The Crvenka loess-paleosol sequence: A record of continuous grassland domination in the southern Carpathian Basin during the Late Pleistocene

• Published in: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
• Main Authors: Markovic, Slobodan B., Sümegi, Pal, Stevens, Thomas, Schaetzl, Randall J., Obreht, Igor, Chu, Wei, Buggle, Björn, Zech, Michael, Zech, Roland, Zeeden, Christian, Gavrilov, Milivoj B., Perić, Zoran, Svircev, Zorica, Lehmkuhl, Frank
• Other Authors: Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides (IMCCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Lille-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Astronomie et systèmes dynamiques (ASD), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Lille-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03803892; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.03.019

International audience In this study, we compare two independent paleoenvironmental proxies for a loess sequence in northern Serbia, in the southern Carpathian Basin: novel n-alkane biomarkers and traditional land snail assemblages. Both are associated with other, more widely used proxy data for loess sections, such as environmental magnetism, grain size, and geochemical indices. Together, these paleoenvironmental proxy records provide evidence for the continued dominance of grasslands during the Late Pleistocene in the Southern Carpathian Basin. It is contrary to other European loess provinces, which are characterized by high diversity of Late Pleistocene environments (ranging from tundra-like to deciduous forest habitats). These findings highlight the southeastern part of Carpathian Basin as an important, but still insufficiently investigated, biogeographical refugium, and biodiversity preservation zone. The reason for this is a mostly stable paleoclimate for much of the Late Pleistocene.