@article{AshastinaKuzminaRudayaetal.2018, author = {Ashastina, Kseniia and Kuzmina, Svetlana and Rudaya, Natalia and Troeva, Elena I. and Schoch, Werner H. and Roemermann, Christine and Reinecke, Jennifer and Otte, Volker and Savvinov, Grigoriy and Wesche, Karsten and Kienast, Frank}, title = {Woodlands and steppes}, series = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, volume = {196}, journal = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0277-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.032}, pages = {38 -- 61}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Based on fossil organism remains including plant macrofossils, charcoal, pollen, and invertebrates preserved in syngenetic deposits of the Batagay permafrost sequence in the Siberian Yana Highlands, we reconstructed the environmental history during marine isotope stages (MIS) 6 to 2. Two fossil assemblages, exceptionally rich in plant remains, allowed for a detailed description of the palaeo-vegetation during two climate extremes of the Late Pleistocene, the onset of the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the last interglacial. In addition, altogether 41 assemblages were used to outline the vegetation history since the penultimate cold stage of MIS 6. Accordingly, meadow steppes analogue to modern communities of the phytosociological order Festucetalia lenensis formed the primary vegetation during the Saalian and Weichselian cold stages. Cold-resistant tundra-steppe communities (Carici rupestris-Kobresietea bellardii) as they occur above the treeline today were, in contrast to more northern locations, mostly lacking. During the last interglacial, open coniferous woodland similar to modern larch taiga was the primary vegetation at the site. Abundant charcoal indicates wildfire events during the last interglacial. Zoogenic disturbances of the local vegetation were indicated by the presence of ruderal plants, especially by abundant Urtica dioica, suggesting that the area was an interglacial refugium for large herbivores. Meadow steppes, which formed the primary vegetation during cold stages and provided potentially suitable pastures for herbivores, were a significant constituent of the plant cover in the Yana Highlands also under the full warm stage conditions of the last interglacial. Consequently, meadow steppes occurred in the Yana Highlands during the entire investigated timespan from MIS 6 to MIS 2 documenting a remarkable environmental stability. Thus, the proportion of meadow steppe vegetation merely shifted in response to the respectively prevailing climatic conditions. Their persistence indicates low precipitation and a relatively warm growing season throughout and beyond the late Pleistocene. The studied fossil record also proves that modern steppe occurrences in the Yana Highlands did not establish as late as in the Holocene but instead are relicts of a formerly continuous steppe belt extending from Central Siberia to Northeast Yakutia during the Pleistocene. The persistence of plants and invertebrates characteristic of meadow steppe vegetation in interior Yakutia throughout the late Quaternary indicates climatic continuity and documents the suitability of this region as a refugium also for other organisms of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe including the iconic large herbivores. (C)2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{BrueggerGobetSigletal.2018, author = {Br{\"u}gger, Sandra Olivia and Gobet, Erika and Sigl, Michael and Osmont, Dimitri and Papina, Tatyana and Rudaya, Natalia and Schwikowski-Gigar, Margit and Tinner, Willy}, title = {Ice records provide new insights into climatic vulnerability of Central Asian forest and steppe communities}, series = {Global and planetary change}, volume = {169}, journal = {Global and planetary change}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0921-8181}, doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.07.010}, pages = {188 -- 201}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Forest and steppe communities in the Altai region of Central Asia are threatened by changing climate and anthropogenic pressure. Specifically, increasing drought and grazing pressure may cause collapses of moisture-demanding plant communities, particularly forests. Knowledge about past vegetation and fire responses to climate and land use changes may help anticipating future ecosystem risks, given that it has the potential to disclose mechanisms and processes that govern ecosystem vulnerability. We present a unique paleoecological record from the high-alpine Tsambagarav glacier in the Mongolian Altai that provides novel large-scale information on vegetation, fire and pollution with an exceptional temporal resolution and precision. Our palynological record identifies several late-Holocene boreal forest expansions, contractions and subsequent recoveries. Maximum forest expansions occurred at 3000-2800 BC, 2400-2100 BC, and 1900-1800 BC. After 1800 BC mixed boreal forest communities irrecoverably declined. Fires reached a maximum at 1600 BC, 200 years after the final forest collapse. Our multiproxy data suggest that burning peaked in response to dead biomass accumulation resulting from forest diebacks. Vegetation and fire regimes partly decoupled from climate after 1700 AD, when atmospheric industrial pollution began, and land use intensified. We conclude that moisture availability was more important than temperature for past vegetation dynamics, in particular for forest loss and steppe expansion. The past Mongolian Altai evidence implies that in the future forests of the Russian Altai may collapse in response to reduced moisture availability.}, language = {en} } @article{FritzWolterRudayaetal.2016, author = {Fritz, Michael and Wolter, Juliane and Rudaya, Natalia and Palagushkina, Olga and Nazarova, Larisa B. and Obu, Jaroslav and Rethemeyer, Janet and Lantuit, Hugues and Wetterich, Sebastian}, title = {Holocene ice-wedge polygon development in northern Yukon permafrost peatlands (Canada)}, series = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, volume = {147}, journal = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0277-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.02.008}, pages = {279 -- 297}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Ice-wedge polygon (IWP) peatlands in the Arctic and Subarctic are extremely vulnerable to climatic and environmental change. We present the results of a multidisciplinary paleoenvironmental study on IWPs in the northern Yukon, Canada. High-resolution laboratory analyses were carried out on a permafrost core and the overlying seasonally thawed (active) layer, from an IWP located in a drained lake basin on Herschel Island. In relation to 14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates spanning the last 5000 years, we report sedimentary data including grain size distribution and biogeochemical parameters (organic carbon, nitrogen, C/N ratio, delta C-13), stable water isotopes (delta O-18, delta D), as well as fossil pollen, plant macrofossil and diatom assemblages. Three sediment units (SUS) correspond to the main stages of deposition (1) in a thermokarst lake (SW : 4950 to 3950 cal yrs BP), (2) during transition from lacustrine to palustrine conditions after lake drainage (SU2: 3950 to 3120 cal yrs BP), and (3) in palustrine conditions of the IWP field that developed after drainage (SU3: 3120 cal yrs BP to 2012 CE). The lacustrine phase (pre 3950 cal yrs BP) is characterized by planktonic-benthic and pioneer diatom species indicating circumneutral waters, and very few plant macrofossils. The pollen record has captured a regional signal of relatively stable vegetation composition and climate for the lacustrine stage of the record until 3950 cal yrs BP. Palustrine conditions with benthic and acidophilic diatom species characterize the peaty shallow-water environments of the low-centered IWP. The transition from lacustrine to palustrine conditions was accompanied by acidification and rapid revegetation of the lake bottom within about 100 years. Since the palustrine phase we consider the pollen record as a local vegetation proxy dominated by the plant communities growing in the IWP. Ice-wedge cracking in water-saturated sediments started immediately after lake drainage at about 3950 cal yrs BP and led to the formation of an IWP mire. Permafrost aggradation through downward closed-system freezing of the lake talik is indicated by the stable water isotope record. The originally submerged IWP center underwent gradual drying during the past 2000 years. This study highlights the sensitivity of permafrost landscapes to climate and environmental change throughout the Holocene. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{NazarovaGrebennikovaRazjigaevaetal.2017, author = {Nazarova, Larisa B. and Grebennikova, Tatiana A. and Razjigaeva, Nadezhda G. and Ganzey, Larisa A. and Belyanina, Nina I. and Arslanov, Khikmat A. and Kaistrenko, Victor M. and Gorbunov, Aleksey O. and Kharlamov, Andrey A. and Rudaya, Natalia and Palagushkina, Olga and Biskaborn, Boris and Diekmann, Bernhard}, title = {Reconstruction of Holocene environmental changes in Southern Kurils (North-Western Pacific) based on palaeolake sediment proxies from Shikotan Island}, series = {Global and planetary change}, volume = {159}, journal = {Global and planetary change}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0921-8181}, doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.10.005}, pages = {25 -- 36}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We investigated a well-dated sediment section of a palaeolake situated in the coastal zone of Shikotan Island (Lesser Kurils) for organic sediment-geochemistry and biotic components (diatoms, chironomids, pollen) in order to provide a reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental changes and palaeo-events (tsunamis, sea-level fluctuations and landslides) in Holocene. During the ca 8000 years of sedimentation the changes in organic sediment-geochemistry and in composition of the diatoms and chironomids as well as the shifts in composition of terrestrial vegetation suggest that the period until ca 5800 cal yr BP was characterized by a warm and humid climate (corresponds to middle Holocene optimum) with climate cooling thereafter. A warm period reconstructed from ca 900 to at least ca 580 cal yr BP corresponds to a transition to a Nara-Heian-Kamakura warm stage and can be correlated to a Medieval Warm Period. After 580 cal yr PB, the lake gradually dried out and climatic signals could not be obtained from the declining lacustrine biological communities, but the increasing role of spruce and disappearance of the oak from the vegetation give evidences of the climate cooling that can be correlated with the LIA. The marine regression stages at the investigated site are identified for ca 6200-5900 (at the end of the middle Holocene transgression), ca 5500-5100 (Middle Jomon regression or Kemigawa regression), and ca 1070-360 cal yr BP (at the end of Heian transgression). The lithological structure of sediments and the diatom compositions give evidences for the multiple tsunami events of different strengths in the Island. Most remarkable of them can be dated at around ca 7000, 6460, 5750, 4800, 950 cal yr BP. The new results help to understand the Holocene environmental history of the Southern Kurils as a part of the Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian Marginal Sea-Island Arc Systems in the North-Western Pacific region.}, language = {en} } @article{RudayaNazarovaNovenkoetal.2016, author = {Rudaya, Natalia and Nazarova, Larisa B. and Novenko, Elena and Andreev, Andrei and Kalugin, Ivan and Daryin, Andrei and Babich, Valery and Li, Hong-Chun and Shilov, Pavel}, title = {Quantitative reconstructions of mid- to late holocene climate and vegetation in the north-eastern altai mountains recorded in lake teletskoye}, series = {Global and planetary change}, volume = {141}, journal = {Global and planetary change}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0921-8181}, doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.04.002}, pages = {12 -- 24}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We report the first high-resolution (20-50 years) mid- to late Holocene pollen records from Lake Teletskoye, the largest lake in the Altai Mountains, in south-eastern West Siberia. Generally, the mid- to late Holocene (the last 4250 years) vegetation of the north-eastern Altai, as recorded in two studied sediment cores, is characterised by Siberian pine-spruce-fir forests that are similar to those of the present day. A relatively cool and dry interval with July temperatures lower than those of today occurred between 3.9 and 3.6 ka BP. The widespread distribution of open, steppe-like communities with Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae and Cyperaceae reflects maximum deforestation during this interval. After ca. 3.5 ka BP, the coniferous mountain taiga spread significantly, with maximum woody coverage and taiga biome scores between ca. 2.7 and 1.6 ka BP. This coincides well with the highest July temperature (approximately 1 degrees C higher than today) intervals. A short period of cooling about 13-1.4 ka BP could have been triggered by the increased volcanic activity recorded across the Northern Hemisphere. A new period of cooling started around 1100-1150 CE, with the minimum July temperatures occurring between 1450 and 1800 CE. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{TianCaoDallmeyeretal.2018, author = {Tian, Fang and Cao, Xianyong and Dallmeyer, Anne and Lohmann, Gerrit and Zhang, Xu and Ni, Jian and Andreev, Andrei and Anderson, Patricia M. and Lozhkin, Anatoly V. and Bezrukova, Elena and Rudaya, Natalia and Xu, Qinghai and Herzschuh, Ulrike}, title = {Biome changes and their inferred climatic drivers in northern and eastern continental Asia at selected times since 40 cal ka BP}, series = {Vegetation History and Archaeobotany}, volume = {27}, journal = {Vegetation History and Archaeobotany}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0939-6314}, doi = {10.1007/s00334-017-0653-8}, pages = {365 -- 379}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Recent global warming is pronounced in high-latitude regions (e.g. northern Asia), and will cause the vegetation to change. Future vegetation trends (e.g. the "arctic greening") will feed back into atmospheric circulation and the global climate system. Understanding the nature and causes of past vegetation changes is important for predicting the composition and distribution of future vegetation communities. Fossil pollen records from 468 sites in northern and eastern Asia were biomised at selected times between 40 cal ka bp and today. Biomes were also simulated using a climate-driven biome model and results from the two approaches compared in order to help understand the mechanisms behind the observed vegetation changes. The consistent biome results inferred by both approaches reveal that long-term and broad-scale vegetation patterns reflect global- to hemispheric-scale climate changes. Forest biomes increase around the beginning of the late deglaciation, become more widespread during the early and middle Holocene, and decrease in the late Holocene in fringe areas of the Asian Summer Monsoon. At the southern and southwestern margins of the taiga, forest increases in the early Holocene and shows notable species succession, which may have been caused by winter warming at ca. 7 cal ka bp. At the northeastern taiga margin (central Yakutia and northeastern Siberia), shrub expansion during the last deglaciation appears to prevent the permafrost from thawing and hinders the northward expansion of evergreen needle-leaved species until ca. 7 cal ka bp. The vegetation-climate disequilibrium during the early Holocene in the taiga-tundra transition zone suggests that projected climate warming will not cause a northward expansion of evergreen needle-leaved species.}, language = {en} } @article{WetterichRudayaKuznetsovetal.2019, author = {Wetterich, Sebastian and Rudaya, Natalia and Kuznetsov, Vladislav and Maksimov, Fedor and Opel, Thomas and Meyer, Hanno and G{\"u}nther, Frank and Bobrov, Anatoly and Raschke, Elena and Zimmermann, Heike Hildegard and Strauss, Jens and Starikova, Anna and Fuchs, Margret and Schirrmeister, Lutz}, title = {Ice Complex formation on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island (New Siberian Archipelago, East Siberian Arctic) since about 200 ka}, series = {Quaternary research : an interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {92}, journal = {Quaternary research : an interdisciplinary journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {0033-5894}, doi = {10.1017/qua.2019.6}, pages = {530 -- 548}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Late Quaternary landscapes of unglaciated Beringia were largely shaped by ice-wedge polygon tundra. Ice Complex (IC) strata preserve such ancient polygon formations. Here we report on the Yukagir IC from Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island in northeastern Siberia and suggest that new radioisotope disequilibria (230Th/U) dates of the Yukagir IC peat confirm its formation during the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 7a-c interglacial period. The preservation of the ice-rich Yukagir IC proves its resilience to last interglacial and late glacial-Holocene warming. This study compares the Yukagir IC to IC strata of MIS 5, MIS 3, and MIS 2 ages exposed on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island. Besides high intrasedimental ice content and syngenetic ice wedges intersecting silts, sandy silts, the Yukagir IC is characterized by high organic matter (OM) accumulation and low OM decomposition of a distinctive Drepanocladus moss-peat. The Yukagir IC pollen data reveal grass-shrub-moss tundra indicating rather wet summer conditions similar to modern ones. The stable isotope composition of Yukagir IC wedge ice is similar to those of the MIS 5 and MIS 3 ICs pointing to similar atmospheric moisture generation and transport patterns in winter. IC data from glacial and interglacial periods provide insights into permafrost and climate dynamics since about 200 ka.}, language = {en} }