New approaches to European loess: a stratigraphic and methodical review of the past decade

Abstract

This review paper intends to summarize the state of the art in loess research at the first international "Loessfest'99" conference and to outline progress in loess research during the past decade. The focus is on loess as a terrestrial archive of climatic and environmental change during the Quaternary. The review highlights remarkable new results from regional investigations into European loess, as well as the emergence of new methods and refinements of established techniques, focussing on stratigraphy, dating and palaeoenvironment. It is concluded that loess research during the past decade not only has developed rapidly to take an outstanding place in Quaternary sciences, but also promises exciting perspectives for the next decade, in particular when combined approaches are applied to benefit from the now comprehensive pool of established and new methods.

Periodicities of paleoclimate variations in the first high-resolution non-orbitally tuned grain size record of the past 1 Ma from SW Hungary and regional, global correlations

“…On the one hand, the gradual upward weakening of soil development may be the outcome of increasing aridity and low pedogenetic clay formation from 400 ka. Increasing aridity was noted from 400 ka for several sites in the Middleand Lower Danube Basins (Marković et al, 2009;Buggle et al, 2009Buggle et al, , 2010Buggle et al, , 2013Obrecht et al, 2016;Zeeden et al, 2016, Zöller, 2010. However, as noted earlier, the upward decrease in the referred clay mineral content is accompanied clearly by increasing sand and coarse silt content which may indicate increased physical weathering in the source areas too.…”

The loess sequence of Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic: A new OSL‐based chronology of the Last Climatic Cycle

“…Loess is one of the most important terrestrial archives in palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate research (e.g. Fink 1969;Kukla 1975Kukla , 1977Rousseau 1987;Pécsi 1990;Rousseau et al 1990;Derbyshire 2001;Frechen et al 2003;Haesaerts et al 2003;Rousseau et al 2007;Antoine et al 2009a;Zoeller 2010). In Europe, loess accumulated predominantly under periglacial conditions, with loess deposits spanning from the Atlantic coast in the west to continental eastern Europe (Frechen et al 2003;Haase et al 2007).…”

North Atlantic abrupt climatic events of the last glacial period recorded in Ukrainian loess deposits

“…European loess deposits have been investigated for many decades, and several synthetic studies have evidenced common stratigraphic features: specific units, markers, horizon succession (Kukla, 1977;Lautridou et al, 1983;Frechen et al, 2003;Rousseau et al, 2007;Zoeller, 2010). However, only a few studies have focused on the climate signature in these eolian sediments.…”