Andreev, Andrei

Kienast, F.

Kuzmina, S.

Kuznetsova, T.

Meyer, Hanno

Schirrmeister, Lutz

Sierralta, M.

Wetterich, Sebastian

English

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Geophysical Research Abstracts,Vol. 11, EGU2009-2430, 2009EGU General Assembly 2009© Author(s) 2009Permafrost sequences on Kurungnakh Island, Lena Delta (NE Siberia,Russia) as key site of the late Quaternary environmental history of WestBeringiaS. Wetterich (1), S. Kuzmina (2), A.A. Andreev (1), F. Kienast (3), H. Meyer (1), L. Schirrmeister (1), T.Kuznetsova (4), and M. Sierralta (5)(1) Stiftung Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam, Periglacial, Potsdam, Germany(sebastian.wetterich@awi.de, +49 331 2882137), (2) University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,Edmonton, Canada, (3) Research Institute and Museum for Natural History Senckenberg, Research Station for QuaternaryPalaeontology Weimar, Germany, (4) Moscow State University, Department of Palaeontology, Moscow, Russia, (5) LeibnizInstitute for Applied Geosciences, Hannover, GermanyLate Quaternary permafrost sequences are widely distributed in the arctic lowlands of Siberia. Because the ex-istence of permafrost has been sensitive to climate changes during the Quaternary past, such frozen deposits areregarded as an archive of palaeoenvironmental dynamics. Late Quaternary palaeoenvironments of the SiberianArctic were reconstructed by combining data from several fossil bioindicators (pollen, plant macro-fossils, ostra-cods, insects, and mammal bones) with sedimentological and cryolithological data from permafrost deposits. Thelate Pleistocene to Holocene sequence on Kurungnakh Island (Lena Delta, NE Siberia) reflects the environmentalhistory of West Beringia and covers glacial/interglacial and stadial/interstadial climate variations with a focus onthe Middle Weichselian interstadial (50–32 kyr BP). The record mirrors the development of periglacial landscapesunder changing sedimentation regimes which were meandering fluvial during the Early Weichselian, colluvial orproluvial on gently inclined plaines during the Middle and Late Weichselian, and thermokarst-affected during theHolocene. Palaeoecological records indicate the existence of tundra–steppe vegetation under cold continental cli-mate conditions during the Middle Weichselian interstadial. Due to sedimentation gaps in the sequence between32 and 17 kyr BP and 17 and 8 kyr BP, the Late Weichselian stadial is incompletely represented in the studiedoutcrops. Nevertheless, by several palaeoecological indications arctic tundra–steppe vegetation under extremelycold-arid conditions prevailed during the late Pleistocene. The tundra–steppe disappeared completely due to last-ing paludification during the Holocene. Initially subarctic shrub tundra formed, which later retreated in course ofthe late Holocene cooling.

Permafrost sequences on Kurungnakh Island, Lena Delta (NE Siberia, Russia) as key site of the late Quaternary environmental history of West Beringia

Permafrost sequences on Kurungnakh Island, Lena Delta (NE Siberia, Russia) as key site of the late Quaternary environmental history of West Beringia

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