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The late Pliocene–early Pleistocene Tosunlar succession (Denizli Basin, southwestern Turkey) represents fluvial-dominated delta environments at the margins of a brackish long-lived lake. Two main facies associations are documented: (i) a delta front facies association, with a distal (DF1) and proximal (DF2) deposits; and (ii) a delta plain facies association that contains distributary channel (DP1) and interdistributary swamp (DP2) deposits. The stable isotopic analysis of the mollusc faunas exhibit a narrow range of values (–4.68 < δ 18 O < + 0.21‰ and + 0.43 < δ 13 C < + 3.27‰, respectively) and the very poor δ 18 O–δ 13 C correlation (r = − 0.16) may indicate hydrologically open lake and significant diagenetic alteration. The mollusc faunas and their stable isotope ratios show a biogeographically isolated brackish lake system under semiarid climatic conditions. Under special environmental conditions the endemic faunal composition remained constant which is very unusual for a (semi-) isolated long-lived lake setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L’Arbreda Cave is one of the southernmost of the Reclau Caves (Serinyà, Girona, northeastern Iberian Peninsula), located between the west margin of the Pla d’Usall and the Serinyadell river, at an altitude of about 211 m a.s.l. The Pla d’Usall forms part of the Banyoles-Besalú Basin, which is bounded by Eocene and Neogene reliefs. It is filled with sediments of Plio-Pleistocene age. The cave is a shelter formed by travertine cascades with a degree of karstification, and contains sedimentary deposits ranging from the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the Early Holocene, thus constituting an important archaeo-palaeontological record for an understanding of the prehistoric occupation of northeastern Iberia. It is one of the most complete and best-dated terrestrial sequences in Iberia from the Mousterian to the Early Holocene period. In this paper we present a palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of the sequence based on non-flying small mammals (insectivores and rodents) and pollen analyses. The environmental and climatic results, together with the absolute dating of the sequence and direct comparison with NorthGRIP δ 18 O and the sea-surface temperatures (SST) of the Alborán Sea, allow us to identify various climatic periods within our sequence: a cold period between interstadials 12 and 10 in Level I, probably interstadial 10 in Level H, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Levels C and B, the Bölling-Allerød interstadial (B/A) in Level A, and the Preboreal/Boreal (Pr/B) in the Terra Rossa Level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Thick lake sediments discovered in the southern part of the Czech Republic provide a high-resolution archive for detailed study of paleoenvironmental changes during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene in eastern-central Europe. Until recently, no similar records were available for this important region in the transition from oceanic to continental macro-climatic settings. Using a multi-proxy approach that combines sedimentological, pollen-analytical, paleozoological (Chironomids), geochemical and mineral-magnetic methods we demonstrate that major climatic events of the Late Glacial can be correlated with Atlantic rather than continental regimes as reported in paleoclimatic literature for the area of the interest. The sensitivity of applied biological and abiological techniques to climatically-driven processes allows trans-regional comparisons and enables us to discuss the pattern of geographic variation in these processes. We are able to establish a clear relationship between vegetation cover, soil development and erosional processes. A short-term intra-Alleröd cool event has been correlated with the Gerzensee oscillation. Proxy evidence suggests that the early half of the Younger Dryas was rather humid, whereas the latter half was dry and had significant impact on vegetation, sedimentary dynamics and lake level status during the YD/Preboreal transition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]