New Data on Chronology of Landscape-Paleoclimatic Stages in Northwestern Russia During the Late Glacial and Holocene

Abstract

Two lake and bog sediments have been thoroughly studied using palynological and radiocarbon dating methods. These are the Lembolovskoye Lake section located in the southern part of the Karelian Ithmus and the Mshinskoye bog section located in the southwestern part of the Leningrad province. The data obtained allow us to reconstruct the main features of the vegetation cover evolution, the chronology for the appearance and a real distribution of the main arboreal species from the south of the Leningrad province to the north, and to construct curves of the paleoclimate parameter changes for the area under study. Thirty-six 14C dates were obtained for the Lembolovskoye Lake section (7 m thick). According to those dates, the organic gyttja formation in the lake began 9870 +/170 BP. Spore-pollen spectra with high percentage of herbs, arborescent, and shrub-birch dated back to the Younger Dryas were found out in clay layers at a depth of 6.5 m. An appearance of spruce and alder pollen is dated at 6860 +/120 and 7510 +/150 BP, respectively. The maximal percentage of broad-leaved species falls on the first half of the Atlantic (AT-1). Thirty-two dates were obtained for the Mshinskoye bog section (6 m thick): from 60 +/70 to 9520 +/170 BP (the last date fixed the beginning of peat formation); 12 palinozones from the Preboreal to the Subatlantic were recognized there. The spruce and alder pollen began to appear 7520 +/110 and 7670 +/130 BP, respectively. The maximal amount of broad-leaved species is observed at 4690 +/80 BP. The detailed reconstruction of changes in vegetation communities during the Late Glacial and Holocene was correlated with paleoclimatic characteristics, which have been reconstructed for the section under study by using the information from a statistical method of spore-pollen data processing.