Two Late Quaternary Pollen Records from the Upper Kolyma Region, Soviet Northeast: A Preliminary Report

• Main Authors: Anderson, P. M., Brubaker, L. b., Andreev, A. A., Chernenky, B. I., Federova, I. N.
• Other Authors: WASHINGTON UNIV SEATTLE QUATERNARY RESEARCH CENTER
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1992
• Subjects: Geography; Forestry; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *CLIMATE; *POLLEN; *RECORDS; *TUNDRA; *VEGETATION; *USSR; *GLACIERS; CONTRAST; DRAINAGE; FORESTS; HISTORY; LAKES; REGIONS; SHRUBS; SITES; SPECTRA; SYMPOSIA; TREES; Elikchan; Kolyma; Ice; permafrost; Tundra; Beringia
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADP007350; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADP007350

Pollen records from Sosednee and Elikchan Lakes provide the first continuous late Quaternary vegetation history for the upper Kolyma drainage of the Soviet Northeast. Full-glacial spectra at these sites are similar to those from Eastern Beringia, with high percentages of grass, sedge, and wormwood pollen indicative of herb tundra. In the Elikchan area at approximately 12,500 B.P., herb tundra was replaced by a stone pine-larch forest, perhaps similar to forests in the modern region. In contrast, the herb tundra near Sosednee Lake was succeeded by a birch-alder shrub tundra followed by a larch woodland. Stone pine increased in the region after larch and prior to 8600 B.P. A Holocene decline in stone pine, which is evident at Elikchan Lake, is less marked or absent at Sosednee Lake. The differences in these pollen records is somewhat surprising given the proximity of the two sites. Such differences indicate that numerous well-dated sites will be needed to describe the vegetation and climate histories of Western Beringia.