Vegetation changes in Yenisei Siberia over the last 4700 years: new palaeoecological data from Igarka area; Krasnoyarsk Region

The paper deals with new palaeoecological reconstructions for the last ca. 4700 years based on detailed AMS-radiocarbon dating, pollen, plant macrofossils and macroscopic charcoal records from peat sequence, obtained from the mire near Igarka (Yenisei Siberia). The data obtained testify to the widespread of middle taiga larch forests with a high proportion of Abies sibirica, Picea obovata and Pinus sibirica over the study area between 4700 and 3600 cal. years BP. Сlimate warming caused the northward shift of the boundaries of the vegetation zones in the Yenisei Siberia and the expansion of Abies sibirica range by 200 km to the north compared to the modern one. Starting from ca. 3600 cal. years BP the forest cover began to gradually decrease, and the middle taiga vegetation gave way to sparse larch and birch-larch forests with the participation of spruce and Siberian pine and treeless vegetation characteristic of the northern taiga. The vegetation pattern of the region became close to the modern one around 2600 cal. years BP. Macroscopic charcoal analysis revealed that biomass burning was low until the last 500 cal. years, with the exception of an episode of a strong fire 3600–3500 cal. years BP. Fire activity intensified in the late 14th and early 15th centuries AD, obviously due to anthropogenic impact.

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