Palaeoenvironment in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, Central Yakutia
Funding
DFG (2002-2005)
Cooperation
Frank Lehmkuhl & Georg Stauch
Geomorphology, Remote Sensing/GIS
Department of Geography
RWTH Aachen, Germany
Wolfgang Zech
Soil Science
Bayreuth University
Bayreuth, Germany
Valentin Spektor & Igor Syromyatnikov
Melnikov Permafrost Institute
Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Yakutsk, Russian Federation
Andrei Prokopiev & Innokenty Beloyubsky
Diamond & Precious Metal Geology Institute
Yakutsk State University
Yakutsk, Russian Federation
Background
During the summer seasons of 2002 and 2003, two field campaigns were undertaken in a joint DFG project with German and Russian scientists (AWI Potsdam, RWTH Aachen, Bayreuth University, Permafrost Institute Yakutsk, Geological Institute Yakutsk), dedicated to the late Quaternary climate and landscape development in the Verkhoyansk Mountains and the central Yakutian lowlands in eastern Siberia. Field work was carried out along two tributaries (Tumara and Djanushka) of the Lena and Aldan Rivers, using rubber boats. The objectives were to establish a detailed chronology of regional glacial dynamics and environmental history, deduced from geomorphology, lacustrine records, and geocryological features of frozen ground.
So far, the dating of terminal Weichselian moraines points to glacial advances that are related to moist interstadials, while the dry stadials are characterized by loess accumulation (Frank Lehmkuhl & Georg Stauch, RWTH Aachen). This regional trend contradicts the general worldwide observation of maximum ice extension during glacial maxima. Postglacial climate history can be deduced from the stable-isotope composition of ice wedges and documents an relative early Holocene climate warming and a late Holocene cooling in eastern Siberia.
Outcomes
• Krinner, G., Diekmann, B., Colleoni, F., Stauch, G. (2011). Global, regional and local scale factors determining glaciation extent in Eastern Siberia over the last 140,000 years. - Quaternary Science Reviews, 30: 821-831.
• Werner, K., Tarasov, P., Andreev, A., Müller, S., Kienast, F., Zech, M., Zech, W., Diekmann, B. (2010). A 12.5-kyr history of vegetation dynamics and mire development with evidence of Younger Dryas larch presence in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, East Siberia, Russia. Boreas, 39: 56-68, doi: 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00116.x.
• Tarasov, P., Müller, S., Andreev, A., Werner, K., Diekmann, B. (2009). Younger Dryas Larix in eastern Siberia: A migrant or survivor? PAGES News, 17/3, 122-123.
• Popp, S., Diekmann, B., Meyer, H., Siegert, C., Syromyatnikov, I., Hubberten, H. -W.(2006). Palaeoclimate signals as inferred from stable-isotope composition of ground ice in the Verkhoyansk foreland, Central Yakutia, Permafrost and periglacial processes, 17, 119-132
• Popp, S., Belolyubsky, I., Lehmkuhl, F., Prokopiev, A., Siegert, C., Spektor, V., Stauch, G., Diekmann, B. (2007). Sediment provenance of late Quaternary morainic, fluvial, and loess-like deposits in the southwestern Verkhoyansk Mountains (eastern Siberia) and implications for regional palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Geological Journal, 42, 477-497.
• Siegert, C., Stauch, G., Lehmkuhl, F., Sergeenko, A.I., Diekmann, B., Popp, S., Belolyubsky, I. (2007): Development of glaciation in the Verkhoyansk Range and its forland during the Pleistocene: results of new investigations - Regional Geology and Metallogeny 30-31: 222-228 (in Russian).
• Stauch, G., Lehmkuhl, F., Frechen, M. (2007). Luminescence chronology from the Verkhoyansk Mountains (North-Eastern Siberia). Quaternary Geochronology, 2, 255-259.
• Werner, K. (2006). Palynologische Untersuchungen eines Torfprofils im Vorland des Werchojansker Gebirges: Ein Beitrag zur holozänen Vegetationsgeschichte Nordost-Sibiriens. Diploma Thesis, University Potsdam/AWI Potsdam.
• Stefanie Müller (2006). Spätpleistozäne und frühholozäne Vegetations- und Klimageschichte im Werchojansker Gebirge (Jakutien, Russland) aus Pollendaten. Diploma Thesis University Potsdam/AWI Potsdam.