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We present a new palaeoenvironmental record of hydrological variability in Lake Baikal, based on re-modelled d 18 O diatom values of diatom silica (d 18 O modelled ), where the residual contaminants are identified and compensated for using electron optical imaging and whole-sample geochemistry. d 18 O modelled interpretations are based on the balance between rivers with high d 18 O values and rivers with low d 18 O values. Isotopic variability is related to latitudinal differences in precipitation which feed these rivers. The d 18 O modelled record suggests that rather moist conditions prevailed in the Lake Baikal region during the latter stages of the Younger Dryas. Throughout the Holocene, episodes of low d 18 O modelled values are, in general, in good agreement with increases in percentage haematite-stained grains in North Atlantic sediments (indicative of ice-rafted debris events). Rivers with southerly catchments dominate fluvial input especially between c. 3.3 and 2 cal ka BP, concurrent with high precipitation in the Lake Baikal region.

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