Description: Extra-tropical circulation systems impede poleward moisture advection by the Indian Summer Monsoon. In this context, the Himalayan range is believed to insulate the south Asian circulation from extra-tropical influences and to delineate the northern extent of the Indian Summer Monsoon in central Asia. Paleoclimatic evidence, however, suggests increased moisture availability in the Early Holocene north of the Himalayan range which is attributed to an intensification of the Indian Summer Monsoon. Nevertheless, mechanisms leading to a surpassing of the Himalayan range and the northern maximum extent of summer monsoonal influence remain unknown. Here we show that the Kunlun barrier on the northern Tibetan Plateau [~36°N] delimits Indian Summer Monsoon precipitation during the Holocene. The presence of the barrier relocates the insulation effect 1,000 km further north, allowing a continental low intensity branch of the Indian Summer Monsoon which is persistent throughout the Holocene. Precipitation intensities at its northern extent seem to be driven by differentiated solar heating of the Northern Hemisphere indicating dependency on energy-gradients rather than absolute radiation intensities. The identified spatial constraints of monsoonal precipitation will facilitate the prediction of future monsoonal precipitation patterns in Central Asia under varying climatic conditions.

Description: Within the scope of Russian-German palaeoenvironmental research, Two-Yurts Lake (TYL, Dvuh-Yurtochnoe in Russian) was chosen as the main scientific target area to decipher Holocene climate variability on Kamchatka. The 5x2 km large and 26 m deep lake is of proglacial origin and situated on the eastern flank of Sredinny Ridge at the northwestern end of the Central Kamchatka Valley, outside the direct influence of active volcanism. Here, we present results of a multi-proxy study on sediment cores, spanning about the last 7000 years. The general tenor of the TYL record is an increase in continentality and winter snow cover in conjunction with a decrease in temperature, humidity, and biological productivity after 5000-4500 cal yrs BP, inferred from pollen and diatom data and the isotopic composition of organic carbon. The TYL proxy data also show that the late Holocene was punctuated by two colder spells, roughly between 4500 and 3500 cal yrs BP and between 1000 and 200 cal yrs BP, as local expressions of the Neoglacial and Little Ice Age, respectively. These environmental changes can be regarded as direct and indirect responses to climate change, as also demonstrated by other records in the regional terrestrial and marine realm. Long-term climate deterioration was driven by decreasing insolation, while the short-term climate excursions are best explained by local climatic processes. The latter affect the configuration of atmospheric pressure systems that control the sources as well as the temperature and moisture of air masses reaching Kamchatka.

Description: Sediments of Lake Donggi Cona on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau were studied to infer changes in the lacustrine depositional environment, related to climatic and non-climatic changes during the last 19 kyr. The lake today fills a 30 X 8 km big and 95 m deep tectonic basin, associated with the Kunlun Fault. The study was conducted on a sediment-core transect through the lake basin, in order to gain a complete picture of spatiotemporal environmental change. The recovered sediments are partly finely laminated and are composed of calcareous muds with variable amounts of carbonate micrite, organic matter, detrital silt and clay. On the basis of sedimentological, geochemical, and mineralogical data up to five lithological units (LU) can be distinguished that document distinct stages in the development of the lake system. The onset of the lowermost LU with lacustrine muds above basal sands indicates that lake level was at least 39 m below the present level and started to rise after 19 ka, possibly in response to regional deglaciation. At this time, the lacustrine environment was characterized by detrital sediment influx and the deposition of siliciclastic sediment. In two sediment cores, upward grain-size coarsening documents a lake-level fall after 13 cal ka BP, possibly associated with the late-glacial Younger Dryas stadial. From 11.5 to 4.3 cal ka BP, grainsize fining in sediment cores from the profundal coring sites and the onset of lacustrine deposition at a litoral core site (2m water depth) in a recent marginal bay of Donggi Cona document lake-level rise during the early tomid-Holocene to at least modern level. In addition, high biological productivity and pronounced precipitation of carbonate micrites are consistent with warm and moist climate conditions related to an enhanced influence of summer monsoon. At 4.3 cal ka BP the lake system shifted from an aragonite- to a calcite-dominated system, indicating a change towards a fully open hydrological lake system. The younger clay-rich sediments are moreover non-laminated and lack any diagenetic sulphides, pointing to fully ventilated conditions, and the prevailing absence of lake stratification. This turning point in lake history could imply either a threshold response to insolation-forced climate cooling or a response to a non-climatic trigger, such as an erosional event or a tectonic pulse that induced a strong earthquake, which is difficult to decide from our data base.

Description: Here we present a detailed radiocarbon-dated 936 cm long pollen record from Lake Billyakh (65°17' N, 126°47' E; 340 m a.s.l.) situated in the western part of the Verkhoyansk Mountains, about 140 km south of the Arctic Circle. A set of 53 surface pollen samples representing tundra, cold deciduous forest and taiga was collected in northern and central Yakutia communities to verify the accuracy of the quantitative biome reconstruction method and to obtain a more precise attribution of the identified pollen taxa to the main regional biomes. The adjusted method is then applied to the pollen record from Lake Billyakh to gain a reconstruction of vegetation and environments since about 50.7 kyr BP. The results of the pollen analysis and pollen-based biome reconstruction suggest that herbaceous tundra and steppe communities dominated the area from 50.7 to 13.5 kyr BP. Relatively low pollen concentrations and high percentages of herbaceous pollen taxa (mainly Cyperaceae, Poaceae and Artemisia) likely indicate a reduced vegetation cover and/or lower pollen production. On the other hand, extremely low percentages of drought-tolerant taxa, such as Chenopodiaceae and Ephedra, and the constant presence of various mesophyllous herbaceous (Thalictrum, Rosaceae, Asteraceae) and shrubby taxa (Betula sect. Nanae/Fruticosae, Duschekia fruticosa, Salix) in the pollen assemblages prevent an interpretation of the last glacial environments around Lake Billyakh as extremely arid. The lowest pollen percentages of woody taxa and the highest values of Artemisia pollen attest that the 31-15 kyr BP period as the driest and coldest interval of the entire record. A relative high content of taxa representing shrub tundra communities and the presence of larch pollen recorded prior to 31 kyr and after 13.5 kyr BP likely indicate interstadial climate amelioration associated with the middle and latest parts of the last glacial. An increase in pollen percentages of herbaceous taxa around 12 kyr BP suggests broader distribution of drier communities in response to the colder and drier than present climate of the Younger Dryas (YD). The onset of the Holocene is marked in the pollen record by the highest values of shrub taxa, mainly B. sect. Nanae/Fruticosae. Pollen percentages of arboreal taxa increase gradually and reach maximum values after 7 kyr BP. The latter maximum mainly reflects the spread of Pinus sylvestris in central Yakutia as a response to the mid-Holocene climatic optimum. The quasi-continuous presence of larch, shrubby birch and alder pollen throughout the whole record is the most striking feature of the pollen record. Noticeable variations in larch pollen percentages point to multiple short-term warming episodes, which might be synchronous with the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles in the North Atlantic records. The Lake Billyakh pollen record suggests that larch possibly survived during the last 50 kyr BP in locally favourable environments in the study region.