Veget Hist Archaeobot (1997) 6:1-8 Vegetation History and Archaeobotany © Springer-Verlag 1997 Late- and post-glacial vegetation and climate history of the south- western Taymyr Peninsula, central Siberia, as revealed by pollen analysis of a core from Lake Lama Jiirgen Hahne and Martin Melles Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam, Telegrafenberg A43, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany Received April 15, 1996 / Accepted September 9, 1996 This paper is dedicated to Hans-Jfirgen Beug on the oc- casion of his 65th birthday. Abstract. On the Taymyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, Central Siberia, a joint German/ Russian multidisciplinary research project focuses on the Late Quaternary history of climate and environment. Within the scope of this project, palynological studies were carried out on a 10.8-m core from Lama Lake, situ- ated in the south-west of the research area. The core, which did not reach the base of the lacustrine sediments, reveals the vegetation and climate history of the last 17 000 years and demonstrates that this area was not gla- ciated during that time. The Pleistocene/Holocene tran- sition is, as elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, char- acterized by increased temperatures during the Boiling, Allerod and Preboreal with interruptions during the Older (post-Boiling) and Younger Dryas events. The Holocene climate optimum at Lama Lake probably oc- curred within the Boreal period, when dense larch for- ests developed. The Atlantic period was characterized by warm conditions that favoured the establishment of larch-spruce forests, though a climatic deterioration is also recorded. During the Subboreal, spruce fluctuated in importance, on the basis of which it is suggested that there were two cool periods with an intervening warm period. Since 3000 B.P., the climate has become consid- erably cooler and forests have degenerated. During the last 1000 years, unfavourable climate conditions have resulted in a forest tundra and widespread tundra com- munities developing in the Lama Lake region. Key words: Central Siberia - Palaeoclimatology - Palynology - Late Weichselian - Holocene Introduction The northern part of central Siberia represents a transi- tion zone between west and east Siberia with respect to both present climate and past climate change. Whilst west Siberia is characterized by a marine-influenced eli- Correspondence to: Jiirgen Hahne mate, the climate in east Siberia is much more continen- tal due to the Asian anticyclone (Gavrilova 1981; Makeev et al. 1991). During the Late Weichselian, higher precipitation in west Siberia led to the formation of the Eurasian ice sheet, whereas most parts of east Si- beria remained unglaciated. The extent of the west Sibe- rian glaciation, however, is still debated (Fig. 1), Ac- cording to Grosswald (1977), nearly the whole Taymyr Peninsula was ice covered (maximum variant). On the Fig. 1. Map showing the extent of the Late-Weichselian gla- ciation of Eurasia (minimum and maximum variants after Velichko et al. 1984) other hand, the reconstruction by Velichko et al. (1984) showed the glaciation as restricted to the Putoran Plateau (minimum variant; Figs. 1, 2). To improve our poor knowledge about the Late Qua- ternary environment and climate history in this sensitive transition zone between west and east Siberia, a multidisciplinary research project was initiated, starting with a pilot expedition in summer 1993 (Melles et al. 1994a). In cooperation with several German and Russian institutes, this project includes sites along a transect from the town of Norilsk in the south, via the Taymyr Peninsula, to the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago in the north. These areas cover the entire spectrum of arctic landscapes and vegetation zones (Fig. 2). Palynologieal investigations along this transect, car- ried out on lake cores and permafrost sequences, are ex- pected to yield information relating to migrations in the