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Environmental changes of the Okhotsk-Kolyma divide from glacial lake sediments during the Holocene

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Abstract

Investigations of glacial lake sediments located near the modern altitudinal boundary of a larch forest (between 750–810 m absolute elevation) reveal continuous records of the vegetation and climate changes over the last 12000 years in the area of the Okhotsk-Kolyma divide. For the first time, the pollen accumulation rates (PAR), which are suggestive of pollen productivity, were used as a key indicator to interpret the response of alpine plant communities to climate changes. The palynological data imply that several forest line fluctuations of ∼100–200 m occurred during the Holocene. A belt of tundra dominated by shrub pine was first established beyond the forest line near 7650 ± 50 BP. The abrupt appearance of the shrub pine in the studied area is characteristic of a sharp vegetation boundary found in other records from the north of the Far East that corresponds to the Boreal-Atlantic boundary of the Holocene. The birch pollen zone, which occurs in the earlier portions of the records, is characteristic of the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quaternary Research Center, Washington University, Seattle, USA

    P. M. Anderson

  2. Shilo Northeastern Complex Research Institute, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Portovaya 16, Magadan, 685000, Russia

    A. V. Lozhkin, P. S. Minuyk & A. Yu. Pakhomov

Authors
  1. P. M. Anderson
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  2. A. V. Lozhkin
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  3. P. S. Minuyk
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  4. A. Yu. Pakhomov
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Correspondence to P. M. Anderson.

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Original Russian Text © P.M. Anderson, A.V. Lozhkin, P.S. Minuyk, A.Yu. Pakhomov, 2014, published in Tikhookeanskaya Geologiya, 2014, Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 70–80.

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Anderson, P.M., Lozhkin, A.V., Minuyk, P.S. et al. Environmental changes of the Okhotsk-Kolyma divide from glacial lake sediments during the Holocene. Russ. J. of Pac. Geol. 8, 464–474 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1819714014060025

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1819714014060025

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