The impact of Last Glacial climate variability in west-European loess revealed by radiocarbon dating of fossil earthworm granules

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Moine, Olivier, Antoine, Pierre, Hatté, Christine, Landais, Amaëlle, Mathieu, Jérôme, Prud’homme, Charlotte, Rousseau, Denis-Didier
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2017
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Greenland; Greenland ice cores
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5474771/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28559353; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1614751114

Last Glacial millennial-timescale warming phases well-recorded in Greenland ice cores are relevant across the Northern Hemisphere. However, dating limitations in loess deposits inhibited characterizing their impact on the European Great Plain. Here, the radiocarbon dating of a large set of earthworm calcite granule samples from the Nussloch reference loess sequence (Rhine Valley, Germany) led to a straightforward chronological distinction of all soil horizons. Resulting correlations with Greenland interstadials between 50 and 20 ka also revealed more complex climate dynamics than interpreted from Greenland δ18O records. This study is a fundamental contribution to understanding links between mid- and high-latitude climate changes and their spatial and temporal impact on paleoenvironments and prehistoric population settlement in Europe.