Lakes and climate of central Eurasia: Ostracod-based reconstructions of limnology and climate of the last 50,000 years in the Lake Baikal region

• Applicant: Dr. Jana Gliwa
• Subject Area: Geology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466468307

Studies of past climate change and its impacts on the environment and population are becoming increasingly important today, during a period of rapid climate warming. The last 50,000 years are of particular importance for Eurasia, as this interval has witnessed many extreme climatic events of different duration and magnitude and the dispersal of anatomically modern humans from the Near East throughout Siberia to the Arctic and Pacific coasts. This raises challenging questions about the living conditions of these early modern humans and their responses to short- and long-term climate changes. The Lake Baikal Region (LBR), known for its long pollen records stored in lake sediments and a wealth of archaeological data, is ideal for studying climate change and human-environment interactions since the early Upper Paleolithic. This project aims to obtain the first robustly-dated climate records with centennial resolution for the LBR using a set of ostracod and stable isotope analyses applied to sediment cores from Lake Ochaul (Cis-Baikal) and Lake Kotokel (Trans-Baikal) spanning the last 50,000 years. These ostracod-based regional climate records will help overcome methodological constraints of pollen-based reconstructions and resolve existing controversies in quantifying seasonal climate changes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants