Quantitative biome reconstruction using modern and late Quaternary pollen data from the southern part of the Russian Far East

A pollen-based biome reconstruction over the last 3.562 million years in the Far East Russian Arctic – new insights into climate–vegetation relationships at the regional scale

“…However, this model-based hypothesis contradicts the modern distribution pattern of temperate deciduous broad-leaved woody taxa (e.g., Quercus mongolica or Mongolian oak), which grow today in southern areas of the Russian Far East (Mokhova et al, 2009), which experiences much colder winter temperatures (minimum MTCM values going down to −26 • C) than allowed by the model. Mokhova et al (2009) suggested that sufficiently warm summer temperatures combined with high snow accumulation may outweigh the negative influence of low winter temperatures on the temperate broad-leaved tree and shrub taxa. However, it should be acknowledged that the model does not attempt to simulate the distribution of individual taxa, particularly those with unusual adaptations to cold or snow.…”

“…These taxa, including Carpinus (hornbeam), Carya (hickory), Corylus (hazel), Juglans (walnut), Pterocarya (wingnut), deciduous Quercus (oak), Tilia (lime), Ulmus (elm), and Tsuga (hemlock), represent warmer vegetation types (i.e., cool conifer forest, cool mixed forest and temperate deciduous forest) that did not grow in the northern and northeastern parts of Asia under the extremely cold and continental climate conditions of the late Quaternary, but possibly occurred in the region close to Lake El'gygytgyn during the earlier, much warmer than present intervals . In order to consider the whole range of the Lake El'gygytgyn pollen taxa and less continental boreal and temperate forest biomes that appear in the modern vegetation of the southern Russian Far East (e.g., Mokhova et al, 2009), northern Japan (e.g., Takahara et al, 2010 and China (e.g., Yu et al, 1998), the biome-taxon matrix applied here (Table 1) was extended using the published matrixes tested with the surface modern pollen data from the respective regions of Asia Mokhova et al, 2009;Tarasov et al, 2011).…”

“…In the BIOME global vegetation model, the presence of temperate deciduous broad-leaved arboreal taxa requires the minimum MTCM to be higher than −15 • C (Prentice et al, 1992). However, this model-based hypothesis contradicts the modern distribution pattern of temperate deciduous broad-leaved woody taxa (e.g., Quercus mongolica or Mongolian oak), which grow today in southern areas of the Russian Far East (Mokhova et al, 2009), which experiences much colder winter temperatures (minimum MTCM values going down to −26 • C) than allowed by the model. Mokhova et al (2009) suggested that sufficiently warm summer temperatures combined with high snow accumulation may outweigh the negative influence of low winter temperatures on the temperate broad-leaved tree and shrub taxa.…”

Tree pollen representation in surface pollen assemblages from different vegetation zones of European Russia

“…The studies of modern pollen assemblages, beginning with works of M. Davis (1963) and S. Andersen (1970) until the last decades (e.g. Seppä et al 2004;Bennet & Hiсks 2005;Bjune et al 2005, Giesecke 2005Mokhova et al 2009;Lisitsyna et al 2011;etc), have shown the importance of a regional approach to data interpretation in pollen analysis. However, a lot of questions of pollen and vegetation relationships, human impact on vegetation and palaeoclimate still remain open.…”

Spreading of Broadleaved Species in Amur River Basin in the Holocene

“…The best studied is the part of the basin positioned clo se ly to the Pacific (hereafter denoted as maritime). The wide oc currence of peatlands all over the Lower Amur drainage basin made possible reconstructing climatic changes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene (Bazarova et al 2008(Bazarova et al , 2011; eight regional biomes were identified and compared with the present-day vegetation (Mokhova et al 2009). The problems of vegetation evolution and the relationship be t ween forest and steppe in the Holocene were discussed in ear lier works with reference to the interior part of the Amur basin (Vipper 1968, Vipper & Golubeva 1976.…”