Reconstruction of the Late and Mid-Pleistocene climate and landscape history in SE-Central Europe [Elektronische Ressource] : a paleopedological and geochemical multi-proxy approach in loess-paleosol studies / Björn Buggle. Betreuer: Bruno Glaser

Reconstruction of the Late and Mid-Pleistocene
climate and landscape history in SE-Central Europe

A paleopedological and geochemical multi-proxy approach in
loess-paleosol studies.



Dissertation
zur Erlangung des Grades
Doktor der Naturwissenschaften
(Dr. rer. nat.)
an der Fakultät für Biologie / Chemie / Geowissenschaften
der Universität Bayreuth



vorgelegt von


Björn Buggle (Dipl.-Geoökologe)
geb. am 10.11.1981 in Kempten



Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Bruno Glaser

Bayreuth, Februar 2011




Dedicated to my parents and Soschi
- in love and gratefulness-




“Look back, lest you fail to mark
the path ahead"
Lovejoy (2007)
I
Contents
Contents___________________________________________________________________ I
List of Tables______________________________________________________________VI
List of Figures _____________________________________________________________IX
List of Abbreviations______________________________________________________ XIX

Summary ______________________________________________________________XXV
Zusammenfassung_____________________________________________________ XXVII

Extended Summary_________________________________________________________ 1
1 Introduction________________________________________________________________ 2
1.1 Rationale ______________________________________________________________________ 2
1.2 Objectives _____________________________________________________________________ 4
2 Regional setting _____________________________________________________________ 6
3 Methods ___________________________________________________________________ 7
3.1 Nomenclature and sample material __________________________________________________ 7
3.2 Analyses, data exploration and applied proxies ________________________________________ 9
3.2.1 Inorganic geochemistry ________________________________________________________ 9
3.2.2 Rock magnetic measurements and parameters _____________________________________ 10
3.2.3 Soil color measurements and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy_________________________ 11
3.2.4 Grain size and micromorphological analyses ______________________________________ 12
3.2.5 Micromorphological analyses __________________________________________________ 12
3.2.6 n-Alkane analyses and δD measurements _________________________________________ 12
4 Results/Discussion __________________________________________________________ 13
4.1 Geochemical characterization and origin of the Southeastern and Eastern European loess ______ 13
4.1.1 The “Dnieper loess” 14
4.1.2 The “Danube loess” 14
4.2 Stratigraphy___________________________________________________________________ 15
4.3 Evaluating rock-magnetic and geochemical proxies of pedogenesis and paleoclimate: the magnetic
susceptibility and element ratios ___________________________________________________ 16
4.4 Paleoenvironmental reconstruction _________________________________________________ 17
4.5 n-Alkane biomarkers and their δD isotopic signature as novel paleoenvironmental proxies in loess-
paleosol studies – an evaluation 20
5 Conclusion ________________________________________________________________ 22
6 Contributions to the manuscripts _____________________________________________ 25
References ____________________________________________________________________ 28

II
Study 1: Geochemical characterization and origin of Southeastern and Eastern
European loesses (Serbia, Romania, Ukraine) _________________________________ 36
Abstract ______________________________________________________________________ 37
1 Introduction_______________________________________________________________ 39
2 Regional setting ____________________________________________________________ 40
3 Methods __________________________________________________________________ 44
3.1 Sampling and laboratory analyses__________________________________________________ 44
3.2 Data processing ________________________________________________________________ 45
3.2.1 Discriminant analysis_________________________________________________________ 46
3.2.2 Element ratios ______________________________________________________________ 47
3.3 Literature data _________________________________________________________________ 48
4 Results ___________________________________________________________________ 51
4.1 Discriminant analysis ___________________________________________________________ 52
4.2 Si-Zr-Hf-association ____________________________________________________________ 53
4.3 Major elements ratios 54
4.4 Element fingerprint _____________________________________________________________ 57
4.5 Background magnetic susceptibility ________________________________________________ 59
5 Discussion 60
5.1 Origin and geochemical characteristics______________________________________________ 60
5.1.1 Stary Kaydaky section ________________________________________________________ 60
5.1.1.1 Glaciofluvial sediments – a loess source for the Stary Kaydaky site _______________ 60
5.1.1.2 Origin of the glaciofluvial sediments _______________________________________ 63
5.1.2 Batajnica/Stari Slankamen section_______________________________________________ 64
5.1.2.1 The Danube alluvium – the major source for Danube Basin loess. ________________ 64
5.1.2.2 Sources of alluvial silt __________________________________________________ 65
5.1.3 Mircea Voda section _________________________________________________________ 67
5.1.3.1 Geochemical evidence 67
5.1.3.2 Magnetic susceptibility evidence __________________________________________ 69
5.2 Southeastern/Eastern European loess – representative samples of the upper continental crust____ 70
6 Conclusions _______________________________________________________________ 73
Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________ 74
References ____________________________________________________________________ 75
Appendix _____________________________________________________________________ 81

Study 2: Stratigraphy and spatial and temporal paleoclimatic trends in Southeastern/Eastern
European loess-paleosol sequences _________________________________________________ 88
Abstract ______________________________________________________________________ 89
1 Introduction 90
2 Principles of susceptibility enhancement in (paleo-)soils___________________________ 92
3 Regional setting ____________________________________________________________ 94
III
3.1 Batajnica / Stari Slankamen (Serbia)________________________________________________ 94
3.2 Mircea Voda (Romania) _________________________________________________________ 95
3.3 Stary Kaydaky (Ukraine) 96
4 Methods __________________________________________________________________ 97
5 Results 101
5.1 Magnetic susceptibility variations_________________________________________________ 101
5.2 Stratigraphy 104
5.2.1 Stratigraphy of Batajnica/Stari Slankamen (Serbia) and Mircea Voda (Romania) _________ 105
5.2.2 Stratigraphy of Stary Kaydaky ________________________________________________ 108
5.3 Sedimentation rates ____________________________________________________________ 112
6 Discussion________________________________________________________________ 116
6.1 Sedimentation rates 116
6.2 Chronostratigraphic revisions ____________________________________________________ 119
6.2.1 The S2S1-unit, stratigraphic setting and implications on orbital tuning _________________ 120
6.2.2 Division of pedocomplexes S6 and S7 __________________________________________ 122
6.2.3 The local Ukrainian stratigraphy _______________________________________________ 123
6.3 Evaluation of the susceptibility-rainfall relationship___________________________________ 124
6.4 Paleoclimatic conclusions _______________________________________________________ 127
7 Conclusions ______________________________________________________________ 128
Acknowledgements ___________________________________________________________ 130
References ___________________________________________________________________ 130

Study 3: An evaluation of geochemical weathering indices in loess-paleosol studies __ 135
Abstract _____________________________________________________________________ 136
1 Introduction______________________________________________________________ 137
2 Material and Methods _____________________________________________________ 138
3 Chemical weathering indices ________________________________________________ 140
3.1 Choosing a chemical proxy of alteration for LPSS? – Principal considerations and hypotheses _ 140
3.2 Overview on widely used indices of feldspar weathering _______________________________ 145
4 Results __________________________________________________________________ 146
5 Discussion________________________________________________________________ 151
5.1 Evaluation of the geochemical weathering indices ____________________________________ 151
5.1.1 Sr type vs. Na type indices____________________________________________________