TY - JOUR

T1 - Postglacial history of the Steppe Altai

T2 - Climate, fire and plant diversity

AU - Natalia, Rudaya

AU - Sergey, Krivonogov

AU - Michał, Słowiński

AU - Xianyong, Cao

AU - Snezhana, Zhilich

N1 - Funding Information: This study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation , project 20-17-00110 . Work of Sergey Krivonogov was in the frame of State assignment of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS and Russian Foundation of Basic Research , project 19-05-00403 . Snezhana Zhilich’s work is supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research , project 19-29-05085 . The authors thank Tatiana Semina for cartographic support, Nadezhda Zhilich for sample treatment and Dmitry Papin for advice in archaeological questions. We also thank the anonymous reviewers who provided valuable and positive advice on how to improve our article. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/12/1

Y1 - 2020/12/1

N2 - The Steppe Altai is a natural transition zone between the Central Asian steppes and deserts and the Siberian taiga. Various lakes located in the Kulunda lowland, the biggest part of the Steppe Altai, provide a unique archive of the environmental history of the Altai Mountain piedmont and adjacent plains. Palaeorecords from two lakes, Maloye Yarovoye and Kuchuk, provide the longest high-resolution records of the Steppe Altai and south-western Siberia, allowing us to describe the environmental history of the region with high accuracy since the last deglaciation. The main objective of this study was to establish the interrelationship between plant biodiversity, climate, and fire dynamics in the Steppe Altai from postglacial time to present day. We used several techniques for this task, including pollen and geochemical analyses, quantitative reconstruction of climate and biodiversity using multivariate statistics, and estimation of macrocharcoal accumulation rates and sources of fuel. Based on analyses of the two palaeorecords, we conclude that plant diversity and evenness show a strong positive correlation with annual precipitation. Pinus sylvestris spread throughout Kulunda lowland after 10.8 ka BP, and maximal spread of mixed coniferous-deciduous forests in south-western Siberia occurred between 7.2 and 2.7 ka BP. We propose that the maximum development of the ribbon-like forests dominated by Scotch pine characterized the Steppe Altai at that time. Forest fires occurred sparsely during the Holocene but were not inherent in pre-Holocene time. Before 650 CE, the main fuel for the fire was grass; however, forest fires rapidly increased in the Steppe Altai after 650 CE and prevailed over steppe fires after 1420 CE. Increased fire activity over the last millennium was likely human-induced.

AB - The Steppe Altai is a natural transition zone between the Central Asian steppes and deserts and the Siberian taiga. Various lakes located in the Kulunda lowland, the biggest part of the Steppe Altai, provide a unique archive of the environmental history of the Altai Mountain piedmont and adjacent plains. Palaeorecords from two lakes, Maloye Yarovoye and Kuchuk, provide the longest high-resolution records of the Steppe Altai and south-western Siberia, allowing us to describe the environmental history of the region with high accuracy since the last deglaciation. The main objective of this study was to establish the interrelationship between plant biodiversity, climate, and fire dynamics in the Steppe Altai from postglacial time to present day. We used several techniques for this task, including pollen and geochemical analyses, quantitative reconstruction of climate and biodiversity using multivariate statistics, and estimation of macrocharcoal accumulation rates and sources of fuel. Based on analyses of the two palaeorecords, we conclude that plant diversity and evenness show a strong positive correlation with annual precipitation. Pinus sylvestris spread throughout Kulunda lowland after 10.8 ka BP, and maximal spread of mixed coniferous-deciduous forests in south-western Siberia occurred between 7.2 and 2.7 ka BP. We propose that the maximum development of the ribbon-like forests dominated by Scotch pine characterized the Steppe Altai at that time. Forest fires occurred sparsely during the Holocene but were not inherent in pre-Holocene time. Before 650 CE, the main fuel for the fire was grass; however, forest fires rapidly increased in the Steppe Altai after 650 CE and prevailed over steppe fires after 1420 CE. Increased fire activity over the last millennium was likely human-induced.

KW - Altai

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Climate

KW - Fire

KW - Holocene

KW - Postglacial

KW - SEDIMENTS

KW - POLLEN

KW - SIBERIA

KW - PAST FIRE

KW - ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGES

KW - DAMMED LAKES

KW - FOREST

KW - HOLOCENE CLIMATE

KW - ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY

KW - LATE PLEISTOCENE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092068243&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=45250643

U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106616

DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106616

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85092068243

VL - 249

JO - Quaternary Science Reviews

JF - Quaternary Science Reviews

SN - 0277-3791

M1 - 106616

ER -