The Crvenka Loess-Paleosol Sequence: A Record of Continuous Grassland Domination in the Southern Carpathian Basin during the Late Pleistocene

Slobodan B, Markovic, Pal Sumegi, Thomas Stevens, Randall J. Schaetzl, Igor Obreht, Wei Chu, Bjorn Buggle, Michael Zech, Roland Zech, Christian Zeeden, Milivoj Gavrilov, Zoran Peric, Zorica Svircev, and Frank Lehmkuhl

In this study, we compare two independent paleoenvironmental proxies for a loess sequence in northern Serbia,in the southern Carpathian Basin: novel n-alkane biomarkers and traditional land snail assemblages. Both areassociated with other, more widely used proxy data for loess sections, such as environmental magnetism, grainsize, and geochemical indices. Together, these paleoenvironmental proxy records provide evidence for thecontinued dominance of grasslands during the Late Pleistocene in the Southern Carpathian Basin. It is contrary toother European loess provinces, which are characterized by high diversity of Late Pleistocene environments(ranging from tundra-like to deciduous forest habitats). These findings highlight the southeastern part ofCarpathian Basin as an important, but still insufficiently investigated, biogeographical refugium, and biodi-versity preservation zone. The reason for this is a mostly stable paleoclimate for much of the Late Pleistocene.