TY - JOUR A1 - Zibulski, Romy A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Pestryakova, Luidmila Agafyevna T1 - Vegetation patterns along micro-relief and vegetation type transects in polygonal landscapes of the Siberian Arctic JF - Journal of vegetation science N2 - QuestionHow important is the effect of micro-relief and vegetation type on the characteristics of vascular plants and bryophytes in low-centred polygons? LocationSiberian Arctic, Russia. MethodsEight low-centred polygons in northern Siberia were surveyed for vegetation along transects running from the rim to the pond via the rim-pond transition of each polygon and across a vegetation type gradient from open forest to tundra. ResultsThe cover of vascular plants and bryophytes displays no significant differences between the rim and rim-pond transition but is significantly lower in the pond section of the polygons. Alpha-diversity of vascular plants decreases strongly from rim to pond, whereas bryophyte diversity in pond plots is significantly distinct from the rim and the rim-pond transition. There is no clear trend in cover for either plant group along the vegetation type transect and only a weak trend in -diversity. However, both gradients are reflected in the compositional turnover. The applied indicator species analysis identified taxa characteristic of certain environmental conditions. Among others, we found vascular plants primarily characteristic of the rim and bryophyte taxa characteristic of each micro-relief level and vegetation type. ConclusionsThe observed gradual pattern in -diversity and composition of polygonal vegetation suggests that micro-relief is the main driver of changes in the vegetation composition, while vegetation type and the related forest cover change are of subordinate importance for polygonal vegetation patterns along the Siberian tree line. KW - Bryophytes KW - Indicator species KW - Low-centred polygon KW - NMDS KW - Russia KW - Tree line KW - Tundra KW - Vascular plants Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12356 SN - 1100-9233 SN - 1654-1103 VL - 27 SP - 377 EP - 386 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tian, Fang A1 - Cao, Xianyong A1 - Dallmeyer, Anne A1 - Ni, Jian A1 - Zhao, Yan A1 - Wang, Yongbo A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike T1 - Quantitative woody cover reconstructions from eastern continental Asia of the last 22 kyr reveal strong regional peculiarities JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - We present a calibration-set based on modern pollen and satellite-based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) observations of woody cover (including needleleaved, broadleaved and total tree cover) in eastern continental Asia, which shows good performance under cross-validation with the modern analogue technique (all the coefficients of determination between observed and predicted values are greater than 0.65). The calibration-set is used to reconstruct woody cover from a taxonomically harmonized and temporally standardized fossil pollen dataset (including 274 cores) with 500-year resolution over the last 22 kyr. The spatial range of forest has not noticeably changed in eastern continental Asia during the last 22 kyr, although woody cover has, especially at the margin of the eastern Tibetan Plateau and in the forest-steppe transition area of north-central China. Vegetation was sparse during the LGM in the present forested regions, but woody cover increased markedly at the beginning of the Bolling/Allerod period (B/A; ca. 14.5 ka BP) and again at the beginning of the Holocene (ca. 11.5 ka BP), and is related to the enhanced strength of the East Asian Summer Monsoon. Forest flourished in the mid Holocene (ca. 8 ka BP) possibly due to favourable climatic conditions. In contrast, cover was stable in southern China (high cover) and arid central Asia (very low cover) throughout the investigated period. Forest cover increased in the north-eastern part of China during the Holocene. Comparisons of these regional pollen-based results with simulated forest cover from runs of a global climate model (for 9, 6 and 0 ka BP (ECHAM5/JSBACH similar to 1.125 degrees spatial resolution)) reveal many similarities in temporal change. The Holocene woody cover history of eastern continental Asia is different from that of other regions, likely controlled by different climatic variables, i.e. moisture in eastern continental Asia; temperature in northern Eurasia and North America. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Pollen KW - AVHRR KW - Modern analogue technique KW - Quantitative reconstruction KW - East Asian summer monsoon Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.02.001 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 137 SP - 33 EP - 44 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schneider, Andrea A1 - Wetterich, Sebastian A1 - Schirrmeister, Lutz A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Meyer, Hanno A1 - Pestryakova, Luidmila Agafyevna T1 - Freshwater ostracods (Crustacea) and environmental variability of polygon ponds in the tundra of the Indigirka Lowland, north-east Siberia JF - Polar research : a Norwegian journal of Polar research N2 - Freshwater ostracods (Crustacea, Ostracoda) are valuable biological indicators. In Arctic environments, their habitat conditions are barely known and the abundance and diversity of ostracods is documented only in scattered records with incomplete ecological characterization. To determine the taxonomic range of ostracod assemblages and their habitat conditions in polygon ponds in the Indigirka Lowland, north-east Siberia, we collected more than 100 living ostracod individuals per site with a plankton net (mesh size 65 mm) and an exhaustor system from 27 water bodies and studied them in the context of substrate and hydrochemical data. During the summer of 2011, a single pond site and its ostracod population was selected for special study. This first record of the ostracod fauna in the Indigirka Lowland comprises eight species and three additional taxa. Fabaeformiscandona krochini and F. groenlandica were documented for the first time in continental Siberia. Repeated sampling of a low-centre polygon pond yielded insights into the population dynamics of F. pedata. We identified air temperature and precipitation as the main external drivers of water temperatures, water levels, ion concentrations and water stable isotope composition on diurnal and seasonal scales. KW - Arctic limnology KW - permafrost KW - patterned ground KW - ecological indication KW - freshwater ostracods Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v35.25225 SN - 0800-0395 SN - 1751-8369 VL - 35 PB - Society of Exploration Geophysicists CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schirrmeister, Lutz A1 - Meyer, Hanno A1 - Andreev, Andrei A1 - Wetterich, Sebastian A1 - Kienast, Frank A1 - Bobrov, Anatoly A1 - Fuchs, Margret A1 - Sierralta, Melanie A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike T1 - Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental records from the Chatanika River valley near Fairbanks (Alaska) JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - Perennially-frozen deposits are considered as excellent paleoenvironmental archives similar to lacustrine, deep marine, and glacier records because of the long-term and good preservation of fossil records under stable permafrost conditions. A permafrost tunnel in the Vault Creek Valley (Chatanika River Valley, near Fairbanks) exposes a sequence of frozen deposits and ground ice that provides a comprehensive set of proxies to reconstruct the late Quaternary environmental history of Interior Alaska. The multi-proxy approach includes different dating techniques (radiocarbon-accelerator mass spectrometry [AMS C-14], optically stimulated luminescence [OSL], thorium/uranium radioisotope disequilibria [Th-230/U]), as well as methods of sedimentology, paleoecology, hydrochemistry, and stable isotope geochemistry of ground ice. The studied sequence consists of 36-m-thick late Quaternary deposits above schistose bedrock. Main portions of the sequence accumulated during the early and middle Wisconsin periods. The lowermost unit A consists of about 9-m-thick ice-bonded fluvial gravels with sand and peat lenses. A late Sangamon (MIS 5a) age of unit A is assumed. Spruce forest with birch, larch, and some shrubby alder dominated the vegetation. High presence of Sphagnum spores and Cyperaceae pollen points to mires in the Vault Creek Valley. The overlying unit B consists of 10-m-thick alternating fluvial gravels, loess-like silt, and sand layers, penetrated by small ice wedges. OSL dates support a stadial early Wisconsin (MIS 4) age of unit B. Pollen and plant macrofossil data point to spruce forests with some birch interspersed with wetlands around the site. The following unit C is composed of 15-m-thick ice-rich loess-like and organic-rich silt with fossil bones and large ice wedges. Unit C formed during the interstadial mid-Wisconsin (MIS 3) and stadial late Wisconsin (MIS 2) as indicated by radiocarbon ages. Post-depositional slope processes significantly deformed both, ground ice and sediments of unit C. Pollen data show that spruce forests and wetlands dominated the area. The macrofossil remains of Picea, Larix, and Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia also prove the existence of boreal coniferous forests during the mid-Wisconsin interstadial, which were replaced by treeless tundra-steppe vegetation during the late Wisconsin stadial. Unit C is discordantly overlain by the 2-m-thick late Holocene deposits of unit D. The pollen record of unit D indicates boreal forest vegetation similar to the modern one. The permafrost record from the Vault Creek tunnel reflects more than 90 ka of periglacial landscape dynamics triggered by fluvial and eolian accumulation, and formation of ice-wedge polygons and post depositional deformation by slope processes. The record represents a typical Wisconsin valley-bottom facies in Central Alaska. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Permafrost KW - Interior Alaska KW - Loess KW - Cryolithology KW - Geochronology KW - Paleoecology KW - Landscape dynamics Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.02.009 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 147 SP - 259 EP - 278 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Li, Kai A1 - Liu, Xingqi A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Wang, Yongbo T1 - Rapid climate fluctuations over the past millennium: evidence from a lacustrine record of Basomtso Lake, southeastern Tibetan Plateau JF - Scientific reports N2 - Abrupt climate changes and fluctuations over short time scales are superimposed on long-term climate changes. Understanding rapid climate fluctuations at the decadal time scale over the past millennium will enhance our understanding of patterns of climate variability and aid in forecasting climate changes in the future. In this study, climate changes on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau over the past millennium were determined from a 4.82-m-long sediment core from Basomtso Lake. At the centennial time scale, the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), Little Ice Age (LIA) and Current Warm Period (CWP) are distinct in the Basomtso region. Rapid climate fluctuations inferred from five episodes with higher sediment input and likely warmer conditions, as well as seven episodes with lower sediment input and likely colder conditions, were well preserved in our record. These episodes with higher and lower sediment input are characterized by abrupt climate changes and short time durations. Spectral analysis indicates that the climate variations at the centennial scale on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau are influenced by solar activity during the past millennium. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24806 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 6 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kruse, Stefan A1 - Wieczorek, Mareike A1 - Jeltsch, Florian A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike T1 - Treeline dynamics in Siberia under changing climates as inferred from an individual-based model for Larix JF - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog KW - Forest change KW - IBM KW - ODD model description KW - Larix gmelinii KW - Permafrost ecosystem KW - Time-lag effects Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2016.08.003 SN - 0304-3800 SN - 1872-7026 VL - 338 SP - 101 EP - 121 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klemm, Juliane A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Pestryakova, Luidmila Agafyevna T1 - Vegetation, climate and lake changes over the last 7000 years at the boreal treeline in north-central Siberia JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal KW - Tundra-taiga ecotone KW - Larix gmelinii KW - Palynology KW - Sediment geochemistry KW - Mean July temperature KW - Ordination KW - WA-PLS KW - Procrustes rotation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.015 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 147 SP - 422 EP - 434 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Birks, H. John B. A1 - Laepple, Thomas A1 - Andreev, Andrei A1 - Melles, Martin A1 - Brigham-Grette, Julie T1 - Glacial legacies on interglacial vegetation at the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition in NE Asia JF - Nature Communications N2 - Broad-scale climate control of vegetation is widely assumed. Vegetation-climate lags are generally thought to have lasted no more than a few centuries. Here our palaeoecological study challenges this concept over glacial–interglacial timescales. Through multivariate analyses of pollen assemblages from Lake El’gygytgyn, Russian Far East and other data we show that interglacial vegetation during the Plio-Pleistocene transition mainly reflects conditions of the preceding glacial instead of contemporary interglacial climate. Vegetation–climate disequilibrium may persist for several millennia, related to the combined effects of permafrost persistence, distant glacial refugia and fire. In contrast, no effects from the preceding interglacial on glacial vegetation are detected. We propose that disequilibrium was stronger during the Plio-Pleistocene transition than during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period when, in addition to climate, herbivory was important. By analogy to the past, we suggest today’s widespread larch ecosystem on permafrost is not in climate equilibrium. Vegetation-based reconstructions of interglacial climates used to assess atmospheric CO2–temperature relationships may thus yield misleading simulations of past global climate sensitivity. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11967 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 7 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Biskaborn, Boris A1 - Subetto, D. A. A1 - Savelieva, L. A. A1 - Vakhrameeva, P. S. A1 - Hansche, A. A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Klemm, J. A1 - Heinecke, L. A1 - Pestryakova, Luidmila Agafyevna A1 - Meyer, H. A1 - Kuhn, G. A1 - Diekmann, Bernhard T1 - Late Quaternary vegetation and lake system dynamics in north-eastern Siberia: Implications for seasonal climate variability JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - Although the climate development over the Holocene in the Northern Hemisphere is well known, palaeolimnological climate reconstructions reveal spatiotemporal variability in northern Eurasia. Here we present a multi-proxy study from north-eastern Siberia combining sediment geochemistry, and diatom and pollen data from lake-sediment cores covering the last 38,000 cal. years. Our results show major changes in pyrite content and fragilarioid diatom species distributions, indicating prolonged seasonal lake-ice cover between similar to 13,500 and similar to 8900 cal. years BP and possibly during the 8200 cal. years BP cold event. A pollen-based climate reconstruction generated a mean July temperature of 17.8 degrees C during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) between similar to 8900 and similar to 4500 cal. years BP. Naviculoid diatoms appear in the late Holocene indicating a shortening of the seasonal ice cover that continues today. Our results reveal a strong correlation between the applied terrestrial and aquatic indicators and natural seasonal climate dynamics in the Holocene. Planktonic diatoms show a strong response to changes in the lake ecosystem due to recent climate warming in the Anthropocene. We assess other palaeolimnological studies to infer the spatiotemporal pattern of the HTM and affirm that the timing of its onset, a difference of up to 3000 years from north to south, can be well explained by climatic teleconnections. The westerlies brought cold air to this part of Siberia until the Laurentide ice sheet vanished 7000 years ago. The apparent delayed ending of the HTM in the central Siberian record can be ascribed to the exceedance of ecological thresholds trailing behind increases in winter temperatures and decreases in contrast in insolation between seasons during the mid to late Holocene as well as lacking differentiation between summer and winter trends in paleolimnological reconstructions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Diatoms KW - Pollen KW - Summer and winter temperature KW - Holocene Thermal Maximum KW - Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems KW - Lake-ice cover Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.014 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 147 SP - 406 EP - 421 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER -