Environmental changes in the western part of the Putorana Plateau over the past 4,000 years

The paper presents a detailed reconstruction of vegetation and environmental conditions in the western part of the Putorana Plateau over the past 4,000 years. New paleobotanical data were obtained, as well as the results of the analysis of macroscopic charcoal particles in two cores of bottom sediments from the lakes located in forest and tundra belts of the plateau. Cores chronology is based on detailed AMS radiocarbon dating, and the uppermost layers of cores are dated by ¹³⁷Cs/²¹⁰Pb analysis. According to the data obtained, vegetation pattern in the study area was close to modern one over the past four millennia. However, between 3.1 and 2.5 ka BP (thousands of calendar years ago) an increase of the area of larch, spruce and birch forests and woodlands was recorded in the lower belts of the plateau, apparently in response to the climate warming.

During the same period the number and intensity of fires in the study area also increased. The subsequent cooling led to the gradual degradation of woodlands, almost complete disappearance of spruce from the forest communities, and the expansion of tundra communities. Macroscopic charcoal data for the bottom sediments indicate rather low fire activity since 2.5 ka BP up until recent 200 years. No input of macroscopic charcoal particles to the lakes was recorded for the time interval of 1.1–0.55 ka BP. A sharp increase of concentration of macroscopic charcoal particles in the upper horizons of bottom sediments that have accumulated over the recent 200 years up to the maximum values for the entire studied period reflects a growing fire activity that has no analogues over the past four thousand years.

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