Vegetation response to global and regional environmental change on the Taymyr peninsula during the Holocene

Abstract

The author uses plant residue from peat bog deposits and palynological data to reconstruct past climatic conditions of the Holocene period for the Taymyr Peninsula of northern central Siberia. More specifically, four general climatic periods, each with their specific vegetation communities, are identified for the period from 9000 B. P. to the present: Boreal, Atlantic, Sub‐Boreal, and Sub‐Atlantic. Three landscape‐climatic periods have been identified with an elevated thermal regime, with the warmest conditions prevailing during the Boreal Period. The last thousand years has been characterized by the northward expansion of larch and the northeastward movement of spruce and certain boreal taiga grass‐herb species.