Lake development and vegetation history in coastal Primor'ye: implications for Holocene climate of the southeastern Russian Far East

Abstract

Latvia Lake provides one of the few high-resolution palaeoenvironmental records from southeastern Primor'ye. It traces basin, vegetation and climate histories over the past c. 8.6 ka. The Latvia basin experienced four phases, two of which involved frequent shifts amongst lake, lagoon and bay settings (c. 8.6-7.0 cal. ka BP and c. 2.1 cal. ka BPpresent). A sandbar was present between c. 7.0 and 6.9 cal. ka BP. The longest interval of Latvia basin stability was from c. 6.9-2.1 cal. ka BP when the basin was a lagoon of varying salinities. Quercus-broadleaf forests characterized the regional vegetation throughout the past c. 8.6 ka. Variations in thermophilous species (e.g. Juglans, Carpinus, Ulmus, Tilia, Syringa) and Pinus koraiensis reflect shifts in temperature and moisture during the Middle Holocene. A period of warmest climate occurred c. 8.6-5.1 cal. ka BP with wettest conditions from c. 7.5-4.3 cal. ka BP, although all changes in temperature and precipitation were gradual. The Latvia Lake results indicate that changes in Middle to Late Holocene climates were linked more closely to shifts in the East Asian Summer Monsoon and less so to sea level oscillations. This investigation demonstrates that lakes of coastal Primor'ye can provide reliable palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate records despite their changing depositional environments.

Glukhoye Lake: Middle to Late Holocene environments of Kunashir Island (Kuril Archipelago, Russian Far East)

“…2015; Lozhkin et al . 2017, 2021) noted that multiple changes in sea level, which had been proposed by Korotky et al . (1996, 2000) as correlating to Middle and Late Holocene climate fluctuations, were not supported by the diatoms or lithology, nor the geochemistry of the coastal lake records.…”

“…2015; Lozhkin et al . 2017, 2021). This simple comparison suggests that shifts in the pollen assemblages are the result of changes in vegetation and not in the depositional setting.…”

“…2015) and from a coastal lake on the mainland (Lozhkin et al . 2021) indicated that changes in palynological assemblages were independent of shifts in depositional environments, even in cases of significant differences, such as the shift from marine lagoons to freshwater lakes. The Glukhoye record also confirms these findings and underscores the usefulness of the coastal lacustrine records for palaeovegetation interpretations.…”

Palaeoenvironmental records from Siberia and the Russian Far East – contributions from DIMA Network members – Introduction

“…2021); 5 = Lake Latvia (Lozhkin et al . 2021, this issue); 6 = various sites in Kamchatka (Payne et al . 2021, this issue); 7 = Lake Sokoch (Nazarova et al .…”

“…Moving on shore, Lozhkin et al . (2021, this issue) present the first high‐resolution record from the coastal zone of the southern Russian Far East, which reflects sea‐level and coastal dynamics and vegetation changes. In Kamchatka, a study by Payne et al .…”