Late Holocene climate and vegetation of the Altai mountains (based on lake paleorecords)

This article discusses the results of studying Late Holocene paleorecords from bottom sediments of Altai lakes and adjacent areas. The part of the Holocene which is closest to the present is also the most ambiguous in terms of climatic reconstructions for the Altai Mountains. The evidence for this study was lake bottom sediments sampled in different parts of the Altai Mountains. Cores from lakes Maloe Yarovoe, Kuchuk, Teletskoe, Tenginskoe, Nizhnee Multinskoe, Balyktukel, Igistukel, Karakel-Nur, Khindiktig-Khol, Kanas, and Khoton-Nur were used for reconstructing climate and vegetation of the Late Holocene. Published data from other lake paleoarchives was compared with the results obtained for refinement of the reconstruction. In the Late Holocene of the Altai, we can distinguish a cold episode at the boundary of the North Greenland and Meghalayan periods 4-3.8 ka BP, relatively warm and humid interval of 3.5-2 ka BP, increasing aridification in the last two millennia, cold and wet Little Ice Age, and modern increase in humidity. Despite the general increase in humidity during the Little Ice Age, our data allow us to distinguish several phases from 1300 to 1800 CE: relatively wet phase between 1300-1400 CE, relatively dry phase between 1400 and 1500 CE, the most humid phase between 1500 and 1700 CE, and decrease in humidity towards the end of the Little Ice Age. Paleoreconstruction of mean annual temperatures based on elemental analysis of cores from several Altai lakes also reveals temperature fluctuations and makes it possible to distinguish three phases: the coldest phase from 1300 to 1550 CE, warmer phase from 1500 to 1700 CE, and the final cold phase from 1700 to 1800 CE.