Quaternary palynostratigraphy of the Pechora Sea

• Main Authors: Rudenko, O. V., Polyakova, Yelena I.
• Other Authors: Bauch, Henning A., Pavlidis, Yu. A., Matishov, G. G., Koç, N.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Kamloth 2005
• Subjects: Arctic; Kola Peninsula; Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung; Betula nana; dvina; kola peninsula; Kolguev; Pechora; Pechora Sea; Reports on Polar and Marine Research; Tundra
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28052/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28052/1/2005_Rudenko_Quaternary_BerPolMeerFor-501.pdf

By combining the lithologic, original palynologic and published micropaleonthological data we reconstructed paleogeographical events On the Pechora shelf during the Younger Dryas and Holocene time. Our paleoenvironmental reconstructions are based On the regularities in formation of pollen-and-spores assemblages in the surface sediments of the Pechora Sea. The main stages in paleogeography of the Pechora Sea during the Late Pleistocene were emphasized. The Late Valdai sediments in the Pechora Sea region were accumulated under the influence of fluvioglacial flows probably from the melting ice cap on Kolguev Island and, also, coastal glaciers. Climate deterioration considerably changed coastal vegetation as reflected in the depleted taxonomic and quantitative composition of palynospectra. The pollen data suggest that Open steppe-like plant communities with Artemisia, Poaceae, Asteraceae and Caryophyllaceae dominated dry ecotopes On watersheds, whereas tundra-like communities with Betula nana, arctic Salix, Dryas, Saxifraga, Carex and Brassicaceae were common in more humid coastal lowlands. The overlying silts and loamy sands are believed to have been accumulated during early deglaciation, i.e., Older Dryas and Alleröd. During this phase the glacial sedimentation was rather rapidly replaced by a glaciomarine deposition. Progressive climate warming caused prominent changes in coastal vegetation. Discontinuous treeless tundra-steppe associations were replaced by dwarf and shrub ernik tundra. A "complex vegetation cover" of forest-tundra apparently existed in the northern part of the Kola Peninsula and in the Northern Dvina Lowland. By the end of the Alleröd alder-bushes and horsetails occupied riverbanks, and spruce occurred in the forest-tundra communities on the adjacent hinterland.