Evidence for mid-Eemian cooling in continental climatic record from Lake Baikal

The discussion on climatic instability observed in Greenland ice cores duri ng the Eemian period (substage 5e) resulted in discovery of a pronounced mi d-Eemian cooling event. We report that the mid-Eemian cooling is found for the first time in the biogenic silica climatic record and microfossil abund ance record of Lake Baikal. Timing of this event in Lake Baikal correlates well with timing of the European pollen records and marine sedimentary reco rds. The presence of the mid-Eemian cooling signal in the Lake Baikal recor d suggests a much closer link between Asian climate influenced by strong pr essure fields over the vast land masses and the climate-controlling process es in the North Atlantic during interglacial periods, than what was general ly believed. Furthermore, the Lake Baikal record suggests that after the mi d-Eemian cooling, the climatic conditions returned close to the warmth of t he 5e optimum and thus argues that the warm conditions of the last intergla cial persisted in Siberia throughout 5e, and did not end with the mid-Eemia n cooling as suggested by several published marine records.