Paleoclimate record in the Upper Pleistocene loess-paleosol sequence at Petrovaradin brickyard (Vojvodina, Serbia)

Abstract

Four loess units and three paleopedological layers are preserved in the ∼8 in thick Petrovaradin exposure, Vojvodina, Serbia. Amino acid geochronology provides stratigraphic correlations between loess units L1 and L2 at Petrovaradin with loess of glacial cycles B and C, respectively, at other Central European localities. Magnetic susceptibility and sedimentological evidence of the Petrovaradin loess-paleosol sequence are used for correlation with the SPECMAP paleoclimatic record. Late Pleistocene climate dynamics recorded in the Petrovaradin brickyard loess-paleosol sequence present temperate humid and warm interglacial and temperate cold glacial climatic conditions. The last glacial paleoclimatic record provides two main cold and dry stadial periods corresponding to deposition of two loess layers L1L1 and L1L2, as well as one moderate cold and relatively dry interstadial. Many episodes of alternating cold-dry and warm-wet paleoclimatic conditions suggest a possible correlation with abrupt paleoclimatic fluctuations recorded in the North Atlantic region. The results of malacological investigations of the Petrovaradin site demonstrate significant similarities to the Paleopreillyrian fauna of the southern Transdanubia region in Hungary, which suggests that the Petrovaradin site has a refugial character during the periods of dust accumulation.