Rates, Rhythms and Reactions of the Lake Baikal Watershed toAtmospheric Forcing, Neotectonics, and Climatic Changes in the Siberian Sector of Asia

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The goal of this project is to determine the response of the Baikal hydrological system to forcing from past changes in climate and neotectonics. Nine specific time windows of global importance are targeted in a 3-year program of iterative steps. The research is designed to study these time windows by obtaining and analyzing cores of Lake Baikal's sedimentary archive with a lithochrono- stratigraphic framework constrained by AMS 14C dating, magnetic stratigraphy and high resolution 3.5 kKz seismic stratigraphy. The Lake Baikal paleolimnology project offers unique opportunities as a full-scale American Russian scientific partnership. Knowledge about the response of the world's largest and deepest freshwater body to continental climate change and atmospheric forcing will contribute significant new results to international efforts to understand the past response dynamics of large ecosystems during important time windows. The project is guided as closely as possible by recommendations of the PAGES International Geosphere/Biosphere project, and climate and hydrological aspects of Earth Systems history for the U.S. Global Change Program.