Palaeolimnological data of sediment sites PG1755 and PG1756 of Lake Billyakh

Lake history and its catchment point to two lake stages with high lake level during the Karginian (50 to 32 ka BP) and the Holocene (since 11.5 ka BP), interrupted by cold and dry conditions at low lake level during the Sartanian stage.

Palaeoenvironmental changes were in accord with general trends of climate change across the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere. The lake record moreover confirms mountain deglaciation prior to the last (global) glacial maximum, attributed to atmospheric moisture routing effects, which so far are poorly understood.