Last glacial–interglacial vegetation and environmental dynamics in southern Siberia: Chronology, forcing and feedbacks

Radiocarbon-dated pollen and diatom records from Lake Kotokel in southern Siberia help to reconstruct the environmental history of the area since ~ 47 kyr BP. Pollen spectra composition and reconstructed biome scores suggest predominance of a tundra–steppe vegetation and variable woody cover (5–20%) between ~ 47 and 30 kyr BP, indicating generally a harsh and unstable climate during this interval, conventionally regarded as the interstadial within the last glacial. The short-term climate amelioration episodes in the glacial part of the records are marked by the peaks in taiga and corresponding minima in steppe biome scores and appear synchronously with the hemispheric temperature and precipitation changes recorded in the Greenland ice cores and Chinese stalagmites. Transition to full glacial environments occurred between 32 and 30 kyr BP. The interval at ~ 30–24 kyr BP was probably the driest and coldest of the whole record, as indicated by highest scores for steppe biome, woody coverage