TY - JOUR A1 - Ashastina, Kseniia A1 - Kuzmina, Svetlana A1 - Rudaya, Natalia A1 - Troeva, Elena I. A1 - Schoch, Werner H. A1 - Roemermann, Christine A1 - Reinecke, Jennifer A1 - Otte, Volker A1 - Savvinov, Grigoriy A1 - Wesche, Karsten A1 - Kienast, Frank T1 - Woodlands and steppes BT - Pleistocene vegetation in Yakutia's most continental part recorded in the Batagay permafrost sequence JF - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal N2 - 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. KW - Palaeo-vegetation KW - Plant macrofossils KW - Invertebrates KW - Modern analogues KW - Pollen KW - Ground squirrel nest KW - Last cold stage KW - Eemian KW - Beringia Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.032 SN - 0277-3791 VL - 196 SP - 38 EP - 61 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Opel, Thomas A1 - Murton, Julian B. A1 - Wetterich, Sebastian A1 - Meyer, Hanno A1 - Ashastina, Kseniia A1 - Günther, Frank A1 - Grotheer, Hendrik A1 - Mollenhauer, Gesine A1 - Danilov, Petr P. A1 - Boeskorov, Vasily A1 - Savvinov, Grigoriy N. A1 - Schirrmeister, Lutz T1 - Past climate and continentality inferred from ice wedges at Batagay Highlands, interior Yakutia JF - Climate of the past : an interactive open access journal of the European Geosciences Union N2 - Ice wedges in the Yana Highlands of interior Yakutia - the most continental region of the Northern Hemisphere - were investigated to elucidate changes in winter climate and continentality that have taken place since the Middle Pleistocene. The Batagay megaslump exposes ice wedges and composite wedges that were sampled from three cryostratigraphic units: the lower ice complex of likely pre-Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 age, the upper ice complex (Yedoma) and the upper sand unit (both MIS 3 to 2). A terrace of the nearby Adycha River provides a Late Holocene (MIS 1) ice wedge that serves as a modern reference for interpretation. The stable-isotope composition of ice wedges in the MIS 3 upper ice complex at Batagay is more depleted (mean delta O-18 about -35 parts per thousand) than those from 17 other ice-wedge study sites across coastal and central Yakutia. This observation points to lower winter temperatures and therefore higher continentality in the Yana Highlands during MIS 3. Likewise, more depleted isotope values are found in Holocene wedge ice (mean delta O-18 about -29 parts per thousand) compared to other sites in Yakutia. Ice-wedge isotopic signatures of the lower ice complex mean delta O-18 about -33 parts per thousand) and of the MIS 3-2 upper sand unit (mean delta O-18 from about -33 parts per thousand to -30 parts per thousand) are less distinctive regionally. The latter unit preserves traces of fast formation in rapidly accumulating sand sheets and of post-depositional isotopic fractionation. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1443-2019 SN - 1814-9324 SN - 1814-9332 VL - 15 IS - 4 SP - 1443 EP - 1461 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER -