Present-day and mid-Holocene biomes reconstructed from pollen and plant macrofossil data from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia

• Published in: Journal of Biogeography
• Main Authors: Tarasov, PE, Webb, T, Andreev, AA, Afanas'eva, NB, Berezina, NA, Bezusko, LG, Blyakharchuk, TA, Bolikhovskaya, NS, Cheddadi, R, Chernavskaya, MM, Chernova, GM, Dorofeyuk, NI, Dirksen, VG, Elina, GA, Filimonova, LV, Glebov, FZ, Guiot, Joel, Gunova, VS, Harrison, Sp, Jolly, D, Khomutova, VI, Kvavadze, EV, Osipova, IM, Panova, NK, Prentice, Ic, Saarse, L, Sevastyanov, DV, Volkova, VS, Zernitskaya, VP
• Other Authors: Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille 3-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Avignon Université (AU)-Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille 1, Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1998
• Subjects: [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; taiga; Tundra; ural mountains; Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01457646; https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.1998.00236.x

International audience Fossil pollen data supplemented by tree macrofossil records were used to reconstruct the vegetation of the Former Soviet Union and Mongolia at 6000 years. Pollen spectra were assigned to biomes using the plant-functional-type method developed by Prentice ct al. (1996). Surface pollen data and a modern vegetation map provided a test of the method. This is the first time such a broad-scale vegetation reconstruction for the greater part of northern Eurasia has been attempted with objective techniques. The new results confirm previous regional palaeoenvironmental studies of the mid-Holocene while providing a comprehensive synopsis and firmer conclusions. West of the Ural Mountains temperate deciduous forest extended both northward and southward from its modern range. The northern limits of cool mixed and cool conifer forests were also further north than present. Taiga was reduced in European Russia, but was extended into Yakutia where now there is cold deciduous forest. The northern limit of taiga was extended (as shown by increased Picea pollen percentages, and by tree macrofossil records north of the present-day forest limit) but tundra was still present in north-eastern Siberia. The boundary between forest and steppe in the continental interior did not shift substantially, and dry conditions similar to present existed in western Mongolia and north of the Aral Sea.