Paleoclimatic reconstruction based on biogenic and abiogenic proxies from Baikal Lake and Aral Sea sedimentary records

1. ABSTRACT Lake sediments represent an important source of valuable information about the past climate in continental environment. They consists of a mixture of autochthonous and allochthonous organic and inorganic components both responding to paleoenvironmental changes in the water bodies and watershed. Both the composition and relative content of individual sedimentary components mirrors the climate changes. The main inorganic components in lake sediments are quartz, carbonates, and clay minerals; organic matter embodies various plants and animal remains. Reconstruction of past climate is possible only when an efficient combination of analytical methods allowing characterization of all these components is used. We have provided such multi proxy and high resolution analysis on two cores from two lakes, Aral Sea and Baikal Lake. These two large Asian water reservoirs have got a large watershed, originated tectonically, and have grabbed scientific attention during the last decades. Aral Sea represents a closed lake system in semi-arid area and therefore Aral Sea sediments mirrors even minor environmental changes. Research performed on Aral Sea sedimentary cores aims to unravel past lake level variations and to determine their leading forces. Ten radiocarbon dates have been used to construct the age model..