Vegetation and climate changes during the Eemian and Early Weichselian in the Upper Volga region (Russia)

Ples is the key-section that represents the Mikulino (Eemian) interglaciation and early part of the Valdai (Weichselian) glacial epoch in the north-central Russia. Pollen profile of this section reflects spread of the broad-leaved forest dominated by Quercus, Ulmus, and Tilia with participation of Acer, Fraxinus and Carpinus in the optimum phase of the interglaciation. A gradual cooling and increasing humidity of climate brought about a decline in the broad-leaved forest and development of dark-coniferous communities (Picea-Abies-Pinus sibirica) in the end of the interglaciation. It was followed by Scots pine and birch forest, and then replaced by communities of tundra shrubs with patches of the open birch forest. During the first post-Eemian cooling the climatic conditions were not uniform, as a short climatic amelioration separated it into two stages. This minor warming is indicated by an increase in birch woodland in complex plant cover. This first Early Weichselian cold stage was followed by a warm interstade, when mixed spruce-birch, and later larch-pine and spruce-pine forests occupied the region. This interstade, known as Verkhnevolzhskiy (Upper Volga) in the climatostratigraphic subdivision of the Late Pleistocene in the Russian Plain (after Grichuk [1961. Fossil floras as the basis for the Quaternary stratigraphy. In: Markov, K.K. (Ed.), Rel`ef i Stratigrafiya Chetvertichnykh Otlozheniy Severo-zapada Russkoi Ravniny, Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR, Moscow, pp. 25-71]), corresponds to the Brörup interstade in the northern Europe, or to Marine Oxygen Isotope Substage (MIS) 5c (e.g. Mangerud [1989. Correlation of the Eemian and the Weichselian with deep sea oxygen isotope stratigraphy. Quaternary International 3, 1-4.]). On the whole, we correlate the sediment sequence at Ples to the MIS from 5e to 5c.