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Charcoal records from thermokarst deposits in central Yakutia, eastern Siberia: Implications for forest fire history and thermokarst development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Fumitaka Katamura*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Forest Community Dynamics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto Prefectural University, 1-5 Hangi-cho Shimogamo Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8522, Japan
Masami Fukuda*
Affiliation:
International Arctic Research Center, PO Box 757340, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7340, USA
Nikolai Petrovich Bosikov*
Affiliation:
Permafrost Institute, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Science, Yakutsk-10, 677010, Russia
Roman Vasilievich Desyatkin*
Affiliation:
Institute for Biological Problems of Cryolithozone, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Science, Yakutsk, 677980, Russia
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +81 75 703 5683. Email Addresses:[email protected], [email protected] (F. Katamura), [email protected](M. Fukuda), [email protected] (N.P. Bosikov), [email protected] (R.V. Desyatkin).
1Tel.: +1 907 474 2687; fax: +1 907 474 2691.
2Tel.: +7 4112 33 47 83.
3Tel.: +7 4112 33 64 71; fax: +7 4112 33 58 12.

Abstract

Macroscopic charcoal records from a thermokarst lake deposit in central Yakutia, eastern Siberia, were used to reconstruct the history of forest fires and investigate its relationship to thermokarst initiation. High accumulation rates of charcoal and pollen were coincident in the basal deposits of the thermokarst lake, which suggests that both were initially deposited on the forest floor and subsequently reworked and accumulated in the thermokarst depression. High charcoal and pollen accumulation rates in the basal deposits, dating to 11,000–9000 cal yr BP, also indicate that the thermokarst topography developed during the early Holocene. A lower charcoal accumulation rate after ca. 9000 cal yr BP suggests that thermokarst development has been inhibited since this time. It also indicates that a surface-fire regime has been predominant at least since ca. 9000 cal yr BP in central Yakutia.

Type
Short paper
Copyright
University of Washington

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