First High-Resolution Dated Records of Vegetation and Climate Changes on the Lake Baikal Northern Shore in the Middle-Late Holocene

摘要

The northern shore of Lake Baikal (hereafter, northern Baikal), which is located in the middle part of Central Asia, represents a very interesting, but poorly studied, biogeographic and paleogeographic region. This region incorporates a complicated phytocoenosis represented by plant communities of the Ural-Siberia, Angarida, and Beringia phratries of taiga-type (Boreal) formations. Interactions between these communities are characterized by the arduous dynamic relations developed in the late Holocene. This connection was reflected not only in the ecotone nature of the structure of present-day vegetation, but also in the fact that the eastern and western boundaries of dominant species of these major heterochronous caenogenetic vegetation units pass precisely along the study region. Therefore, the vegetation of this region is highly sensitive to climate changes of different time scales. Naturally, such properties of vegetation are of great interest for reconstructing the environment.