Luidmila Pestryakova

• Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung

Climate change, characterized by increased temperature fluctuations and alterations in precipitation and soil moisture conditions, can significantly impact ecosystems that experience both moisture deficits and excesses. Even small changes in precipitation and air temperature can significantly affect tree growth. This paper examines the statistical...

Severe wildfire seasons in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) raise questions regarding long-term fire dynamics and their drivers. However, data on long-term fire history remains scarce across eastern Siberia. We present the first composite of reconstructed wildfire dynamics in Yakutia throughout the Holocene, based on eight newly contributed records...

Although recent warming affects the high-northern latitudes at an unprecedented rate, little is known about its impact on boreal forests because in situ observations from remote ecosystems in Siberia are sparse. Here, we analyse the radial growth and climate sensitivity of 54 Cajander larches (Larix cajanderi Mayr.) from three sites across the nort...

Lake ecosystems are affected globally by climate warming and anthropogenic influences. However, impacts on boreal lake ecosystems in Siberia, remain largely underexplored. Our aim is to determine if shifts in diatom assemblages in a remote lake in eastern Siberia are related to climate warming, similar to observations in temperate regions, while al...

The present distribution of Siberian boreal forests that are dominated by larches (Larix spp.) is influenced, to an unknown extent, by glacial history. Knowing the past treeline dynamics can improve our understanding of future treeline shifts under changing climate. Here, we study patterns in the genetic variability of Siberian Larix to help unrave...

Only a few palaeo-records extend beyond the Holocene in Yakutia, eastern Siberia, since most of the lakes in the region are of Holocene thermokarst origin. Thus, we have a poor understanding of the long-term interactions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their response to climate change. The Lake Khamra region in southwestern Yakutia i...

Climate seasonality critically influences the functioning and dynamics of ecosystems in continental areas. The ecological importance of winter temperatures on high-latitude vegetation changes has recently been argued to be largely overlooked in comparison to summer temperatures. The Oymyakon region from eastern Siberia, with its strong continentali...

VI International conference "Paleolimnology of Northern Eurasia", 25-29 August, 2024/ Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Northern latitudes have been significantly impacted by recent climate warming, which has increased the probability of experiencing extreme weather events. To comprehensively understand hydroclimate change and reconstruct extreme events such as droughts or floods, appropriate proxy records reaching further back in time are needed beyond meteorologic...

The present distribution pattern of Siberian boreal forests that are dominated by larches is to an unknown extent influenced by the glacial history. Here, we investigated whether we can observe patterns in the genetic variability of Siberian larches (Larix spp.) that can help us to unravel biogeographic migration routes since the Last Glacial Maxim...

In Central Yakutia (Siberia) livelihoods of local communities depend on alaas (thermokarst depression) landscapes and the lakes within. Development and dynamics of these alaas lakes are closely connected to climate change, permafrost thawing, catchment conditions, and land use. To reconstruct lake development throughout the Holocene we analyze sedi...

Using pollen analysis and metabarcoding of plant sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNa), we infer the floristic diversity in the vicinity of Lake Balyktukel, Ulagan Plateau, the Altai Mountains, over the last 7 kyr. The SedaDNA method identified 200% more taxa than found by morphological pollen analysis. In particular, it revealed that the dominant tree...

We compile a data set of forest surveys from expeditions to the northeast of the Russian Federation, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (59–73∘ N, 97–169∘ E), performed between the years 2011 and 2021. The region is characterized by permafrost soils and forests dominated by larch (Larix gmelinii...

The SiDroForest (Siberian drone-mapped forest inventory) data collection is an attempt to remedy the scarcity of forest structure data in the circumboreal region by providing adjusted and labeled tree-level and vegetation plot-level data for machine learning and upscaling purposes. We present datasets of vegetation composition and tree and plot lev...

Modern pollen–vegetation–climate relationships underpin palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate reconstructions from fossil pollen records. East Siberia is an ideal area for investigating the relationships between modern pollen assemblages and near natural vegetation under cold continental climate conditions. Reliable pollen-based quantitative vegetatio...

Wildfires play an essential role in the ecology of boreal forests. In eastern Siberia, fire activity has been increasing in recent years, challenging the livelihoods of local communities. Intensifying fire regimes also increase disturbance pressure on the boreal forests, which currently protect the permafrost beneath from accelerated degradation. H...

We compile a data set of forest surveys from expeditions to the northeast of the Russian Federation, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (59-73°N, 97-169°E). The region is characterized by permafrost soils, and forests dominated by larch (Larix gmelinii RUPR., Larix cajanderi MAYR). Our dataset con...

Boreal forests cover over half of the global permafrost area and protect underlying permafrost. Boreal forest development, therefore, has an impact on permafrost evolution, especially under a warming climate. Forest disturbances and changing climate conditions cause vegetation shifts and potentially destabilize the carbon stored within the vegetati...

Arctic and alpine aquatic ecosystems are changing rapidly under recent global warming, threatening water resources by diminishing trophic status and changing biotic composition. Macrophytes play a key role in the ecology of freshwaters and we need to improve our understanding of long‐term macrophytes diversity and environmental change so far limite...

Woody plants are expanding into the Arctic in response to the warming climate. The impact on arctic plant communities is not well understood due to the limited knowledge about plant assembly rules. Records of past plant diversity over long time series are rare. Here, we applied sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding targeting the P6 loop of the chlo...

This data collection is an attempt to remedy the scarcity of tree level forest structure data in the circum-boreal region, whilst providing, as part of the data collection, adjusted and labelled tree level and vegetation plot level data for machine learning and upscaling practices. Publicly available comprehensive datasets on tree level forest stru...

Climate change has a major impact on arctic and boreal terrestrial ecosystems as warming leads to northward treeline shifts, inducing consequences for heterotrophic organisms associated with the plant taxa. To unravel ecological dependencies, we address how long-term climatic changes have shaped the palaeo-ecosystems at selected sites in Siberia. W...

Boreal forests efficiently insulate underlying permafrost. The magnitude of this insulation effect is dependent on forest density and composition. A change therein modifies the energy and water fluxes within and below the canopy. The direct influence of climatic change on forests and the indirect effect through a change in permafrost dynamics lead...

Wildfires, as a key disturbance in forest ecosystems, are shaping the world's boreal landscapes. Changes in fire regimes are closely linked to a wide array of environmental factors, such as vegetation composition, climate change, and human activity. Arctic and boreal regions and, in particular, Siberian boreal forests are experiencing rising air an...

Upscaling plant biomass distribution and dynamics is essential for estimating carbon stocks and carbon balance. In this respect, the Russian Far East is among the least investigated sub-Arctic regions despite its known vegetation sensitivity to ongoing warming. We representatively harvested above-ground biomass (AGB; separated by dominant taxa) at...

A new dataset from Lake Emanda provides insights into climate and environmental dynamics in an extreme continental setting in northeastern Siberia. The δ¹⁸Odiatom record is supported by diatom assemblage analysis, modern isotope hydrology and atmospheric circulation patterns. The data reveal a relatively cold oligotrophic freshwater lake system per...

Relationships between climate, species composition, and species richness are of particular importance for understanding how boreal ecosystems will respond to ongoing climate change. This study aims to reconstruct changes in terrestrial vegetation composition and taxa richness during the glacial Late Pleistocene and the interglacial Holocene in the...

Lake sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) is an established tool to trace past changes in vegetation composition and plant diversity. However, little is known about the relationships between sedimentary plant DNA and modern vegetational and environmental conditions. In this study, we investigate i) the relationships between the preservation of sedimentary plan...

Boreal forests in permafrost regions make up around one-third of the global forest cover and are an essential component of regional and global climate patterns. Further, climatic change can trigger extensive ecosystem shifts such as the partial disappearance of near-surface permafrost or changes to the vegetation structure and composition. Therefor...

Changes in species' distributions are classically projected based on their climate envelopes. For Siberian forests, which have a tremendous significance for vegetation-climate feedbacks, this implies future shifts of each of the forest-forming larch (Larix) species to the north-east. However, in addition to abiotic factors, reliable projections mus...

Siberian larch (Larix Mill.) forests dominate vast areas of northern Russia and contribute important ecosystem services to the world. It is important to understand the past dynamics of larches in order to predict their likely response to a changing climate in the future. Sedimentary ancient DNA extracted from lake sediment cores can serve as archiv...

Plant diversity in the Arctic and at high altitudes strongly depends on and rebounds to climatic and environmental variability and is nowadays tremendously impacted by recent climate warming. Therefore, past changes in plant diversity in the high Arctic and high-altitude regions are used to infer climatic and environmental changes through time and...

Woody plants are expanding into the Arctic under a warming climate. The related impact on plant diversity is not well understood because we have only limited knowledge about plant assembly rules and because of a lack of time-series of plant diversity. Here, we applied sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding using the plant-specific g and h primers of...

Upscaling plant biomass distribution and dynamics is essential for estimating carbon stocks and carbon balance. In this respect, the Russian Far East is among the least investigated subarctic regions despite its known vegetation sensitivity to ongoing warming. We representatively harvested above-ground biomass (AGB, separated by dominant taxa) at 4...

Wildfires, as a key disturbance in forest ecosystems, are shaping the world’s boreal landscapes. Changes in fire regimes are closely linked to a wide array of environmental factors, such as vegetation composition, climate change, and human activity. Arctic and boreal regions and, in particular, Siberian boreal forests are experiencing rising air an...

Although sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has been increasingly used to study paleoecological dynamics (Schulte et al., 2020), the approach has rarely been compared with the traditional method of pollen analysis for investigating past changes in the vegetation composition and diversity of Arctic treeline areas. Here, we provide a history of latitu...

The occurrence of refugia beyond the arctic treeline and genetic adaptation therein play a crucial role of largely unknown effect size. While refugia have potential for rapidly colonizing the tundra under global warming, the taxa may be maladapted to the new environmental conditions. Understanding the genetic composition and age of refugia is thus...

Vegetation is responding to climate change, which is especially prominent in the Arctic. Vegetation change is manifest in different ways and varies regionally, depending on the characteristics of the investigated area. Although vegetation in some Arctic areas has been thoroughly investigated, central Chukotka (NE Siberia) with its highly diverse ve...

Recent large-scale fire events in Siberia have drawn increased attention to boreal forest fire history. Boreal forests contain about 25% of all global biomass and act as an enormous carbon storage. Fire events are important ecological disturbances connected to the overarching environmental changes that face the Arctic and Subarctic, like vegetation...

Large, old and heterogenous lake systems are valuable sources of biodiversity. The analysis of current spatial variability within such lakes increases our understanding of the origin and establishment of biodiversity. The environmental sensitivity and the high taxonomic richness of diatoms make them ideal organisms to investigate intra-lake variabi...

Aim This study investigates taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in diatom genera to evaluate assembly rules for eukaryotic microbes across the Siberian tree line. We first analysed how phylogenetic distance relates to taxonomic richness and turnover. Second, we used relatedness indices to evaluate if environmental filtering or competition influenc...

Siberian larch ( Larix Mill.) forests dominate vast areas of northern Russia and contribute important ecosystem services to the world. It is important to understand the past dynamics of larches, in order to predict their likely response to a changing climate in the future. Sedimentary ancient DNA extracted from lake sediment cores can serve as arch...

Larix populations at the tundra-taiga ecotone in northern Siberia are highly under-represented in population genetic studies, possibly due to the remoteness of these regions that can only be accessed at extraordinary expense. The genetic signatures of populations in these boundary regions are therefore largely unknown. We aim to generate organelle...

Forest structure is a crucial component in the assessment of whether a forest is likely to act as a carbon sink under changing climate. Detailed 3D structural information about the tundra–taiga ecotone of Siberia is mostly missing and still underrepresented in current research due to the remoteness and restricted accessibility. Field based, high-re...

A strong temperature increase in the Arctic is expected to lead to latitudinal treeline shift. This tundra–taiga turnover would cause a positive vegetation–climate feedback due to albedo decrease. However, reliable estimates of tree migration rates are currently lacking due to the complex processes involved in forest establishment, which depend str...

Changes in species’ distributions are classically projected based on their climate envelopes. For Siberian forests, which have a tremendous significance for vegetation-climate feedbacks, this implies future shifts of each of the forest-forming larch (Larix) species to the north-east. However, in addition to abiotic factors, reliable projections mus...

Relative abundances of 157 diatom taxa from Yakutian lake surface-sediments were investigated for their potential to indicate certain environmental conditions. Data from 206 sites from Arctic, sub-Arctic and boreal environments were included. Redundancy analyses were performed to assess the explanatory power of mean July temperature (TJuly), conduc...

Ice-wedge polygons are common features of northeastern Siberian lowland periglacial tundra landscapes. To deduce the formation and alternation of ice-wedge polygons in the Kolyma Delta and in the Indigirka Lowland, we studied shallow cores, up to 1.3 m deep, from polygon center and rim locations. The formation of well-developed low-center polygons...

A strong temperature increase in the Arctic is expected to lead to latitudinal treeline shift. This tundra-taiga turnover would cause a positive vegetation-climate feedback due to albedo decrease. However, reliable estimates of tree migration rates are currently lacking due to the complex processes involved in forest establishment, which depend str...

Arctic treelines are facing a strong temperature increase as a result of recent global warming, causing possible changes in forest extent, which will alter vegetation-climate feedbacks. However, the mode and strength of the response is rather unclear, as potential changes are happening in areas that are very remote and difficult to access, and empi...

This article presents a review of the current data on the level of paleolimnological knowledge about lakes in the Russian part of the northern Eurasia. The results of investigation of the northwestern European part of Russia as the best paleolimnologically studied sector of the Russian north is presented in detail. The conditions of lacustrine sedi...

Reliable information on past and present vegetation is important to project future changes, especially for rapidly transitioning areas such as the boreal treeline. To study past vegetation, pollen analysis is common, while current vegetation is usually assessed by field surveys. Application of detailed sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) records has the poten...

Mosses are a major component of the arctic vegetation, particularly in wetlands. We present C / N atomic ratio, δ13C and δ15N data of 400 brown-moss samples belonging to 10 species that were collected along hydrological gradients within polygonal mires located on the southern Taymyr Peninsula and the Lena River delta in northern Siberia. Additional...

The Arctic treeline ecotone is characterised by a steep vegetation gradient from arctic tundra to northern taiga forests, which is thought to influence the water chemistry of thermokarst lakes in this region. Environmentally sensitive diatoms respond to such ecological changes in terms of variation in diatom diversity and richness, which so far has...

Tree stands in the boreal treeline ecotone are, in addition to climate change, impacted by disturbances such as fire, water-related disturbances and logging. We aim to understand how these disturbances affect growth, age structure, and spatial patterns of larch stands in the north-eastern Siberian treeline ecotone (lower Kolyma River region), an in...

Mosses are a major component of the arctic vegetation, particularly of wetlands. We present C / N ratio, δ13C and δ15N data of 400 moss samples belonging to 10 species that were collected along hydrological gradients within polygonal mires located on the southern Taymyr Peninsula and the Lena River delta in northern Siberia. Additionally, n alkane...

The study of past permafrost aggradation and degradation dynamics supports our understanding of contemporary thermokarst processes, and helps predicting future permafrost responses to climate change. Thermokarst processes in ice-rich terrain create basins, called alases, which are widespread in Central Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. Alas dimensions and...

QuestionHow important is the effect of micro-relief and vegetation type on the characteristics of vascular plants and bryophytes in low-centred polygons? LocationSiberian Arctic, Russia. Methods Eight low-centred polygons in northern Siberia were surveyed for vegetation along transects running from the rim to the pond via the rim-pond transition of...

Objective of this study was to determine the species composition of modern planktonic algae in the range of thermokarst lakes of Khatanga River basin (Krasnoyarsk region, Russia). The Khatanga River flows in the North-Siberian lowland in the south-eastern part of the Taimyr Peninsula and flows into the Khatanga Gulf of the Laptev Sea. The river bas...

Planktonic algae - phytoplankton - is a key component of water systems, actively involved in the formation of the water quality, and a sensitive indicator of the state of aquatic ecosystems and the water body as a whole. We have studied phytoplankton of several thermokarst lakes of northern areas of Krasnoyarsk region. Samples for phytoplankton ana...

Pollen productivity estimates (PPE) are used to quantitatively reconstruct variations in vegetation within a specific distance of the sampled pollen archive. Here, for the first time, PPEs from Siberia are presented. The study area (Khatanga region, Krasnoyarsk territory, Russia) is located in the Siberian Sub-arctic where Larix is the sole forest-...

Although the climate development over the Holocene in the Northern Hemisphere is well known, palaeolimnological climate reconstructions reveal spatiotemporal variability in northern Eurasia. Here we present a multi-proxy study from north-eastern Siberia combining sediment geochemistry, and diatom and pollen data from lake-sediment cores covering th...

Palaeoecological investigations in the larch forest-tundra ecotone in northern Siberia have the potential to reveal Holocene environmental variations, which likely have consequences for global climate change because of the strong high-latitude feedback mechanisms. A sediment core, collected from a small lake (radius ~100m), was used to reconstruct...

Siberian arctic vegetation and lake water communities, known for their temperature dependence, are expected to be particularly impacted by recent climate change and high warming rates. However, decadal information on the nature and strength of recent vegetation change and its time lag to climate signals are rare. In this study, we present a 210Pb/1...

Siberian larch forests growing on shallow permafrost soils have not, until now, been considered to be controlling the abiotic and biotic characteristics of the vast number of thaw-lake ecosystems. Here we show, using four independent data sets (a modern data set from 201 lakes from the tundra to taiga, and three lake-core records), that lake-water...

The spatial and temporal variability of a low-centred polygon on the eastern floodplain area of the lower Anabar River (72.070° N, 113.921° E; northern Yakutia, Siberia) has been investigated using a multi-method approach. The present-day vegetation in each square metre was analysed, revealing a community of Larix, shrubby Betula, and Salix on the...

This study aims to establish, evaluate, and apply a modern pollen-climate transfer function from the transition zone between arctic tundra and light-needled taiga in Arctic Siberia. Lacustrine samples (n=96) from the northern Siberian lowlands of Yakutia were collected along four north-to-south transects crossing the arctic forest line. Samples spa...

Polygon tundra characterizes large areas of arctic lowlands. The micro-relief pattern within polygons offers differentiated habitats for testate amoeba (testacean) communities. The objective of this study was to relate testacean species distribution within a polygon to the environmental setting. Therefore, testaceans from four cryosol pits dug at d...

The spatial and temporal variability of a low-centred polygon on the eastern floodplain area of the lower Anabar River (72.070° N, 113.921° E, northern Yakutia, Siberia) has been investigated using a multi-method approach. The present-day vegetation in each square metre was analysed revealing a community of Larix shrubby Betula and Salix on the pol...

The major structural characteristics of zooplankton communities that inhabit 35 Arctic lakes in the catchment basin of the Anabar River (Yakutia) have been analyzed. The ecological state of the lakes has been evaluated. The structure-forming abiotic factors that have the greatest influence on the formation of zooplankton communities have been revea...

Thermokarst lakes are assumed to develop cyclically, driven by processes that are triggered by climate and maintained by internal feedbacks that may trigger lake drainage. However, the duration of these cycles remains uncertain, as well as whether or not they affect the stabilization of lake ecosystems in permafrost regions over millennial time sca...

High latitude regions are particularly affected by global climate change. Aquatic ecosystems are known to respond quickly and sensitively to such changes (Carpenter et al., 1992; Findlay et al. 2001; Smol et al., 2005). This effect is especially dramatic in regions with continental climates such as Northern and Eastern Siberia. In 2008, Russian-Ger...

В книге представлены методические обзоры по основным группам биологических индикаторов, применяемым в палеоэкологии: пыльца, диатомовые водоросли, ракообразные, остракоды, губки - и кратко охарактеризованы прочие группы

В книге представлены методические обзоры по основным группам биологических индикаторов, применяемым в палеоэкологии: пыльца, диатомовые водоросли, личинки хирономид, ракообразные, остракоды, губки – и кратко охарактеризованы прочие группы беспозвоночных животных. В книгу также вошел обзор по применению педогумусового метода для палеоэкологических р...

Permafrost regions are more strongly affected by ongoing global warming than regions elsewhere on this planet. Polygon ponds, mires and cryosols in wetland landscapes underlain by permafrost are the most common components of the Arctic Siberian lowlands. The landscapes of the polygonal tundra wetlands are sensitive to environmental and climate chan...

A study of chrionomid fauna was carried out in two regions of central Yakutia. Fossilized remnants of head capsules were sampled from shallow layers of the bottom sediments of lakes. Seventy five taxa of chironomids have been determined. Statistical analysis shows that the spatial distribution of chironomid taxa in the study regions is mainly contr...

The physico-chemical characteristics of 47 lakes from two regions in the lowlands of Central Yakutia (Vilyuysk and Yakutsk), Eastern Siberia were analysed. The aims of this study were (i) to classify the lakes according to their ionic compositions and their nutrient concentrations, (ii) to quantify environmental gradients representing the main dire...

The Republic of Yakutia is located in the north-eastern part of Russia. In the central part of Yakutia, there are approximately 106,000 lakes which cover an area of ca. one million hectare and have an approximate volume of more than 180 billion m3. The current limnological research work carried out in Central Yakutia is in the frame of a larger pro...

A Russian-German joint project, investigating the late Quaternary development of periglacial and glacial landscapes, lacustrine systems, as well as permafrost complexes and ground ice features in central Yakutia, is currently in progress. Field work was carried out in 2002 and 2003 along the Tumara and Djanushka rivers in the Verkhoyansk Mountains...