Palynological study of Lake Kotokel’ bottom sediments (Lake Baikal region)

A palynological study of Lake Kotokel’ sediments reveals that the region experienced rapid climatic shifts during Termination I (~15.5–11 ka), with five distinct intervals marked by drastic landscape and vegetation reorganization, likely due to moisture sensitivity at the forest-steppe ecotone boundary. The research used pollen and AMS¹⁴C analyses from a 9-meter sediment core, achieving an average time resolution of ~120 years. Findings indicate that while the early Holocene (~11 ka) saw less continental climate conditions, subsequent periods exhibited increased continentality, with declining winter temperatures and precipitation but rising summer temperatures. This detailed record aligns with broader Northern Hemispheric trends and provides a refined model for intra- and interregional environmental change correlations over the last 15–15.5 kyr.

Bezrukova, E. V., Tarasov, P. E., Kulagina, N. V., Abzaeva, A. A., Letunova, P. P., & Kostrova, S. S. (2011). Palynological study of Lake Kotokel’ bottom sediments (Lake Baikal region). Russian Geology and Geophysics, 52(4), 458–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rgg.2011.03.008