Pollen palaeorecords from two lakes of the Steppe Altai (Russian Federation): Maloye Yarovoye and Kuchuk with radiocarbon dates and lithology analysis

Two lakes located in the Kulunda lowland, the biggest part of the Steppe Altai, provide a unique and longest high-resolution records of the environmental history of the Altai Mountain piedmont and adjacent plains. Palaeorecords from lakes, Maloye Yarovoye (53.03 N, 79.11 E, 96 m a.s.l.) and Kuchuk (52.69 N, 79.84 E, 98 m a.s.l.), were studied using several techniques, including pollen and geochemical analyses, quantitative reconstruction of climate and biodiversity using multivariate statistics, and estimation of macrocharcoal accumulation rates and sources of fuel, and radiocarbon dating. Which allowed us to describe the environmental history of the region and to establish the interrelationship between plant biodiversity, climate, and fire dynamics in the Steppe Altai from postglacial time to present day. More details at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106616