Postglacial climate and vegetation history, north-central Kola Peninsula, Russia: pollen and diatom records from Lake Yarnyshnoe-3

A sediment core from Lake Yamyshnoe-3 (69 degrees 04'N; 36 degrees 04'E), a n emerged coastal lake from the tundra of the north-central Kola Peninsula, has been analyzed for fossil pollen and diatoms. The pollen record shows t he Younger Dryas event marked by increasing Artemisia coupled with decrease s in Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Salix at c. 10 700 to 10 000 BP. This core pro vides the first well-defined palynological record of the Younger Dryas even t on the Kola Peninsula. Stomates from Pinus were recovered from the core i nterval between 8000 and 6000 BP. The stomates, coupled with elevated value s of pine pollen, indicate that Pinus sylvestris grew near the arctic coast line of the central Kola Peninsula in the middle Holocene. However, the sma ll number of stomates suggests that pines were not plentiful. The diatom re cord from the core reflects basin isolation from the sea and indicates addi tional limnological changes during the climate transition between c. 5000 a nd 4000 BP. The broadly similar climate and vegetation history on the north -central Kola Peninsula and in Fennoscandia demonstrates the propagation of late glacial and Holocene climate events from the North Atlantic region in to the Eurasian Arctic.