Palaeoenvironment of the Altay Region
Funding
DFG (2005, 2006)
Russian Guest Scientists
• Prof. Dr. Ivan A. Kalugin
Limnogeology, Geochemistry
Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Geology
Department of Geology and Cenozoic Palaeoclimatology
Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
• Dr. Nadezhda I. Dorofeyuk
Limnogeology, Diatoms
Russian Academy of Sciences
Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution
Moskow, Russian Federation
Background
In the scope of the Russian-German guest science programme of the DFG, limnogeological studies are conducted in the Altay Region.
The Altay Region lies in the centre of Eurasia and is characterized by continental climate with influences from the North Atlantic realm and from the monsoonal areas of China. Lake sediments provide important informations on palaeoenvironmental changes in the area.
Lake Teletskoye is a modern intermountain basin of tectonic nature, located at the northern margin of the Altay Mountains. The sediments are presented by silty and clayey laminites, documenting seasonal and long-term climate-driven variations in fluvial sediment input. Pollen records and geochemical parameters in a two metre long sediment core from the centre of the lake can be used to trace vegetation and climatic changes of the last millennium, revealing the Little Ice Age stage.
Lake Hoton-Nur is a fresh-water lake in the northern Mongolian Altay and occupies part of an intermontane depression dammed by a moraine of the last glacial maximum. Pollen, diatom, and lithology records can be used as a rough measure of regional vegetation history and relative lake level. A 2.6 m long sediment core has been taken in 2003 that covers the last 30 kyr.
Outcomes
• Andreev, A., Pierau, R., Kalugin, I. A., Daryin, A. V., Smolyaninova, L. G., Diekmann, B. (2007). Environmental changes in the northern Altai during the last millennium documented in Lake Teletskoye pollen record. Quaternary Research, 67: 394-399.
• Kalugin, I., Daryin, A., Smolyaninova, L., Andreev, A., Diekmann, B., Khlystov, O. (2007). 800-yr-long records of annual air temperature and precipitation over southern Siberia inferred from Lake Teletskoye sediments. Quaternary Research, 67: 400-410.
• Rudaya, N., Tarasov, P., Dorofeyuk, N., Solovieva, N., Kalugin, I., Andreev, A., Daryin, A., Diekmann, B., Riedel, F., Tserendash, N., Wagner, M. (2009). Holocene environments and climate in the Mongolian Altai reconstructed from the Hoton-Nur pollen and diatom records: a step towards better understanding climate dynamics in Central Asia. Quaternary Scienec Reviews, 28: 540-554.