The progressive evolution of a continental climate in southeast-central European lowlands during the Middle Pleistocene recorded in loess paleosol sequences

Abstract

Little is known about the long-term Quaternary climate evolution of central and southeast Europe, because suitable terrestrial paleoenvironmental records are scarce. We present a multiproxy record of loess paleosol sequences in the Middle and Lower Danube Basins over the past 700 k.y. In these lowlands, the continentality of interglacial climate progressively increased during the Middle Pleistocene. Corresponding trends are seen in other climate proxies in the same region and in the lowlands of the northern Black Sea, but not, or less clearly, in climate archives from outside these lowlands. We conclude that a small-scale increase in paleoelevation of central European mountain ranges (the Alps, Carpathians, and Dinarides) during the Middle Pleistocene might be the cause of the progressive increase in climate continentality of southeast European lowlands.

Danube loess stratigraphy — Towards a pan-European loess stratigraphic model

“…less weathered or unweathered) MS recorded in loess units is very similar in all analysed sections (Buggle et al, 2008;Buggle et al, 2013;Buggle et al, 2014) indicating a generally similar origin, which is mainly silt-sized deflated material. However, the amplitude of MS values is quite different when comparing chronostratigraphically equivalent interglacial pedocomplexes from Czech (Forster et al, 1996), Hungarian (Sartori et al, 1999), Serbian, Romanian and Bulgarian sections (Marković et al, 2009b(Marković et al, , 2012aJordanova et al, 2008;Radan, 2012).…”

“…For example, several recent studies highlight corresponding trends of Pleistocene aridification in the DB as well as in the Chinese Loess Plateau (Marković et al, 2009bBuggle et al, 2013Buggle et al, , 2014. In any case, it is apparent that the similar nature of MS signal acquisition in the two regions provides the base for comparable environmental records based on magnetic signal enhancement via pedogenesis (Marković et al, 2012a).…”

“…The palaeopedological characteristics of these units clearly differ from the temperate forest S4 palaeosols and the steppelike interglacial pedocomplexes S3, S2 and S1 in Serbia and China. The apparently different climatic conditions under which the Danubian pedocomplexes developed are not only seen macroscopically, but also in their mineralogy, geochemistry and micromorphological properties (Buggle et al, 2013).…”

“…The climatic changes of the mid-Pleistocene transition resulted in a shift to more arid conditions in the DB (Buggle et al 2013;Fitzsimmons et al 2012), making it relatively difficult to subdivide stratigraphic units straddling this time period.…”

“…Today, the Kukla and An (1989) version is widely accepted for Chinese loess sites. In some previous DLPS studies the last glacial interstadial pedocomplexes have been labelled (V)L1S1 and the underlying loess (V)L1L2 (Panaiotu et al, 2001;Jordanova and Petersen, 1999;Marković et al, 2006Marković et al, , 2009Buggle et al, 2009Buggle et al, , 2013.…”