Plant sedimentary ancient DNA data from Far East Russia

Woody plants are expanding into the Arctic in response to the warming climate. The impact on arctic plants is not well understood due to the limited knowledge about plant assembly rules. Past plant diversity over long time series is rare. Here, we applied sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding targeting the P6 loop of the chloroplast trnL gene to a sediment record from Lake Ilirney (central Chukotka, Far Eastern Russia) covering the last 28 thousand years. Our results show that forb-rich steppe-tundra and dwarf-shrub tundra dominated during the cold climate before 14 ka, while deciduous erect-shrub tundra was abundant during the warm period since 14 ka. Larix invasion during the late Holocene substantially lagged behind the likely warmest period between 10 and 6 ka, where the vegetation coverage was densest. We reveal highest richness during 28–23 ka and a second richness peak during 13–10 ka, with both periods being accompanied by low shrub abundance. During the cold period before 14 ka...