Beschreibung
The proposed limnogeological project at Lake Teletskoye addresses late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental history in a key region of Central Asia, which is situated at dynamic borders in transition in respect to tectonic movements, climate regimes, vegetation dynamics, landscape-forming processes, glacial dynamics, and cultural exchange. The individual project stands alone and will focus on palaeolimnological proxies obtained from 10 to 30 m long sediment cores. Former studies only revealed information about the late Holocene from promising 1-2 m long records. The new project will extend our gain of knowledge back to the last glacial stage and document the rapidity and impacts of climate change at different time scales under different environmental boundary conditions. In addition to climate reconstruction, in particular, I will expect messages about unclarified mountain glaciation, changes in the hydrological budget, flash-flood events, and changes in biodiversity. The findings shed a light on the socioeconomic aspect of human migration, dictated by swaying natural boundary conditions.
In a perspective view, these findings are even crucial to evaluate Lake Teletskoye as a potential site for later deep drilling in the scope of ICDP, as it hosts at least 150 m and up to 800 m of undisturbed lacustrine sediments of the last possibly mid-to late Pleistocene at high temporal resolution.
