Insight into the Last Glacial Maximum climate and environments of the Baikal region

Abstract

This study presents a multi-proxy record from Lake Kotokel in the Baikal region at decadal-to-multidecadal resolution and provides a reconstruction of terrestrial and aquatic environments in the area during a 2000-year interval of globally harsh climate often referred to as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The studied lake is situated near the eastern shoreline of Lake Baikal, in a climatically sensitive zone that hosts boreal taiga and cold deciduous forests, cold steppe associations typical for northern Mongolia, and mountain tundravegetation. The results provide a detailed picture of the period in focus, indicating (i) a driest phase (c. 24.0-23.4 cal. ka BP) with low precipitation, high summer evaporation, and low lake levels, (ii) a transitional interval of unstable conditions (c. 23.4-22.6 cal. ka BP), and (iii) a phase (c. 22.6-22.0 cal. ka BP) of relatively high precipitation (and moisture availability) and relatively high lake levels. One hotly debated issue in late Quaternary research is regional summer thermal conditions during the LGM. Our chironomid-based reconstruction suggests at least 3.5°C higher than present summer temperatures between c. 22.6 and 22.0 cal. ka BP, which are well in line with warmer and wetter conditions in the North Atlantic region inferred from Greenland ice-cores. Overall, it appears that environments in central Eurasia during the LGM were affected by much colder than present winter temperatures and higher than present summer temperatures, although the effects of temperature oscillations were strongly influenced by changes in humidity.

Climatic and environmental changes in the Yana Highlands of north‐eastern Siberia over the last c. 57 000 years, derived from a sediment core from Lake Emanda

“…2004, 2019; Stauch & Lehmkuhl 2010; Tarasov et al . 2019). It also suggests that a strong Siberian High ensured cold and dry conditions by impeding moisture transport to North and Central Siberia during winter (Dale Guthrie 2001; Murton et al .…”

Moisture origin and stable isotope characteristics of precipitation in southeast Siberia

“…Since the 1990s, the region has increasingly become a centre of palaeoenvironmental studies using sedimentary archives from Lake Baikal (Kravchinsky, 2017; Kuz'min, Khursevich, Prokopenko, Fedenya, & Karabanov, 2009) and numerous small lakes (Bezrukova, Tarasov, Solovieva, Krivonogov, & Riedel, 2010; Danilenko, Solotchin, & Solotchina, 2015; Leonova et al, 2018; Mackay, Bezrukova, et al, 2013; Sklyarov et al, 2010). In particular, oxygen isotope records from diatoms (Kalmychkov, Kuz'min, Pokrovskii, & Kostrova, 2007; Kostrova et al, 2013, 2014, 2016; Mackay et al, 2011, Mackay, Swann, et al, 2013; Morley, Leng, Mackay, & Sloane, 2005; Swann et al, 2018) and ostracods (Tarasov et al, 2019) have been analysed and demonstrate the relationship between isotope signals preserved in sedimentary archives and ancient atmospheric precipitation patterns. All these studies require the knowledge of the stable isotope composition of recent regional precipitation.…”

Not herbs and forbs alone: pollen‐based evidence for the presence of boreal trees and shrubs in Cis‐Baikal (Eastern Siberia) derived from the Last Glacial Maximum sediment of Lake Ochaul

“…Laptev Sea coast (Kienast et al, 2005) and a chironomid-based reconstruction from Lake Kotokel (Tarasov et al, 2019). Both studies suggest a ca.…”

“…and complex topography in the study region (Fig. 2A) cause very variable climatic and micro‐climatic conditions (Galaziy, 1993), which explain the patchy character of vegetation distribution and high diversity of plants (Belov et al ., 2002) representing different vegetation types or biomes such as taiga, cold deciduous forest, steppe and tundra (Demske et al ., 2005; Tarasov et al ., 2019; Kobe et al ., 2020).…”