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Recent years have seen rapid climatic changes in Central Asia, particularly Mongolia. An increase in the thickness of the active layer above permafrost and considerable changes to the vegetation structure are likely outcomes of the long-term temperature rise and precipitation changes. The management of future habitats or the biodiversity of northern Mongolia faces significant difficulties from rising temperatures, prolonged and frequent droughts, and gradual permafrost degradation. Our knowledge of the historical processes involved in permafrost degradation and the ensuing ecological effects is still mostly incomplete. These connections may be used to explain changes in the fire regime, permafrost melting, and plant distribution in the Khentii mountains region. Therefore, based on a multiproxy study of peat archive data, we provide the first high-resolution fire history from northeastern Mongolia over the last 1000 years (micro- and macroscopic charcoals, charcoal size classes and morphotypes, peat geochemistry). We examined microscopic and macroscopic charcoal particles as a proxy for fire activity. We also tracked changes in regional and local plant composition using pollen data. To investigate how changes in fire regimes and the climate affect the functioning of the peatland ecosystem, we also conducted a geochemical analysis.Additionally, to better comprehend the changes in earlier fire regimes and fire-vegetation connections, we employed the morphotypes of macrocharcoal to pinpoint vegetation burning. This study's primary objective is to evaluate the impact of human behavior, vegetation, and prolonged droughts on the incidence of fire regime transitions during the past 1000 years in Central Asia permafrost marginal zone (Mongolia). The findings showed that most of the fires in the area were probably started by natural causes, presumably connected to heatwaves that resulted in prolonged droughts. We have established a connection between increased fires and the local weather phenomena known as "dzud", a catastrophic confluence of winter snowfall and droughts that impacts fire intensity.The study is the result of research project No. 2017/01/X/ST10/01216 and 2018/31/B/ST10/02498 funded by the Polish National Science Centre.

Human activity has fundamentally altered wildfire on Earth, creating serious consequences for human health, global biodiversity, and climate change. However, it remains difficult to predict fire interactions with land use, management, and climate change, representing a serious knowledge gap and vulnerability. We used expert assessment to combine opinions about past and future fire regimes from 98 wildfire researchers. We asked for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the frequency, type, and implications of fire regime change from the beginning of the Holocene through the year 2300. Respondents indicated that direct human activity was already influencing wildfires locally since at least ~12,000 years BP, though natural climate variability remained the dominant driver of fire regime until around 5000 years BP. Responses showed a ten-fold increase in the rate of wildfire regime change during the last 250 years compared with the rest of the Holocene, corresponding first with the intensification and extensification of land use and later with anthropogenic climate change. Looking to the future, fire regimes were predicted to intensify, with increases in fire frequency, severity, and/or size in all biomes except grassland ecosystems. Fire regime showed quite different climate sensitivities across biomes, but the likelihood of fire regime change increased with higher greenhouse gas emission scenarios for all biomes. Biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services were predicted to decrease for most biomes under higher emission scenarios. We present recommendations for adaptation and mitigation under emerging fire regimes, concluding that management options are seriously constrained under higher emission scenarios.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. Introduction Methods and materials Results and discussion Timing and type of future fire regime change Consequences of fire regime change Our capacity to prevent, control, or adapt to future fire regimes Charting a course in a world of uncertainty Expert assessment application in fire management

Fires are natural phenomena that impact human behaviors, vegetation, and landscape functions. However, the long-term history of fire, especially in the permafrost marginal zone of Central Asia (Mongolia), is poorly understood. This paper presents the results of radiocarbon and short-lived radionuclides (210Pb and 137Cs) dating, pollen, geochemical, charcoal, and statistical analyses (Kohonen's artificial neural network) of sediment core obtained from Northern Mongolia (the Khentii Mountains region). Therefore, we present the first high-resolution fire history from Northern Mongolia covering the last 1000 years, based on a multiproxy analysis of peat archive data. The results revealed that most of the fires in the region were likely initiated by natural factors, which were probably related to heatwaves causing prolonged droughts. We have demonstrated the link between enhanced fires and “dzud”, a local climatic phenomenon. The number of livestock, which has been increasing for several decades, and the observed climatic changes are superimposed to cause “dzud”, a deadly combination of droughts and snowy winter, which affects fire intensity. We observed that the study area has a sensitive ecosystem that reacts quickly to climate change. In terms of changes in the vegetation, the reconstruction reflected climate variations during the last millennium, the degradation of permafrost and occurrence of fires. However, more sites with good chronologies are needed to thoroughly understand the spatial relationships between changing climate, permafrost degradation, and vegetation change, which ultimately affect the nomadic societies in the region of Central and Northern Mongolia. National Science Centre, Poland (Grant no.: 2017/01/X/ST10/01216 and 2018/31/B/ST10/02498); Polish-Mongolian Joint Research Project – “Environmental changes in the Northern Mongolia under recent and past climate variability”. Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 20-17-00110)

Recent Arctic warming has major influences on biological communities, especially in freshwater environments. There is substantial evidence that lake ecosystems in the Canadian Arctic and Fennoscandia are undergoing changes that have been linked to human-induced climate warming during the past 150–100 years. However, only few data linking recent climatic changes with the changes in biological communities are available from the Russian Arctic. We investigated a short sediment core (bottom of the core dates to 1830 CE) from Lake Bolshoy Kharbey, the biggest lake of the Bol`shezemelskaya Tundra, western Russian Arctic, using chironomid, cladocera, diatom and palynological analyses. Variations in biological proxy were linked to regional meteorological data and compared with the available sub-recent palaeoecological and hydrobiological studies from the region. The overall change in species composition was the smallest for terrestrial vegetation (0.485 SD) followed by cladoceran communities (0.966 SD). Chironomid taxonomic turnover was 1.331 SD, and the greatest rate of change was observed in diatom assemblages (1.701 SD). Changes in biological communities demonstrated a correlation with meteorologically recorded climatic parameters (air temperature and precipitation). The strongest taxonomic shifts in biological communities took place in 1880 and 1980. Both dates can be linked with prominent and recent climatic events: 1880 can be related to the end of the Little Ice Age in the region and 1980 is the beginning of the modern accelerating warming.

For several millennia, Kulunda has been inhabited by the peoples with different types of economy, but the paleoecological aspect of their habitation has remained understudied. The most promising source of paleoecological information is natural archives of lake sediments. This article presents the first results of studying macro-charcoals in the sediment core from Lake Maloe Yarovoe. Fire conditions for the last 3500 years and type of fuel (wood or grasses) are reconstructed for each period, based on macro-charcoal analysis. Data on the type of fuel and distribution of charcoals by depth in the core were compared with palynological data, reconstructed level of mean annual precipitation, and reconstruction of vegetation from the same core obtained by other methods. The results were also compared with another macro-charcoal column from Lake Kuchuk, which was the only researched column for the south of Western Siberia. The results were compared with archaeological data on the type of economy among the different cultures which inhabited the area in various periods. It has been established that the patterns of coal distribution do not correlate with changes in vegetation and show a weak negative correlation with the level of average annual precipitation, which means that fire activity increased with increased level of precipitation. A temporal connection of change in fire regimes and types of fuel, with change in the types of economy has been observed. From 3500 to 2700 BP, during the prevalence of cattle-breeding type of economy, fire activity was maximal, occurring mainly in the steppe. By the end of the Bronze Age, with the beginning of transition to the nomadic type of economy, intensity of fires decreased, and forest began to be burned. After 1500 BP, when the nomadic type of economy prevailed, fire activity in the area of Lake Maloe Yarovoe sharply decreased. The increase in fire activity with predominance of wood charcoals in the last 200 years coincided with exploration of the region by the Russian settlers.

Spores of coprophilous fungi are well preserved in various paleoarchives, including bottom sediments in lakes. The coprophilous fungi spend part of their life cycle on the dung of herbivorous animals, where they produce spores. Due to this feature, the coprophilous fungi are used as a qualitative indicator of the presence and density of the population using domestic livestock. This paper is aimed at testing the hypothesis that fluctuations in the spore contents of coprophilous fungi are independent from climate, i.e., the possibility of using this indicator as an independent one for the qualitative reconstruction of population density in the eastern part of the Uvs Nuur basin. To do this, we have attempted to link global historical processes in Central Asia over the past three millennia with fluctuations in the contents of the coprophilous fungi spores in the bottom sediments in Lake Bayan Nuur located in the Uvs Nuur basin. Spores of the coprophilous fungi were counted on palynological slides along with other palynomorphs. Concentrations and accumulation rates (number of spores per 1 gram per year) were calculated for the coprophilous fungi. Only two genera of coprophilous fungi, Sporormilella and Sordaria, were abundantly found in the paleorecord of the lake. Comparison of historical evidence of the population of North-Western Mongolia during the last three millennia andfluctuations in the contents of the coprophilous fungi spores in the bottom sediments of the lake revealed remarkable coincidence, which allows using coprophilous fungi as a qualitative indicator of the density of the population engaged in cattle breeding. However, no relationships between the coprophilous fungi spore contents and the climate change were revealed, which characterizes this indicator as being independent of the climate change.

Cave sites often become objects of palynological reconstructions; however, the question of the representativeness of cave deposits for palynological researches in connection with the specifics of the distribution and burial of pollen grains in the caves is currently relevant and insufficiently studied. This article provides the results of a palynological study of surface samples from three sites: Strashnaya, Chagyrskaya, and Biyka-1 caves (Altai Territory). The comparison of the results based on the study of samples inside and outside the caves showed their similarity, which confirms the assumption that such data can be used for climatic reconstructions. However, there are aspects necessary to be taken into consideration when interpreting palynological data obtained from the deposits of cave sites, which is also confirmed by other researchers. Such aspects include the following: location of the sampling site: there is a negative correlation between the distance from the cave entrance and the concentration of pollen, as well as the content of anemophilic plants pollen in a sample; animal activity inside the cave: animal roosting and denning behavior or insect nesting inside the cave may cause distortion of palinospectra; cave morphology, size and number of cave entrances: it was noted that caves with one sufficiently wide entrance are more indicative, because it can provide sufficient air circulation in the cave; orientation of the cave entrances: palinospectra inside the cave may reflect the local vegetation of the territory to which the entrance is directed; specificity of the distribution of pollen grains of plants of various families: it was noted that the accumulation of pollen of entomophilic plants closer to the back of the cave is higher than anemophilic ones; different degree of resistance of the shells of pollen grains of different families: pollen grains with a shell more resistant to post-deposition processes may be present in palinospectra in greater concentration due to the destruction of grains with a less resistant shell.

Significance Neanderthals once inhabited Europe and western Asia, spreading as far east as the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, but the geographical origin and time of arrival of the Altai populations remain unresolved. Excavations at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai foothills have yielded 90,000 stone artifacts, numerous bone tools, 74 Neanderthal fossils, and animal and plant remains recovered from 59,000- to 49,000-year-old deposits. The Chagyrskaya Neanderthals made distinctive stone tools that closely resemble Micoquian artifacts from eastern Europe, whereas other Altai sites occupied by earlier Neanderthal populations lack such artifacts. This suggests at least two dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia, with the likely ancestral homeland of the Chagyrskaya toolmakers located 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers to the west, in eastern Europe., Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical origin of these populations and the timing of their dispersal have remained elusive. Here we describe an archaeological assemblage from Chagyrskaya Cave, situated in the Altai foothills, where around 90,000 Middle Paleolithic artifacts and 74 Neanderthal remains have been recovered from deposits dating to between 59 and 49 thousand years ago (age range at 95.4% probability). Environmental reconstructions suggest that the Chagyrskaya hominins were adapted to the dry steppe and hunted bison. Their distinctive toolkit closely resembles Micoquian assemblages from central and eastern Europe, including the northern Caucasus, more than 3,000 kilometers to the west of Chagyrskaya Cave. At other Altai sites, evidence of earlier Neanderthal populations lacking associated Micoquian-like artifacts implies two or more Neanderthal incursions into this region. We identify eastern Europe as the most probable ancestral source region for the Chagyrskaya toolmakers, supported by DNA results linking the Neanderthal remains with populations in northern Croatia and the northern Caucasus, and providing a rare example of a long-distance, intercontinental population movement associated with a distinctive Paleolithic toolkit.

There is a huge number of small lakes in south of West Siberia and such lakes are very useful local for climate and environmental reconstructions. The previously studied objects in the area are mostly peat-bogs and geologic sections; the lake history and natural interactions between paleoenvironmental and climate changes in the region are understudied. Here we present results of multiproxy investigation of three lakes located in different parts of the Baraba forest-steppe region along a 300km north-south transect: Bolshie Toroki, Chany (Yarkov subbasin), and Malye Chany. Vibrational drilling technology method was used to recover undisturbed columns of lake sediments and penetrate to non-lacustrine substrata. The obtained cores were investigated basically by sedimentological and palynological analyses (with the reconstruction of vegetational cover) and radiocarbon dating, additionally we used other paleontological (diatom, ostracod, chironomid analyses), geophysical, and biogeochemical methods to obtain information about environmental and climate changes, as well as lake level, biotic, ecosystem, and geochemical changes. This and our previous studies showed complicated picture of lake evolution histories and climate change in the south of West Siberia. According to our data most of investigated lakes (Chany, Malye Chany, Beloye, Minzelinskoye, Bolshie Toroki, and Kirek) are very young and started to form in the middle Holocene or later as marshy lowland with peaty sediments. Then they became deeper with mostly sapropel sediments.

We collected the available relative pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) for 27 major pollen taxa from Eurasia and applied them to estimate plant abundances during the last 40 cal. ka BP (calibrated thousand years before present) using pollen counts from 203 fossil pollen records in northern Asia (north of 40°N). These pollen records were organised into 42 site-groups, and regional mean plant abundances calculated using the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites) model. Time-series clustering, constrained hierarchical clustering, and detrended canonical correspondence analysis were performed to investigate the regional pattern, time, and strength of vegetation changes, respectively. Reconstructed regional plant-functional type (PFT) components for each site-group are generally consistent with modern vegetation, in that vegetation changes within the regions are characterized by minor changes in the abundance of PFTs rather than by increase in new PFTs, particularly during the Holocene. We argue that pollen-based REVEALS estimates of plant abundances should be a more reliable reflection of the vegetation as pollen may overestimate the turnover, particularly when a high pollen producer invades areas dominated by low pollen producers. Comparisons with vegetation-independent climate records show that climate change is the primary factor driving land-cover changes at broad spatial and temporal scales. Vegetation changes in certain regions or periods, however, could not be explained by direct climate change, for example inland Siberia, where a sharp increase in evergreen conifer tree abundance occurred at ca. 7–8 cal. ka BP despite an unchanging climate, potentially reflecting their response to complex climate–permafrost–fire–vegetation interactions and thus a possible long-term-scale lagged climate response.

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.

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.

The reconstruction of Holocene thermokarst landform evolution is important to understand the potential impact of current global climate change on permafrost regions. A multi-proxy approach was applied to analyse the sedimentological and biogeochemical characteristics as well as pollen and lacustrine microfossils of a core profile drilled in a small pingo within a large Central Yakutian thermokarst basin (alas). Age–depth modelling with macrofossil 14C ages reveals high thermokarst deposit sedimentation rates and a complete thermokarst sequence spanning about 900 years during the mid-Holocene between ~6750 and 5870 cal. yr BP. In total, three stages of thermokarst landscape evolution have been identified. Thermokarst processes were initiated at ⩽6750 to 6500 cal. yr BP. Terrestrial conditions changed quickly to lacustrine conditions, and a thermokarst lake rapidly emerged and grew to an estimated size of 120–600 m diameter and 7.5–15 m depth during only ~150 years between ~6500 and 6350 cal. yr BP. The decline of thermokarst processes and lake decrease may have been affected by local hydrological conditions between ~6350 and 5870 cal. yr BP but ceased completely after 5870 cal. yr BP, likely due to climatic changes. Clear evidence for long-lasting and stable lacustrine conditions was not obtained. The study emphasises that short-term warming led to very active permafrost degradation and rapid but locally variable modification of alas and thermokarst evolution.

We collected the available relative pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) for 27 major pollen taxa from Eurasia and applied them to estimate plant abundances during the last 40 ka cal BP (calibrated thousand years before present) using pollen counts from 203 fossil pollen records in northern Asia (north of 40∘ N). These pollen records were organized into 42 site groups and regional mean plant abundances calculated using the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites) model. Time-series clustering, constrained hierarchical clustering, and detrended canonical correspondence analysis were performed to investigate the regional pattern, time, and strength of vegetation changes, respectively. Reconstructed regional plant functional type (PFT) components for each site group are generally consistent with modern vegetation in that vegetation changes within the regions are characterized by minor changes in the abundance of PFTs rather than by an increase in new PFTs, particularly during the Holocene. We argue that pollen-based REVEALS estimates of plant abundances should be a more reliable reflection of the vegetation as pollen may overestimate the turnover, particularly when a high pollen producer invades areas dominated by low pollen producers. Comparisons with vegetation-independent climate records show that climate change is the primary factor driving land-cover changes at broad spatial and temporal scales. Vegetation changes in certain regions or periods, however, could not be explained by direct climate change, e.g. inland Siberia, where a sharp increase in evergreen conifer tree abundance occurred at ca. 7–8 ka cal BP despite an unchanging climate, potentially reflecting their response to complex climate–permafrost–fire–vegetation interactions and thus a possible long-term lagged climate response.

Neanderthals are known primarily from their habitation of Western Eurasia, but they also populated large expanses of Northern Asia for thousands of years. Owing to a sparse archaeological record, relatively little is known about these eastern Neanderthal populations. Unlike in their western range, there are limited zooarchaeological and paleobotanical studies that inform us about the nature of their subsistence. Here, we perform a combined analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes on bone collagen and microbotanical remains in dental calculus to reconstruct the diet of eastern Neanderthals at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains of Southern Siberia, Russia. Stable isotopes identify one individual as possessing a high trophic level due to the hunting of large- and medium-sized ungulates, while the analysis of dental calculus also indicates the presence of plants in the diet of this individual and others from the site. These findings indicate eastern Neanderthals may have had broadly similar subsistence patterns to those elsewhere in their range. This research was funded in part by the Max Planck Society; all authors would like to thank Jean-Jacques Hublin for financial support. The archaeological investigations of Chagyrskaya Cave were established by the Russian Science Foundation, project number 19-48-04107. D.C.S.G. acknowledges funding by the Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2019/061) and the Spanish government (EUR2020-112213)

Pollen records from Siberia are mostly absent in global or Northern Hemisphere synthesis works. Here we present a taxonomically harmonized and temporally standardized pollen dataset that was synthesized using 173 palynological records from Siberia and adjacent areas (northeast Asia, 50°–180° E and 42°–75° N). Pollen data were taxonomically harmonized, that is the original 437 taxa were transformed to 106 combined pollen taxa. Age-depth models for all records were revised by applying a constant Bayesian age-depth modelling routine. The pollen dataset is available as count data and percentage data in a table format (taxa vs. samples) with age information for each sample. The dataset has relatively few sites covering the last glacial period between 40 and 11.5 cal ka BP (calibrated thousand years before present 1950 CE) particularly from the central and western part of the study area. In the Holocene period, the dataset has many sites from most of the area except the central part of Siberia. Of the 173 pollen records, 81 % of pollen counts were downloaded from open databases (GPD, EPD, Pangaea) and 10 % were contributions of the original data gatherers, while a few were digitized from publications. Most of the pollen records originate from peatlands (48 %) and lake sediments (33 %). Most of the records (83 %) have ≥ 3 dates allowing the establishment of reliable chronologies. The dataset can be used for various purposes including pollen data mapping (example maps for Larix at selected time-slices are shown) as well as quantitative climate and vegetation reconstructions. The datasets for pollen counts and pollen percentages are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.898616 (Cao et al., 2019).

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.

The paper is focused on changes in biodiversity, the environment, and human activity in the Uvs Nuur Basin during the last three millennia based on biological and geochemical proxies from the lake Bayan Nuur. Regions with high biodiversity and relatively low anthropogenic pressures are typically the most vulnerable to both climate change and human activities. One such area is the Uvs Nuur Basin located on the north of the Great Lake Depression of Mongolia. The main objective of this study is to assess changes in the past biodiversity of the lake’s microflora and microfauna, and surrounding vegetation biodiversity in the Uvs Nuur Basin, and to determine the main drivers of diversity change. Based on the analysis of pollen and chironomids we conclude that the most humid and afforested phase was between 1400 and 1800 CE. We assume that the Little Ice Age in the Uvs Nuur Basin was humid with mean annual precipitation ca. 305 mm/year and mean July temperature about 13°C. Conversely, the warmest and most arid period was between 650 and 1350 CE with mean annual precipitation ca. 280 mm/year and mean July temperature of about 16°C, attributed to the Medieval Warm Period. The biodiversity of terrestrial plants, chironomids, and Cladocera positive react to changes in annual precipitation and July temperature, whereas diatoms do not correlate directly to the climatic factors. The diversity and the evenness of plants are strongly correlated with the change in the leading biomes. The calculated species turnover suggests no significant changes in plant and Cladocera taxa composition, but significant changes in diatom and chironomid communities. This may be explained by the instability of lake ecology due to the fluctuation of the salinity and acidity of the water. An additional aim was to assess if dung fungi in lacustrine sediments reflect changes in human population density around the lake. We found that neither historical sources of human presence nor the influx of coprophilous fungi are correlated with the inferred climate changes. Coprophilous fungi can be used as individual or additional sources of assessment for the peopling and human-related herbivore density including overgrazing of the studied area.

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.

The article presents the studies on understanding the chemical evolution of Maloye Yarovoe lake that is located in the semi-arid landscape of and represent the most widespread chemical type of saline lake (Cl-Na) on the territory of Kulunda steppe (south of Western Siberia). The lake has gone through several changes in its state which are well represented in its sediments: section 1 (4.52&ndash, 4.97 m) represents the subbase, section 2 (3.0&ndash, 4.57 m) corresponds to a &ldquo, shallow lake&rdquo, stage and contains two sublayers, section 3 (0&ndash, 2.25 m) illustrates an increase in erosion of the shoreline and corresponds to a &ldquo, deep lake&rdquo, stage. The extrapolation of radiocarbon dates suggests that the most significant changes in the state of the lake occurred at about 6.5&ndash, 7.1 ka BP (transition from a small lake to a large one with intensified coastal erosion) and at about 5.69 and 3.5 ka BP (increase in the organic component). The results of sequential extraction of elements correspond to chemical changes occurred in a certain time of the lake state by changing in their distribution level and fraction type along the core. The results of lake water evaporation and organic matter degradation modelling performed in Phreeqc for oxic and anoxic condition showed the following stages of chemical divides could be expected in case of further lakes desiccation: Halite&mdash, Epsomite&mdash, Bischofite/Carnalite with possibility of Nahcolite precipitation in carbonate enriched periods (summer and autumn periods of organic matter degradation). Water&ndash, rock interaction processes in combination with biogeochemical reactions affect drastically not only the migration features of elements in water and sediments, but also the type of mineral crystallization in lake sediments.

We collected the available relative pollen productivity (RPP) estimates for 27 major pollen taxa from Eurasia and applied them to estimate plant abundances during the last 40 cal. ka BP (calibrated thousand-year before the present) using pollen counts from 203 fossil pollen records in northern Asia (north of 40° N). These pollen records were organised into 42 site groups; and regional mean plant abundances were calculated using the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites) model. Time-series clustering, constrained hierarchical clustering, and detrended canonical correspondence analysis were performed to investigate the regional pattern, time, and strength of vegetation changes, respectively. Reconstructed regional land cover for each site group is generally consistent with in situ modern vegetation in that vegetation changes within the regions are characterized by minor changes in the abundance of major taxa rather than by invasions of new taxa, particularly during the Holocene. We argue that pollen-based REVEALS estimates of plant abundances should be a more reliable reflection of the vegetation as pollen may overestimate the turnover, particularly when a high pollen producer invades areas dominated by low pollen producers. Comparisons with vegetation-independent climate records show that climate change is the primary factor driving land-cover changes at broad spatial and temporal scales. Vegetation changes in certain regions or periods, however, could not be explained by direct climate change, for example inland Siberia, where a sharp increase in evergreen conifer tree abundance occurred at ca. 7~8 cal. ka BP despite an unchanging climate, potentially reflecting their response to complex climate-permafrost-fire-vegetation interactions and thus a possible lagged climate response.

A comprehensive understanding of the regional vegetation responses to long-term climate change will help to forecast Earth system dynamics. Based on a new well-dated pollen data set from Kanas Lake and a review on the published pollen records in and around the Altai Mountains, the regional vegetation dynamics and forcing mechanisms are discussed. In the Altai Mountains, the forest optimum occurred during 10-7ka for the upper forest zone and the tree line decline and/or ecological shifts were caused by climatic cooling from around 7ka. In the lower forest zone, the forest reached an optimum in the middle Holocene, and then increased openness of the forest, possibly caused by both climate cooling and human activities, took place in the late Holocene. In the lower basins or plains around the Altai Mountains, the development of protograssland or forest benefited from increasing humidity in the middle to late Holocene. Plain Language Summary In the Altai Mountains and surrounding area of central Asia, the previous studies of the Holocene paleovegetation and paleoclimate studies did not discuss the different ecological limiting factors for the vegetation in high mountains and low-elevation areas due to limited data. With accumulating fossil pollen data and surface pollen data, it is possible to understand better the geomorphological effect on the vegetation and discrepancies of vegetation/forest responses to large-scale climate forcing, and it is also possible to get reliable quantitative reconstructions of climate. Here our new pollen data and review on the published fossil pollen data will help us to look into the past climate change and vertical evolution of vegetation in this important area of the Northern Hemisphere. Based on our study, it can be concluded that the growth of taiga forest in the wetter areas may be promoted under a future warmer climate, while the forest in the relatively dry areas is liable to decline, and the different vegetation dynamics will contribute to future high-resolution coupled vegetation-climate model for Earth system modelling.

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.

The delayed response of taiga and steppe biomes to climate changes has been detected with Lake Teletskoe as an example. A paleoreconstruction has been made on the basis of the integral use of geochemical features of bottom sediments and pollen records. It showed 100-year mean temperatures to a time depth of 4000 years with the isolation of the assumed boundaries of climate reconstructions in the 14th and 4th centuries B.C. and the 13th and 20th centuries A.D. A comparison of the temperature reconstruction for Lake Teletskoe with the temperature chronologies for the Northern Hemisphere and northeastern Europe has been carried out.

In August 2010, a well-preserved Mammuthus primigenius carcass was found along the coast of Oyogos Yar in the region of the Laptev Sea and the mummy was nicknamed ‘Yuka’. Frozen sediment samples from the area of skull condyles were collected for pollen and plant macrofossil analyses. The results from the palaeobotanical investigation confirmed that the Yuka mammoth lived during the optimum of the Kargin Interstadial (MIS3). The burial place of the mammoth could have been a small shallow freshwater pond with either stagnant or slowly moving water. The vegetation of the Oyogos Yar in MIS3 optimum was probably represented by zonal tundra-steppe combined with mesic-xeric meadows.

This article offers a reconstruction of the vegetation and climate of the south-western Siberian Baraba forest-steppe area during the last ca. 8000 years. The analysis of palynological data from the sediment core of Lake Bolshie Toroki using quantitative methods has made it possible to reconstruct changes of the dominant types of vegetation and mean July air temperatures. Coniferous forests grew in the vicinity of the lake, and mean July air temperatures were similar to present-day ones between 7.9 and 7.0 kyr BP. The warmest and driest climate occurred at 7.0-5.0 kyr BP. At that time, the region had open steppe landscapes; birch groves began to spread. A cooling trend is seen after 5.5 kyr BP, when forest-steppe began to emerge. Steppe communities started to dominate again after 1.5 kyr BP. Mean July air temperatures lower than now are reconstructed for the period of 1.9-1 kyr BP, and then the temperatures became similar to present-day ones. Comparing the archaeological data on the types of economy of the population which inhabited the Baraba forest-steppe with the data on changes in the natural environment revealed a connection between the gradual transition from hunting and fishing to livestock breeding and the development of forest-steppe landscapes with a decrease in the area covered by forests. The development of the forest-steppe as an ecotonic landscape starting around 5 kyr BP might have contributed to the coexistence of several archaeological cultures with different types of economy on the same territory. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The Altai Mountains, situated in the middle of Asia, have been inhabited by human groups since prehistoric times. Many Middle Palaeolithic sites (open-air sites and caves) are located in the northwestern part of the Altai Mountains. The uniqueness of this area is in the simultaneous habitation of different human species, such as Neanderthals, Sapiens and Denisovians. The material culture of the Altai Middle Palaeolithic is mostly homogeneous; however, two caves are distinguished from other sites-Okladnikov Cave and the recently studied Chagyrskaya Cave, located in the Charysh River valley. Palaeolithic assemblages from both caves are comparable with the Mousterian industries recorded in certain regions of Eurasia and represent a special variant of the Altai Middle Palaeolithic industries, known as the Sibiryachikha facies. Anthropological data from these caves suggest that the Sibiryachikha variant was associated with Neanderthals. In this study, we reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the period of the Neanderthals settlement in the northwestern part of the Altai Mountains based on bioproxies, such as pollen records and large mammal remains. The time of the Neanderthals settlement of Chagyrskaya Cave is attributed to the termination of MIS4 and is characterised by an arid and continental climate. Dry steppe communities were widespread in the Charysh River valley. It is possible that the Chagyrskaya Cave represents a long-term hunting camp where butchering and processing of game animals were carried out. In the following warmer and more humid period the Neanderthals left the cave. This was around the same time when anatomically modern humans began appearing in Western Siberia.

Pollen, botanical macrofossils, chemical components and ancient DNA were studied in samples from the rumen of a frozen Yakutian bison (Bison priscus) that lived ca. 10,500 cal a BP. The dialkyl glycerol ether lipid archaeol (2,3-di-O-phytanyl-sn-glycerol) was detected and is interpreted to have been derived from methanogenic Archaea in the rumen. This is the oldest reported occurrence of archaeol attributed to digestive tract Archaea. Remains of shrubs (Alnus, Betula, Salix) and Poaceae indicate that the animal probably lived in a landscape of predominantly dry soils, intermixed with wetlands containing herbaceous plant species, as indicated by remains of Comarum palustre, Caltha palustris, Eriophorum, Sparganium, Menyanthes trifoliata and Utricularia. All recorded taxa still occur in the present-day Yakutian tundra vegetation. We discuss the representativeness in space and time of the methods used. Both the botanical microfossil and the macrofossil records may be biased because of differences in pollen production and dispersal between species, the food choice of the bison, and the season of death of the animal. Similarities and differences are discussed to highlight pitfalls of the individual analytical techniques. We highlight the power of data integration.

Thermokarst lakes and basins are major components of ice-rich permafrost landscapes in East Siberian coastal lowlands and are regarded as indicators of regional climatic changes. We investigate the temporal and spatial dynamics of a 7.5 km2, partly drained thermokarst basin (alas) using field investigations, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and sediment analyses. The evolution of the thermokarst basin proceeded in two phases. The first phase started at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (13 to 12 ka BP) with the initiation of a primary thermokarst lake on the Ice Complex surface. The lake expanded and persisted throughout the early Holocene before it drained abruptly about 5.7 ka BP, thereby creating a > 20 m deep alas with residual lakes. The second phase (5.7 ka BP to present) is characterized by alternating stages of lower and higher thermokarst intensity within the alas that were mainly controlled by local hydrological and relief conditions and accompanied by permafrost aggradation and degradation. It included diverse concurrent processes like lake expansion and stepwise drainage, polygonal ice-wedge growth, and the formation of drainage channels and a pingo, which occurred in different parts of the alas. This more dynamic thermokarst evolution resulted in a complex modern thermokarst landscape. However, on the regional scale, the changes during the second evolutionary phase after drainage of the initial thermokarst lakes were less intense than the early Holocene extensive thermokarst development in East Siberian coastal lowlands as a result of a significant regional change to warmer and wetter climate conditions.

The article presents the results of a palynological study conducted at Late Paleolithic (Olympiya-5 and Ogonki-5) and Early Neolithic (Slavnaya-5) sites located in the southern part of Sakhalin Island. The reconstructed environments оf Late Paleolithic sites in southern Sakhalin included dark coniferous (fir and spruce) forests, indicative of a relatively warm phases of the last stadial coinciding with Daansgard-Oeschger oscillations. The Early Holocene conditions in southern Sakhalin were relatively warm although a virtually complete absence of pollen of deciduous trees suggests that the Boreal period was not the Holocene climatic optimum in that region.

The article presents geomorphological and stratigraphic descriptions of Tinit-1 – a Paleolithic site in Dagestan. A technological and typological study of lithics from excavation 2 includes two refitting analyses. Results of pollen analysis of habitation layers and of radiocarbon dating are presented. Sources of raw material and possible economic specialization are discussed. Taken together these findings indicate that the site dates to the late Middle Paleolithic or early Upper Paleolithic.

δ 13 C of total organic carbon (TOC) and pollen grain, TOC, C/N ratio, and δ 15 N of total organic nitrogen (TON) in a 2.57-m long core from Hoton-Nur Lake in Mongolian Altai have been measured for reconstruction of the Holocene climates. The δ 13 C values of TOC and pollen carbon have similar average values but different ranges. Pollen δ 13 C has negative correlation with %AP (arboreal taxa pollen) and positive correlation with %NAP (herbaceous pollen and spores) that are connected with conditions of humidity in the area. Taiga-biome has lighter δ 13 C than steppe-biome. Hence, pollen δ 13 C composition is more sensitive to changes of humidity in the analogous spectra than palynotaxonomical structure and δ 13 C of TOC. Based on our results, the Holocene climates in Mongolian Altai are: (1) dry conditions prior to 11.5 kyr BP; (2) wet conditions between 11.5 and 6.0 kyr BP; (3) a relatively dry/cool episode during 6–4 kyr BP; (4) stable cool and semiarid conditions with moderately effective moisture during the past 4000 years. Two abrupt climatic changes occurred at ∼7.45 kyr BP and ∼11.5 kyr BP might be related to glacial activities. The Holocene climatic trend in Mongolian Altai which is controlled by the Westerlies is similar to the trend of monsoonal climate shown by the Chinese speleothem records as well as the lake/sand dune evidence in the deserts of NW China. The contact of the two climatic systems and shift of the monsoonal boundary during the past need to be further studied.

The article presents the results of a palynological study conducted at the Middle Paleolithic site of Chagyrskaya Cave (Altai). Sediments containing the technocomplex of the Sibiryachikha facies of the Altai Middle Paleolithic accumulated at the end of MIS 4 which corresponds with the final stage of the Ermakovo glaciation. The results of the palynological analysis indicate that during the period in question, predominantly steppe landscapes existed in dry, cold climate conditions.

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.

Arctic lowland landscapes have been modified by thermokarst lake processes throughout the Holocene. Thermokarst lakes form as a result of ice-rich permafrost degradation, and they may expand over time through thermal and mechanical shoreline erosion. We studied proximal and distal sedimentary records from a thermokarst lake located on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska to reconstruct the impact of catchment dynamics and morphology on the lacustrine depositional environment and to quantify carbon accumulation in thermokarst lake sediments. Short cores were collected for analysis of pollen, sedimentological, and geochemical proxies. Radiocarbon and 210Pb/137Cs dating, as well as extrapolation of measured historic lake expansion rates, were applied to estimate a minimum lake age of ~1400 calendar years BP. The pollen record is in agreement with the young lake age as it does not include evidence of the “alder high” that occurred in the region ~4000 cal yr BP. The lake most likely initiated from a remnant pond in a drained thermokarst lake basin (DTLB) and deepened rapidly as evidenced by accumulation of laminated sediments. Increasing oxygenation of the water column as shown by higher Fe/Ti and Fe/S ratios in the sediment indicate shifts in ice regime with increasing water depth. More recently, the sediment source changed as the thermokarst lake expanded through lateral permafrost degradation, alternating from redeposited DTLB sediments, to increased amounts of sediment from eroding, older upland deposits, followed by a more balanced combination of both DTLB and upland sources. The characterizing shifts in sediment sources and depositional regimes in expanding thermokarst lakes were, therefore, archived in the thermokarst lake sedimentary record. This study also highlights the potential for Arctic lakes to recycle old carbon from thawing permafrost and thermokarst processes.

An environmental reconstruction of mid-late Holocene vegetation, climate and lake dynamics was inferred from pollen and diatom records of Lake Big Yarovoe in Kulunda, southern West Siberia. The reconstruction suggests a general prevalence of steppe during the last 4.4 ka. Under a relatively warm and dry climate, open semi-desert and dry steppes with patchy birch forest spread between 4.4 and 3.75 ka BP. The largest development of conifer forest started in Kulunda after 3.75 ka BP. The onset of the Late Holocene is characterised by the dominance of steppe with birch and pine forests in the lowlands and river valleys. After AD 1860, open steppe and semi-desert vegetation with fragmentary birch forest have been dominant in Kulunda, along with a sharp reduction of conifers. These results are in agreement with the general pattern of the Holocene environmental history of the surrounding areas, including the Baraba forest-steppe, Kazakh Upland and Altai Mountains. The penetration of coniferous forest into the Kulunda steppe after 3.75 ka BP was related to its geographical location northwest of the Altai Mountains. The economic activities of the ancient population of Kulunda depended on the environmental changes during the Holocene.

Based on palynological and diatom analyses of the sediment core from Lake Hoton Nuur situated at 2083 m asl, environmental changes in the Mongolian Altai during the Holocene are described. The results suggest that the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (11.5–10.7 ka) climate of that area was cold and arid, and plant associations were of a steppe type. The Middle Holocene (9.3–6.5 ka) climate was warm and humid, resulting in the expansion of forests. After 6.5 ka, the climate became increasingly continental, and forests were largely replaced by tundra and steppe landscapes. Over the last 3000 years, the forests disappeared and the steppes expanded. The causes were likely not only climatic, but also anthropogenic.

The last meal of a horse that lived in the northern part of the Sakha Republic (Russia) c. 5400 years ago was studied using pollen, spores, botanical macroremains, lipid composition, and ancient DNA in order to reconstruct its components. Pollen of Poaceae was superabundant, but this may be because of over-representation as a consequence of grazed inflorescenses of grasses. We evaluate the paleo-environmental indicator value of the different methods applied. Botanical macrofossils and chemical data show what the animal had eaten. Pollen grains and the aDNA record also give information about taxa that occurred elsewhere in the landscape. The combined data point to an open landscape of a coastal tundra dominated by graminoids (Poaceae, Cyperaceae) with a limited amount of Birch and Alder.

A continuous 15 m long sequence of Ice Complex permafrost (Yedoma) exposed in a thermo-cirque at the southern coast of Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island (New Siberian Archipelago, Dmitry Laptev Strait) was studied to reconstruct past landscape and environmental dynamics. The sequence accumulated during the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) Interstadial between >49 and 29 ka BP in an ice-wedge polygon. The frozen deposits were cryolithologically described and sampled on a vertical bluff between two ice wedges. According to sedimentological and geochronological data, the section is subdivided into three units which correlate with environmental conditions of the early, middle, and late MIS3 period. Palynological data support this stratification. The stable isotope signature of texture ice in the polygon structure reflects fractionation due to local freeze–thaw processes, while the signature of an approximately 5 m wide and more than 17 m high ice wedge fits very well into the regional stable-water isotope record. Regional climate dynamics during the MIS3 Interstadial and local landscape conditions of the polygonal patterned ground controlled the Ice Complex formation. The sequence presented here completes previously published MIS3 permafrost records in Northeast Siberia. Late Quaternary stadial-interstadial climate variability in arctic West Beringia is preserved at millennial resolution in the Ice Complex. A MIS3 climate optimum was revealed between 48 and 38 ka BP from the Ice Complex on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island.

Palaeontological proxy data and cryolithological information from Siberian Arctic permafrost preserves records of late Quaternary climate and environmental conditions in West Beringia and their variability which results from interglacial-glacial and interstadial-stadial dynamics. To date, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) period has been rather poorly represented in East Siberian permafrost records. Here, we present pollen, sediment, and ground-ice stable water isotope data obtained from coastal exposures on Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island (New Siberian Archipelago, Arctic Ocean) that mirror the coldest conditions during the Sartan period between about 26 and 22 ka BP, using pollen and sediment data for summer conditions and stable water isotope data for winter conditions. The pollen record revealed a cold tundra-steppe vegetation with characteristic predominance of grass pollen over sedge pollen while the stable isotope ice-wedges data indicate extremely cold winter temperatures with mean values of d 18 Oo f about � 37&, dD of about � 290&. Combined with available regional LGM permafrost records that extend from the Taymyr Peninsula in the west to the Yana River lowland in the east, the new data set from Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island indicate that the regional appearance of LGM conditions depended on atmospheric circulation patterns that were influenced by the extent of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation.