Abstract
Abstract. Pollen records from Siberia are mostly absent in global or Northern Hemisphere synthesis works. Here we present a taxonomically harmonized and temporally standardized pollen dataset that was synthesized using 173 palynological records from Siberia and adjacent areas (northeastern Asia, 42–75∘ N, 50–180∘ E). Pollen data were taxonomically harmonized, i.e. the original 437 taxa were assigned to 106 combined pollen taxa. Age–depth models for all records were revised by applying a constant Bayesian age–depth modelling routine. The pollen dataset is available as count data and percentage data in a table format (taxa vs. samples), with age information for each sample. The dataset has relatively few sites covering the last glacial period between 40 and 11.5 ka (calibrated thousands of years before 1950 CE) particularly from the central and western part of the study area. In the Holocene period, the dataset has many sites from most of the area, with the exception of the central part of Siberia. Of the 173 pollen records, 81 % of pollen counts were downloaded from open databases (GPD, EPD, PANGAEA) and 10 % were contributions by the original data gatherers, while a few were digitized from publications. Most of the pollen records originate from peatlands (48 %) and lake sediments (33 %). Most of the records (83 %) have ≥3 dates, allowing the establishment of reliable chronologies. The dataset can be used for various purposes, including pollen data mapping (example maps for Larix at selected time slices are shown) as well as quantitative climate and vegetation reconstructions. The datasets for pollen counts and pollen percentages are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.898616 (Cao et al., 2019a), also including the site information, data source, original publication, dating data, and the plant functional type for each pollen taxa.
Highlights
Continental or sub-continental pollen databases are essential for spatial reconstructions of former climates and past vegetation patterns of the terrestrial biosphere and in interpreting their driving forces (Cao et al, 2013); they provide data for use in palaeodata–model comparisons at a continental scale (Gaillard et al, 2010; Trondman et al, 2015)
Of the 173 pollen records, 81 % of pollen counts were downloaded from open databases (GPD, European Pollen Database (EPD), PANGAEA) and 10 % were contributions by the original data gatherers, while a few were digitized
Pollen records from Siberia have rather seldomly been included in global, Northern Hemisphere, or synthesis works (Sanchez Goñi et al, 2017; Marsicek et al, 2018), probably because (1) few records are available in open databases or (2) available data are not taxonomically harmonized and lack reliable chronologies
Summary
Continental or sub-continental pollen databases are essential for spatial reconstructions of former climates and past vegetation patterns of the terrestrial biosphere and in interpreting their driving forces (Cao et al, 2013); they provide data for use in palaeodata–model comparisons at a continental scale (Gaillard et al, 2010; Trondman et al, 2015). Continental pollen databases from North America, Europe, Africa, and Latin America have been successfully established (Gajewski, 2008), and a fossil pollen dataset has been established for the eastern part of continental Asia (including China, Mongolia, southern Siberia, and parts of Central Asia; Cao et al, 2013). A few works that make use of Siberian fossil pollen data either present biome reconstructions (Binney et al, 2017; Tian et al, 2018), which do not require taxonomic harmonization of the data, or restrict the analyses to selected times slices such as 18, 6, and 0 ka (Tarasov et al, 1998, 2000; Bigelow et al, 2003). We provide a new taxonomically harmonized and temporally standardized fossil pollen dataset for Siberia and adjacent areas
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