Climate in northern Eurasia 6000 years ago reconstructed from pollen data

Using a climatic calibration based on the scores of the plant functional ty pes (PFTs) calculated for 1245 surface pollen spectra, the climate at 6 ka BP has been reconstructed for a set of 116 pollen spectra from the former S oviet Union and Mongolia. The results are presented as maps of climatic ano malies and maps of probability classes showing the significance of these di fferences from the modern climate. The reconstructed patterns are spatially coherent, but have confidence levels that vary from region to region, due to the often-large error ranges. At 6 ka, the winters were more than 2 degr ees C warmer than today north of 50 degrees N, with a high significance eas t of the Urals. Summers were also more than 2 degrees C warmer than today w ith a high level of confidence north of the Polar Circle and in central Mon golia. In the mid-latitudes of Siberia, in northern Kazakhstan and around t he Black and the Caspian seas, 6 ka summers were significantly cooler than today. The reconstructed moisture availability (ratio of actual to equilibr ium evapotranspiration) was more than 10% higher than today in the Ukraine, southern Russia and northern Mongolia, and more than 10% lower than today in central Mongolia. This pattern corresponds partly with that of the water budget (annual precipitation minus evaporation) reconstructed from lake le vel records. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.