The timeframes of Holocene anthropogenic dune remobilization in Central Europe remain less studied compared to those of Late Glacial climatically controlled dune formation. The present contribution aims to reinforce existing knowledge on the chronology of Late Glacial–Holocene dune activity and stability, as well as to reveal the scale of human impact on dune remobilization. Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating and calibration of the results are reported from paleosol horizons buried in inland dune deposits that occur in Central and Eastern Poland. Twenty-three new dates are based on charcoal samples collected at 13 sites. From each of the investigated sites, at least one AD date is obtained, indicating that buried paleosols of such young age are far more widespread in Polish dunes than reflected in previous studies. The widespread preservation of these paleosols under cover of aeolian sand reflects the extent of the anthropogenic dune formation phase that peaked during the Medieval and Early Modern periods.

We present stratigraphic, magnetic, diffuse reflectance spectrophotometric analyses, and chronologic data for the Chenarli loess–paleosol sequence in northeastern Iran. Eight loess units (LU) are identified, described, and constrained in time based on relative stratigraphy and luminescence dating from >130 ± 9.1 ka to ~9.8 ± 0.7 ka. Our data indicate that pedogenic magnetite/maghemite formation gives rise to magnetic enhancement in modern soil and paleosols. The top of LU 7 is demarcated by the well-developed last interglacial soil in which magnetic depletion occurred. We infer that magnetic depletion in this paleosol was produced by reducing conditions in a seasonally waterlogged soil during a warm and wet phase within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e. Units LU 6 to 1 record several episodes of dust accumulation and soil formation during the last glacial and Holocene. Increased dust accumulation rates occurred during middle-late MIS 3 and lasted into the late MIS 2, with a peak during the last glacial maximum (LU 2). These findings could be applicable to understanding magnetic enhancement/dissolution mechanism in the loess–paleosol sequences in study area. We infer paleoenvironmental changes in northeastern Iran relative to northern Iran, Eurasia, and China.

Recent revision of the Pleistocene glaciation boundaries in northern Eurasia has encouraged the search for nonglacial geological records of the environmental history of northern West Siberia. We studied an alluvial paleosol-sedimentary sequence of the high terrace of the Vakh River (middle Ob basin) to extract the indicators of environmental change since Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Two levels of the buried paleosols are attributed to MIS 5 and MIS 3, as evidenced by U/Th and radiocarbon dates. Palynological and pedogenetic characteristics of the lower pedocomplex recorded the climate fluctuations during MIS 5, from the Picea-Larix taiga environment during MIS 5e to the establishment of the tundra-steppe environment due to the cooling of MIS 5d or MIS 5b and partial recovery of boreal forests with Picea and Pinus in MIS 5c or MIS 5a. The upper paleosol level shows signs of cryogenic hydromorphic pedogenesis corresponding to the tundra landscape, with permafrost during MIS 3. Boulders incorporated in a laminated alluvial deposit between the paleosols are dropstones brought from the Enisei valley by ice rafting during the cold MIS 4. An abundance of eolian morphostructures on quartz grains from the sediments that overly the upper paleosol suggests a cold, dry, and windy environment during the MIS 2 cryochron.

We describe two coastal paleosols recovered in sediment cores from the Oujiang Delta, Southeast China. These provide useful benchmarks for past sea level change on the East China Sea coast. Radiocarbon (14C) dates on charcoal and plant matter show that one formed during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) and was exposed for perhaps 20 ka, during the Last Glacial Maximum. The other formed in the Early Holocene and was briefly exposed, during a period of fluctuating sea level. Similar paleosols have been described from the Changjiang (Yangtze) Delta, and at many other sites from the East China Sea. The MIS 3 paleosol records a regional relative sea level of about –27 m at the end of MIS 3. While this value is consistent with other paleo sea level estimates for the East China Sea region, it is much higher than predicted by eustatic sea level estimates.

The island of Gran Canaria is regularly affected by dust falls due to its proximity to the Saharan desert. Climatic oscillations may affect the Saharan dust input to the island. Geochemical, mineralogical, and textural analysis was performed on a well-developed and representative early Pleistocene paleosol to examine Saharan dust contribution to Gran Canaria. Significant and variable Saharan dust content was identified in addition to weathering products such as iron oxides and clay minerals. Variations in quartz and iron oxide concentrations in the paleosol likely reflect different Saharan dust input in more/less-contrasted rhexistasic/biostatic climatic conditions. Linking the quartz content in Canarian soils, the Ingenio paleosol, and two Canarian loess-like deposits to different ages from the Quaternary, we hypothesized that the dust input should be lower (about 33–38%) throughout the early to middle Pleistocene than during the late Quaternary. The Saharan dust input to the Gran Canaria profile in the Pleistocene persisted in spite of climatic variations.

Seven main periods of soil formation can be distinguished in the floodplain of the Moskva (Moscow) River, with the oldest paleosols dated to the Allerød age. We analyzed paleosols buried under alluvial deposits, colluvial sediments, and archaeological deposits within the catchment area of the Moskva River. Paleopedological reconstructions were correlated with the results of the pedoanthracological and palynological analyses. Series of radiocarbon (14C) dates were obtained on humic acids and dispersed macro-charcoal from paleosols and archaeological features. Wide time frames of the floodplain paleosol formation were determined at a 95% probability as 14,600–12,600 cal BP for Soil 7; 9500–7000 cal BP for Soils 6 and 5; 6700–5500 cal BP for Soil 4; 5000–4400 cal BP for Soil 3b; 4100–2700 cal BP for Soil 3a; and 2000–700 cal BP for Soil 2. The dates were compared with the age of archaeological sites from the same areas. The comparison revealed a close correspondence between the ages of the soil charcoal and the timing of archaeological occupations. That allowed us to conclude that the fire occurrence on a regional level was associated mainly with the human occupation. The fire record is especially pronounced in floodplain paleosols, due to both the role of rivers as human migration corridors, and the integral accumulation of combustion products from the entire catchment area in these paleosols.

Although loess–paleosol sequences are among the most important records of Quaternary climate change and past dust deposition cycles, few modern examples of such sedimentation systems have been studied. Stratigraphic studies and 22 new accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages from the Matanuska Valley in southern Alaska show that loess deposition there began sometime after ∼6500 14C yr B.P. and has continued to the present. The silts are produced through grinding by the Matanuska and Knik glaciers, deposited as outwash, entrained by strong winds, and redeposited as loess. Over a downwind distance of ∼40 km, loess thickness, sand content, and sand-plus-coarse-silt content decrease, whereas fine-silt content increases. Loess deposition was episodic, as shown by the presence of paleosols, at distances >10 km from the outwash plain loess source. Stratigraphic complexity is at a maximum (i.e. the greatest number of loesses and paleosols) at intermediate (10–25 km) distances from the loess source. Surface soils increase in degree of development with distance downwind from the source, where sedimentation rates are lower. Proximal soils are Entisols or Inceptisols, whereas distal soils are Spodosols. Ratios of mobile CaO, K2O, and Fe2O3 to immobile TiO2 show decreases in surface horizons with distance from the source. Thus, as in China, where loess deposition also takes place today, eolian sedimentation and soil formation are competing processes. Study of loess and paleosols in southern Alaska shows that particle size can vary over short distances, loess deposition can be episodic over limited time intervals, and soils developed in stabilized loess can show considerable variability under the same vegetation.

Grayscale intensity profiles from photographic images offer a rapid means of obtaining paleoclimate proxy records from Chinese loess, dune sand, and paleosols. Although the data can be obtained using conventional 35-mm film images, a digital camera and laptop computer will produce a high-resolution grayscale profile at a field site within minutes. Comparison of grayscale profiles with profiles of magnetic susceptibility measured down loess and dune-sand sections at sites on the Loess Plateau and Tibetan Plateau in a range of altitudes and climatic regimes shows that the two parameters are highly correlated. Therefore, grayscale intensity is a convenient alternative to magnetic susceptibility for generating paleoclimatic data in the loess and desert-margin regions of China. The resolution of both grayscale and susceptibility profiles ultimately is limited by bioturbation, which is most pronounced in paleosols.

The alternation of carbonate deposits and paleosols compose the emerged part of the Bermuda archipelago. The pedological units present a complex and diversified mineralogy. Former studies demonstrated that the paleosols are not primarily a product of the unique dissolution of the surrounding carbonates, but contain a massive input of allochthonous non-carbonate detrital material. Researchers during more than the past three decades have attributed this flux of insoluble residues (IR) to Saharan dusts. We carried out systematic field and mineralogical analyses on the Quaternary paleosols from the Bermuda archipelago. Their mineralogical assemblage predominantly includes carbonates, clay minerals (kaolinite, chlorite and chlorite/vermiculite), phosphates, and aluminium and iron oxides/hydroxides. This assemblage is strikingly close to the mineralogy of the weathered volcanic substrate of Bermuda, but noticeably different from the mineralogy of Saharan dust. Moreover, we found volcanic lithoclasts in numerous paleosol profiles all over the archipelago and in all the recorded time intervals. We thus consider the volcanic seamount underlying Bermuda as the main source of non-carbonate minerals detected in the paleosols. This hypothesis further resolves the anomalous maturity of Bermudan paleosols compared to their southern counterparts in the Bahamas and Barbados.

Loess accumulated on a Bull Lake outwash terrace of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6) age in southern Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The 9 m section displays eight intervals of loess deposition (Loess 1 to Loess 8, oldest), each followed by soil development. Our age-depth model is constrained by thermoluminescence, meteoric 10Be accumulation in soils, and cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure ages. We use particle size, geochemical, mineral-magnetic, and clay mineralogical data to interpret loess sources and pedogenesis. Deposition of MIS 6 loess was followed by a tripartite soil/thin loess complex (Soils 8, 7, and 6) apparently reflecting the large climatic oscillations of MIS 5. Soil 8 (MIS 5e) shows the strongest development. Loess 5 accumulated during a glacial interval (~ 76–69 ka; MIS 4) followed by soil development under conditions wetter and probably colder than present. Deposition of thick Loess 3 (~ 43–51 ka, MIS 3) was followed by soil development comparable with that observed in Soil 1. Loess 1 (MIS 2) accumulated during the Pinedale glaciation and was followed by development of Soil 1 under a semiarid climate. This record of alternating loess deposition and soil development is compatible with the history of Yellowstone vegetation and the glacial flour record from the Sierra Nevada.

Molecular stratigraphic analyses using gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry have been performed in the upper section (S0, L1, S1) of the Yuanbo loess–paleosol sequences in northwest China, with a record extending from the last interglaciation through the present interglaciation. The CPI (Carbon Preference Index) values of both n-alkanols and n-alkan-2-ones display variations between loess deposits and paleosols, showing a correlation with the magnetic susceptibility record, an indicator of the East Asian summer monsoon. The observed variations in the indexes in relation to changes in lithology/paleoclimate are proposed to result from microbial degradation of higher plant lipids in the paleosols. The CPI values of n-alkanes, n-alkanols, and n-alkan-2-ones are negatively correlated with δ13C of bulk organic matter. The correlations suggest that the observed glacial–interglacial variations of δ13C data in the loess stratigraphy reflect the relative importance of the contribution of paleovegetation compared with microorganisms (including both the degradation and the addition of organic matter) and allochthonous loess/soil parent materials. It is thus necessary to evaluate the contributions of the latter two before the paleovegetation can be reconstructed based on the δ13C analysis of bulk organic matter in some loess–paleosol sequences of the Chinese Loess Plateau.

Outcrops of buried soils on lake-plains and glacial headlands along Lake Michigan's eastern shore suggest that periodic dune-building has occurred there after relatively long (≥100 yr) periods of low sand supply. We located, described, and radiocarbon dated 75 such buried soils that crop out in 32 coastal dune fields beside the lake. We assume that peaks in probability distributions of calibrated 14C ages obtained from wood, charcoal, and other organic matter from buried A horizons approximate the time of soil burial by dunes. Plotted against a late Holocene lake-level curve for Lake Michigan, these peaks are closely associated with many ∼150-yr lake highstands previously inferred from beach ridge studies. Intervening periods of lower lake levels and relative sand starvation apparently permitted forestation and soil development at the sites we studied. While late Holocene lake-level change led to development and preservation of prominent foredunes along the southern and southwestern shores of Lake Michigan, the modern dune landscape of the eastern shore is dominated by perched dunes formed during ∼150-yr lake highstands over the past 1500 yr.

The effect of changing environment on the evolution of Homo sapiens is heavily debated, but few data are available from equatorial Africa prior to the last glacial maximum. The Karungu deposits on the northeast coast of Lake Victoria are ideal for paleoenvironmental reconstructions and are best studied at the Kisaaka site near Karunga in Kenya (94 to > 33 ka) where paleosols, fluvial deposits, tufa, and volcaniclastic deposits (tuffs) are exposed over a ~ 2 km transect. Three well-exposed and laterally continuous paleosols with intercalated tuffs allow for reconstruction of a succession of paleocatenas. The oldest paleosol is a smectitic paleo-Vertisol with saline and sodic properties. Higher in the section, the paleosols are tuffaceous paleo-Inceptisols with Alfisol-like soil characteristics (illuviated clay). Mean annual precipitation (MAP) proxies indicate little change through time, with an average of 764 ± 108 mm yr− 1 for Vertisols (CALMAG) and 813 ± 182 to 963 ± 182 mm yr− 1 for all paleosols (CIA-K). Field observations and MAP proxies suggest that Karungu was significantly drier than today, consistent with the associated faunal assemblage, and likely resulted in a significantly smaller Lake Victoria during the late Pleistocene. Rainfall reduction and associated grassland expansion may have facilitated human and faunal dispersals across equatorial East Africa.

Rb, Sr, and magnetic susceptibility have been measured in the last interglacial–glacial loess profiles at Luochuan and Huanxian, central China. A high degree of similarity between the parameters in both profiles suggests that variations of Rb/Sr ratios in the sequence can be regarded as an indicator of East Asian summer monsoon strength. Matching the Rb/Sr record with the SPECMAP δ18O curve suggests that the Rb/Sr ratio responds sensitively to changes of the East Asian monsoon induced by global ice-volume variation.

Buried gullies exposed in road excavations along the margin of a loess tableland on the Loess Plateau of central China lie within a thick loess-paleosol succession that spans ≥780,000 years. Constraining ages for gully cutting and filling are provided by dates of loess and soil units cut by and capping the paleogullies. An episode of gully cutting begins at the onset of an interglaciation and ceases as the gullies begin to fill with colluvium and airborne dust during the transition to full-glacial conditions. The episodic cutting and filling of gullies implies a basic astronomical (orbital) control of gully evolution involving cyclic changes in dominant summer and winter monsoon climates, surface hydrology, and vegetation cover.

Extensive portions of the continental shelf off the coast of British Columbia were subaerially exposed during Late Wisconsinan deglaciation due to lowering of relative sea level by as much as 150 m. Paleoecological analyses were conducted at two sites on the emergent continental shelf where terrestrial surfaces with in situ conifers are preserved. The woody plant remains confirm that, during the latest period of subaerial exposure, terrestrial vegetation was established on the continental shelf. Microscopic identification of fossil wood, and analyses of pollen and plant macrofossils from the associated paleosols and overlying shallow pond sediments indicate that productive Pinus contorta-dominated communities with abundant Alnus crispa and ferns grew on the shelf adjacent to and on the Queen Charlotte Islands around 12,200 14C yr B.P. Dwarf shrubs including Salix and Empetrum, and herbaceous plants such as Heracleum lanatum and Hippuris vulgaris, were also important components of the shelf vegetation. Near northern Vancouver Island, mixed coniferous forests dominated by Pinus contorta with Picea, Tsuga spp., Alnus spp., and ferns occupied the shelf at 10,500 14C yr B.P.

Perennially frozen loess deposits in the Klondike goldfields include paleosols formed in full-glacial environments, correlated by Alaskan distal tephra with Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 2 and 4. Patterns of organic and inorganic carbon and clay distribution, microstructures, and profile morphologies indicate that soil formation occurred in a base-rich environment in which organic matter accreted predominantly as root detritus. At sites approximately 20 km apart, the expression of cryoturbation and ice wedge development decreases in strength upward in loess–paleosol sequences correlated with MIS 4, suggesting increasing aridity. Configurations of cryoturbation features and ice-wedge thaw unconformities, the presence of numerous ground squirrel burrows, and an absence of peat accumulation suggest that these substrates were predominantly well-drained, with active layers of equal or greater thickness than in modern soils on similar sites in the west-central Yukon. Some characteristics of these paleosols are similar to those of modern steppe and tundra soils, consistent with plant macrofossil evidence for local ecological diversity during full-glacial conditions in eastern Beringia.

The field properties, micromorphology, grain-size, geochemistry, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages of two late Quaternary sections have been used to reconstruct the sequence of pedosedimentary processes and to provide insights into landscape evolution in part of the Northern Pampa of Argentina. Paleosols developed in paludal sediments adjacent to the Paraná river at Baradero and in loess at Lozada can both be correlated and linked to other sites, thus enabling for the first time the tentative recognition and tracing of a diachronous soil stratigraphic unit that probably spans the equivalent of at least part of marine oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 5. The paleosol at Lozada was truncated and buried beneath fluvial sediments during the time span of OIS 4 and 3. Eolian gradually replaced paludal inputs at Baradero over this period, and there were also two clearly defined breaks in sedimentation and development of paleosols. The period corresponding to OIS 2 was marked by significant loess accumulation at both sites with accretion continuing into the mid-Holocene only at Lozada. The more developed nature of the surface soil at Baradero probably reflects a combination of a moister climate and a longer soil-forming interval.

Magnetic susceptibility (MS) of surface sediment varies systematically across the Loess Plateau in central China, decreasing exponentially from >200×10−8 m3/kg at the northern margin of the Qinling Shan to ≤30×10−8 m3/kg near the southern margin of the Mu Us Desert. MS correlates highly with loess median grain size (r 2=0.79), which decreases south-southeastward across the plateau. It also correlates with mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) (r 2=0.58 and 0.60, respectively), and with their product MAT×MAP (r 2=0.83), which is considered a measure of potential pedogenic activity. Because regional isopleths depicting grain size and the primary meteorological parameters are nearly parallel, it is difficult to determine their relative influence on MS. A simple MS model, based on the observed spatial variation in loess thickness, permits quantitative assessment of the effect of the dust accumulation rate on the MS signal of surface sediment and isolates the likely role of climate in the production of magnetic minerals. The model suggests that 84% of the loess MS variance is dictated by the diluting effect of dust and 10–11% is associated with meteorological factors, primarily precipitation. The observed and modeled relationships support hypotheses that attribute variations in MS in the loess-paleosol succession to varying rates of dust deposition and in situ production of magnetic minerals in the accretionary soils, both of which are controlled by monsoon climate.