Climate variations since the last interglacial recorded in Czech loess

Abstract

Magnetic susceptibility, organic matter content, and grain size were measured on a loess/palaeosol sequence deposited since the last interglacial at the Dolni Vestonice section in the Czech Republic. High values in magnetic susceptibility and organic matter content in palaeosols PK0, PK2, and PK3 indicate that they were strongly influenced by long‐term pedogenesis and high vegetation density linked to interglacials or interstadials. Grain‐size variations record a series of cold wind‐strengthened events during the last glacial, which we interpret as a record of the distinctive ‘Younger Dryas’ episode and millennial‐scale climate oscillations that correlate with the GRIP ice core δ18O record and North Atlantic Heinrich events. These climate events, as indicated by grain‐size peaks, combined with previous climate records at French Massif Central and Lago Grande di Monticchio in Italy, suggest that the climate over these areas might have undergone synchronous oscillations with the shifts in sea‐surface temperatures of the North Atlantic and air temperature changes above Greenland.