Late Quaternary landscape and climate dynamics of the Verkhoyansk Mountains, eastern Siberia

• Main Authors: Diekmann, Bernhard, Andreev, Andrei, Henning, Denis, Hubberten, Hans-Wolfgang, Krinner, Gerhard, Lehmkuhl, Frank, Meyer, Hanno, Müller, Stefanie, Nazarova, Larisa, Pestryakova, Luidmilla, Popp-Hofmann, Steffen, Siegert, Christine, Stauch, Georg, Subetto, Dmitry, Tarasov, Pavel, Werner, Kirstin
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Verkhoyansk; Ice; permafrost; taiga; Tundra; Siberia
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/11911/; http://www.geogr.msu.ru/structure/labs/notl/nauchd/downloads/Abstracts_2011_APEX_Longyearbyen.pdf

The northeastern part of Eurasia represents one of Earth‟s most extreme periglacial climate regions, characterized by the strongest seasonal temperature amplitudes on the northern hemisphere. The region is occupied by deep-reaching permafrost and covered by widespread taiga and tundra vegetation (Müller et al., 2010). Paleoenvironmental studies have been conducted close to the northern polar cycle in the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range and its western foreland to infer periglacial landscape dynamics in response to late Quaternary climate change. The distribution of preserved terminal moraines reveal several mountain glacier advances in the past (Stauch and Lehmkuhl, 2010). According to luminescence dating, the widest geologically documented glacial advence took place during the Saalian stage around 135 ka. Less extended glaciations to the foreland appeared during the early Weichselian at 100-120 ka and at 85-90 ka, while the youngest glaciation (>50 ka) was confined to the mountain area. No regional glacial advance is evident for the late Weichselian and the last glacial maximum, a time which was characterized by aeolian loess formation (Stauch et al., 2007, Popp et al., 2007). Sediment cores from the 25 m deep Lake Billyakh (340 m a.s.l.), a former proglacial basin, document environmental changes of the last 50 kyr (Diekmann et al., 2007). Pollen records indicate a dry climate for the late Weichselian, indicated by a change from tundra towards cold steppe vegetation after 32 ka until 13.5 ka BP (Müller et al., 2009, 2010). For the same time, sedimentological and diatom data indicate a lake level drop. Modelling experiments with a general circulation model suggest that the consecutive decline in the extent of mountain glaciers and increase in dryness through the Weichselian was dictated by the growing shielding effect of the western Eurasian ice sheets that prevented the supply of moist Atlantic air masses to eastern Siberia (Krinner et al., 2011). In addition, enhanced deposition of dust reduced the albedo and ...