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- Andrén, Elinor, et al.
(author)
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The relative influences of climate and volcanic activity on Holocene lake development inferred from a mountain lake in central Kamchatka
- 2015
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In: Global and Planetary Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-6364 .- 0921-8181. ; 134, s. 67-81
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A sediment sequence was taken from a closed, high altitude lake (informal name Olive-backed Lake) in the central mountain range of Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East. The sequence was dated by radiocarbon and tephrochronology and used for multi-proxy analyses (chironomids, pollen, diatoms). Although the evolution of Beringian climate through the Holocene is primarily driven by global forcing mechanisms, regional controls, such as volcanic activity or vegetation dynamics, lead to a spatial heterogeneous response. This study aims to reconstruct past changes in the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and to separate the climate-driven response from a response to regional or localised environmental change. Radiocarbon dates from plant macrophytes gave a basal date of 7800 cal yr BP. Coring terminated in a tephra layer, so sedimentation at the lake started prior to this date, possibly in the early Holocene following local glacier retreat. Initially the catchment vegetation was dominated by Betula and Alnus woodland with a mosaic of open, wet, aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats. Between 7800 and 6000 cal yr BP the diatom-inferred lake water was pH 4.4-53 and chironomid and diatom assemblages in the lake were initially dominated by a small number of acidophilic/acid tolerant taxa. The frequency of Pinus pumila (Siberian dwarf pine) pollen increased from 5000 cal yr BP and threshold analysis indicates that P. pumila arrived in the catchment between 4200 and 3000 cal yr BP. Its range expansion was probably mediated by strengthening of the Aleutian Low pressure system and increased winter snowfall. The diatominferred pH reconstructions show that after an initial period of low pH, pH gradually increased from 5500 cal yr BP to pH 5.8 at 1500 cal yr BP. This trend of increasing pH through the Holocene is unusual in lake records, but the initially low pH may have resulted directly or indirectly from intense regional volcanic activity during the midHolocene. The chironomid-inferred July temperature reconstruction suggests cool periods between 32002800 cal yr BP and 1100-700 cal yr BP and a warmer period between 2800 and 1100 cal yr BP. Chironomid and diatom DCA scores decline from ca. 6000 cal yr BP, indicating compositional changes in these aquatic assemblages. In comparison declines in pollen PCA scores are delayed, starting ca. 5100 cal yr BP. The results suggest that while catchment vegetation was responding primarily to climate change, the biota within the lake and lake water chemistry were responding to localised environmental conditions. Crown Copyright (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Brooks, S. J., et al.
(author)
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Holocene environmental change in Kamchatka: A synopsis
- 2015
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In: Global and Planetary Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-6364 .- 0921-8181. ; 134, s. 166-174
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a synthesis of the results of a multiproxy, multisite, palaeoecological study of Holocene environmental change in Kamchatka, Far East Russia, details of which are presented elsewhere in the volume. We summarise the results of the analyses of pollen, diatom, chironomid, and testate amoebae assemblages, together with stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon, and sediment characteristics from the sediments of five lakes and a peat succession on a latitudinal gradient of the Kamchatka Peninsula, to infer environmental change and establish the major climate forcers and climatic teleconnections. There are synchronous shifts in the assemblage composition of most of the biota and across most sites at 6.5-62 ka BP, 5.2 ka BP, 4.0 ka BP, and 3.5 ka BP, suggesting a response to strong regional climate forcing at these times. These dates correspond to the warmest part of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) (6.5-6.2 ka BP), the beginning of the Neoglacial cooling (5.2 ka BP), the coolest and wettest part of the Neoglacial (4.0 ka BP), and a switch to warmer and drier conditions at 3.5 ka BP. Our results provide evidence for the penetration and domination of different air masses at different periods during the Holocene. Cool and dry periods in winter (e.g., at 6.0 ka BP) were driven by a relatively weak pressure gradient between the Siberian High and the Aleutian Low, whereas cool, wet periods in winter (e.g., the Neoglacial and during the LIA) developed when these two systems increased in strength. Warm, dry, continental periods in summer (e.g., at 2.5 ka BP) were driven by a weakening of the Siberian High. We find that the timing of the HTM in Kamchatka is later than in the Eurasian arctic but similar to northern Europe and the sub-arctic part of eastern Siberia. This progressive onset of the HTM was due to the effects of postglacial ice-sheet decay that modulated the routes of westerly storm tracks in Eurasia. A major ecosystem driver was the Siberian dwarf pine Pinus pumila, which spread northward during the Holocene in response to increasing winter snow, and caused water chemistry changes on arrival in the catchments of our study lakes and a response in diatom and chironomid assemblages. We also detect shortterm responses, especially in diatom assemblages, to water chemistry changes following volcanic ash deposits. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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