Palaeoenvironmental and climatic changes during the Late Glacial and Holocene in the Mongolia and Baikal region: A review

Abstract

Multilayer sections in lake bottom sediments and continental sections of loose sediments in Mongolia and the Baikal region provide rich palaeontological material and radiocarbon dating for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Late Pleistocene (Late Glacial) to Holocene. Multidisciplinary data from lacustrine bottom sediments provide evidence of past lake level and vegetation dynamics in the watersheds. Palaeontological data from terrestrial deposits indicate a mosaic landscape structure and a temperate warm and humid climate during the Late Glacial and Holocene, with some regional variability.Global and regional climatic changes at the end of the Pleistocene resulted in the mass extinction of components of the Mammoth faunistic complex, such as the woolly mammoth, cave lion, cave hyena, and big-horned deer; the number of tundra species decreased and migrated to the north, and arid animal species migrated to the south. During the Holocene, four vegetation types (steppe, forest, taiga, and desert) did not show radical changes, but their ratio and spatial distribution changed. Steppe landscapes were replaced by desert steppes during the arid phases of the Holocene. In contrast, the area of taiga forests expanded during humid Holocene phases, but the steppe landscapes remained dominant in the studied territory.