Multiproxy evidence of Middle and Late Pleistocene environmental changes in the loess-paleosol sequence of Bůhzdař (Czech Republic)
Abstrakt
Introduction: Loess-paleosol sequences preserve information that can be used to reconstruct paleoenvironments. A dense network of reliably analyzed sequences from different geographic locations is crucial to address ecological and climatic trends, which occurred during the Pleistocene (Frechen, 2003).
Methods and Materials: This paper focuses on a loess-paleosol sequence in Bůhzdař, situated 9 km NW of Prague, Czech Republic. Geochemical approaches (total organic carbon, XRF elemental analyses, XRD mineralogy, 13C and 18O stable isotopes) are combined with grain-size distributions and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to assess the climatic conditions at the time of formation of the strata (Li and Liu, 2003; Antoine et al., 2009; Obreht et al., 2014; Hošek, 2015).
Results and Discussions: The oldest loess at this location was formed circa 200 ka ago (MIS 7), making it the oldest loess in Central Bohemia for now. The Bůhzdař loess-paleosol sequence was highly affected by several erosion events, Eemian paleosols (MIS 5e) being completely missing.
The partly relocated paleosols situated at the lower part of the Bůhzdař sequence represent a period of increased humidity in during late MIS 7 and MIS 6. Despite the fact that the Bůhzdař profile is not particularly thick (5 m), significant changes in paleoclimate reconstructions have been detected.