A 2000-year record of lake ontogeny and climate variability from the north-eastern European Russian Arctic

A lake sediment record from the north-eastern European Russian Arctic was examined using palaeolimnological methods, including subfossil chironomid and diatom analysis. The objective of this study is to disentangle environmental history of the lake and climate variability during the past 2000 years. The sediment profile was divided into two main sections following changes in the lithology, separating the limno-telmatic phase between ~2000 and 1200 cal. yr BP and the lacustrine phase between ~1200 cal. yr BP and the present. Owing to the large proportion of semi-terrestrial chironomids and poor modern analogues, a reliable chironomid-based temperature reconstruction for the limno-telmatic p…