Reply on CC1

Angelica Feurdean's article is a complete, multi-proxy study that is extremely important and interesting for understanding the history of the boreal forests of southeastern Western Siberia. The article is the result of the work of a large team over several years. For the most part, the article is already ready for publication; it is also of interest to Russian scientists engaged in related research in the south of Western Siberia. However, before publishing the article, I would recommend making some changes, both in the logic of the interpretation of the results, and making minor technical changes. https://disk.yandex.ru/d/8XbeP1vRk_y4lQ

In determining the fire regime, an important role is played by how close the swamp is located to the mineral bank. Fire usually enters the swamp from the mineral shore. Also, the presence of a cover of sphagnum mosses affects the possibility of fire spread. The latter severely limit the possibility of bog burnout. Based on Figures S3b and Figure 4, it can be seen that the sphagnum mosses appeared on Rybnaya about 3600 years ago, after which the peat fires disappeared. The sampling point itself is quite distant from the mineral shore of the bog, a couple of kilometers (excluding isolated mineral forest islands). This further reduces the likelihood of a peat fire on Rybnaya. The Ulukh-Chayakh point is located just 160 meters from the mineral shore, sphagnums began to play a role only in the last centuries due to the large fires of the Russian time. As a result, peat fires occurred on Ulukh-Chayakh until recently (less than 500 years). These differences between the sites under consideration should be reflected in the discussion. A good example of how the number of fires decreases with distance from a mineral shore, is the data from the article: Turunen J., Tahvanainen T.,Tolonen K.,Pitkänen A. Carbon accumulation in West Siberian mires,Russia // Global Biogeochemical Cycles. V. 15 (2). P. 285-296. DOI: 10.1029 R: Thank you, in revising this manuscript we will: a) Integrate some of the differences in site settings leading to a divergent fire pattern at the two sites; b) Check the literature suggested by the reviewer and evaluate the potential link between fire occurrence and early cultures; c) We will also enlarge our discussion on the possible effect of fire on the post-fire species composition and hydrological changes.
The disadvantage of this work is that the results of work on this topic, which were carried out by scientists from Russia and Tomsk, are not reflected in any way. Many are in Russian, but Russian co-authors could help translate these articles. I recommend correlating the results obtained with the following articles: (Blyakharchuk et al., 2003): doi: 10.1191/0959683603hl658rp (Borisova et al., 2011): doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.01.015 (Willis et al., 2015 (Blyakharchuk et al., 2019): doi:10.17223/19988591/45/9 (Blyakharchuk et al., 2018 R: Thank you for providing us with additional literature from the study region. We will read these papers and extract the relevant information to our paper.

Specific comments
Abstract: Line 40: It is better to use deciduous forests instead of "broadleaf forest". In Siberia, there are practically no broad-leaved species, except for small areas of linden, as well as plantings in cities.

R: Replace, thank you.
Lines 44-48: It is necessary to reformulate these results. So we are talking about the intervals between 7.5-4.5 ka BP and later. R: We have altered this slightly to: ''In the first period, severe fires were recorded between 7.5 and 4.5 ka BP with lower water level and an increased proportion of dark taiga and fire avoiders (Pinus sibirica at Rybanya and Abies sibirica at Ulukh Chayakh) mixed into the dominantly light taiga and fire-resister community of Pinus sylvestris.'' Line 95: Articles "Rudaya et al., 2020" on the steppes. You can also add the following article to this paragraph: Lamentowicz, M., Słowiński, M., Marcisz, K., Zielińska, M., Kaliszan, K., Lapshina, E., Gilbert, D., Buttler, A., Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, B., Jassey, V.E.J., Laggoun-Defarge, F., Kołaczek, P. Hydrological dynamics and fire history of the last 1300years in western Siberia reconstructed from a high-resolution, ombrotrophic peat archive (2015)  R: Location corrected. The study by Lamentowicz et al., did not look at the fire regime in a statistical sense as the other papers cited here did. However, we will mention this paper in the Discussion when looking at fire-peatland moisture-species interaction.
Line 105: What is the Subarctic Climate Impact? This is the first time I hear about it. This can be said about any boreal region, so it is better to remove it. You can also replace "continental climate" with "continental boreal climate" R: Replace to ''The region has a continental boreal climate''.
Line 108: Light and dark taiga are copyright terms, you need to indicate it here. Populus tremula is also included in the light taiga.

R: Thank you.
Line 107-109: This information is not available in the cited sources (Berezin et al., 2014;Rybina et al., 2014). Although there is practically nothing to find in English, there is a lot of good research in Russian. The following article by N.N. Lashchinsky with a large English abstract: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=24116649 R: We will include articles by N.N. Lashchinsky N.N.
Line 115: How did you know that birches are young? Was their age determined? Maybe they are just short, dwarf? Wasn't Pinus sylvestris there?
R: The birch and pine trees at Rybnaya were small, but we agree to the fact that being small does not mean being young, but perhaps dwarfed. We have rephrased this to: ''The local peatland vegetation at both coring sites includes mesotrophic open sedge-Sphagnum communities with small birch and pine trees at Rybnaya Mire and standing dead pine tree trunks at Ulukh-Chayakh Mire''.

Line 219 and further: How was forest density determined? The fact of the prevalence of "light taiga" in the vegetation cover of plant communities does not mean that the forest was of low density (low projective cover?). Birch or aspen forests can have a fairly high crown density, forming a high density forest. It is necessary to clarify this term and its calculation.
R: We have determined the forest density by calculating the ratio of light to dark taiga, however, we agree that birch forests can have high crown density. We will acknowledge this in the revised manuscript.
Line 255: During riding fires in Siberia, standing tree trunks, as a rule, only burn. Usually, after a fire, standing burnt trunks remain, which then can fall for several decades. Crowns, bark, litter and trunks that have previously fallen to the ground burn and burn completely.
R: Thank you, however, such differentiation would be difficult based on the fossil records.
Lines 331-335: After the appearance of sphagnum on Rybnaya, the mire became more watered. That is why it could burn less, since after the appearance of sphagnum, based on figure S3b, there are no more large charcoals here. On Ulikh-Chayakh, this is not observed and fires continued to enter this mire from the mineral shore.
R: We agree with this. The fact that Rybanya remained wetter and had lesser fires than UC was also our interpretation.

Line 346: Is peatland moisture primary? Maybe the humidity of the climate is primary? Do you interpret peat moisture in terms of climate moisture? Or do you think that this is only a consequence of changes in hydrology associated with the self-dvelopment of the peatland? In my opinion, both are captured in the water level curve.
R: We primarily connect peatland hydrology with climatic conditions (temperature and/or precipitation), but self-development in peat plant communities could have also contributed to overall peatland hydrology. See more our response to Irina Burin.
Line 350: I am not aware of any cases of B. pendula growing on peat soils in the Tomsk region.
R: We have not stated that it does on peat soils but on sandy soils.
Lines 375-376: Check the correctness of the quotation. I saw that in an article by Kharuk et al. (2021) says the opposite, for example: "It is expected that more frequent and severe fires will promote substitution of the DNC within their southern range by broadleaf (birch and aspen) and drought-resistant larch and Scots pine species". R: Yes, the text above highlights the most common pattern in Siberia, proposed by Kharuk et al., 2021, but this paper also states that ''Fire also allows dark taiga species to compete with P. sylvestris and become established beyond poor soils and boggy areas''. We, therefore, retain this sentence.  Table S1 and Figure S1, date inversion is noticeable. In my opinion, this is a consequence of either the windblown tree, or the action of the stream, now buried under the peat. This can be mentioned in the interpretation. Further, we note that the Ti peak in the UC sequence between 4 and 3 ka approximately corresponds to an inversion of the C14 age at a depth of 185 cm (Rosaceae seeds); perhaps this is not an accidental coincidence. It is likely that this is the influence of a powerful flood in Chulym, which flooded the first terrace above the floodplain, on which mire UC is located. There are indications of powerful floods in the period 4-3 ka in Russianlanguage literature (for example, Leshchinskiy, S. V., et al. "The first terrace above the Ob'floodplain near Kolpashevo: the age and formation conditions." Russian Geology and Geophysics 52.6 (2011): 641-649).
R: Thank you for the information and references on flood events at UC, we will take this into account when constructing the age-depth model. Figure 1: Site Ulukh-Chayakh on the map is marked between deciduous forest and mire. But in fact, on the left, there is a mineral shore, on which there is an abandoned arable land. It is necessary to correct the contours on the map, since this contact, in my opinion, is important for the interpretation of the data.