Late Holocene ice-wedge polygon dynamics in northeastern Siberian coastal lowlands

• Main Authors: Schirrmeister, Lutz, Bobrov, Anatoly, Raschke, Elena, Herzschuh, Ulrike, Strauss, Jens, Pestryakova, Luidmila A., Wetterich, Sebastian
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2019
• Subjects: Pharmacology; Evolutionary Biology; FOS Biological sciences; 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified; FOS Chemical sciences; Ecology; 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified; Cancer; Inorganic Chemistry; Indigirka; Kolyma; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6798797.v2; https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Late_Holocene_ice-wedge_polygon_dynamics_in_northeastern_Siberian_coastal_lowlands/6798797/2

Ice-wedge polygons are common features of northeastern Siberian lowland periglacial tundra landscapes. To deduce the formation and alternation of ice-wedge polygons in the Kolyma Delta and in the Indigirka Lowland, we studied shallow cores, up to 1.3 m deep, from polygon center and rim locations. The formation of well-developed low-center polygons with elevated rims and wet centers is shown by the beginning of peat accumulation, increased organic matter contents, and changes in vegetation cover from Poaceae-, Alnus- , and Betula- dominated pollen spectra to dominating Cyperaceae and Botryoccocus presence, and Carex and Drepanocladus revolvens macro-fossils. Tecamoebae data support such a change from wetland to open-water conditions in polygon centers by changes from dominating eurybiontic and sphagnobiontic to hydrobiontic species assemblages. The peat accumulation indicates low-center polygon formation and started between 2380 ± 30 and 1676 ± 32 years before present (BP) in the Kolyma Delta. We recorded an opposite change from open-water to wetland conditions because of rim degradation and consecutive high-center polygon formation in the Indigirka Lowland between 2144 ± 33 and 1632 ± 32 years BP. The late Holocene records of polygon landscape development reveal changes in local hydrology and soil moisture.