen the use of pollen data and allow numerical reconstructions of climate parameters.…”

Integrated Palaeoecological Investigation of Bottom Sediments From Lake Manzherokskoye in the Piedmont Altai Region

“…K e y w o r d s: palaeolimnology; spore-pollen analysis; diatom analysis; plant cover; ecological conditions; piedmont Altai Region; geochemistry of lake sediments. покрова Алтая, до настоящего времени имеются лишь единичные работы, посвященные либо только палинологическим исследованиям [Чернова и др., 1991;Blyakharchuk et al, 2004Blyakharchuk et al, , 2007Blyakharchuk et al, , 2008Andreev et al, 2007;Schlutz, Lehmkuhl, 2007;Бляхарчук, 2008], либо только диатомовым исследованиям [Westover et al, 2006;Митрофанова, 2009;Митрофанова, Сутченкова, 2014], но нет комплексных палинологических и диатомовых исследований, проведенных по одному объекту, которые могут более объективно характеризовать динамику природноклиматической обстановки различных округов российской части Алтая. Последнее крайне необходимо для расшифровки динамики растительности и климата в этом узловом центрально-континентальном регионе.…”