Quaternary International最新文献

{"title":"Unravelling pedogenic processes at Basaharc Loess profile in Hungary: Insights from climate proxies","authors":"Erzsébet Horváth ,&nbsp;Balázs Bradák ,&nbsp;Gabriella Barta ,&nbsp;József Szeberényi ,&nbsp;Diána Csonka ,&nbsp;Tamás Végh ,&nbsp;Ágnes Novothny","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The well-studied loess-paleosol sequence at Basaharc, Hungary, includes the key sections of the Basaharc Double (BD) and Basaharc Lower (BA) paleosols. These paleosols are vital not only for Hungarian loess stratigraphy but also within the stratigraphical framework of the European Loess Belt, especially in the Middle Danube Basin. Our recent research involved low-field magnetic susceptibility (κlf) measurements, granulometric analyses, assessment of bulk calcium carbonate content, paleosol micromorphology and age dating using luminescence techniques and amino acid stratigraphy. The results indicate that higher κlf values typically correlate with an increase in the clay fraction, though this does not always mean stronger pedogenesis. The growth of the clay fraction (&lt;2 μm) results not only from increased weathering-produced clay minerals but also from the accumulation of other minerals, such as micrite calcite in this case. Microscopic examination of paleosols reveals clay coatings formed through clay migration. These coatings can be found in their original position (in situ) within soil layers. Conversely, in the other horizons, they are only present as reworked fragments measuring a few tens of micrometres.</div><div>Furthermore, micromorphological examination of paleosol thin sections uncovered a complex pedogenic environment during the development of the pedocomplexes BA and BD. The analyses confirmed climate variations during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9 and 7. The Basaharc Lower paleosol, often considered a primarily uniform and homogeneous soil, can be divided into three parts: BA₂, BA_1b, and BA_1a. The lowermost section (BA₂) was correlated with MIS 9e, while the lower part of the double-paleosol section (BA_1b) most likely developed during MIS 9c, and the upper part (BA_1a) formed in MIS 9a. After the glacial period represented by the loess layer between the BA and BD soil complexes, the lowermost section of the Basaharc Double paleosol (BD₂) formed during MIS 7e. The lowest part of BD₁ (BD_1b) developed during MIS 7c, and the upper section (BD_1a) formed during MIS 7a. The correlation of the soil (sub)horizons with the MIS curve was supported by the analytical results, the presence of the approximately 360 ka old Bag Tephra in the underlying loess of the BA paleosol, and the pIRIR₂₉₀ data from various layers within the studied sections.</div><div>This research is the first to present such detailed correlations with late Middle Pleistocene climate fluctuations from loess sections in the European Loess Belt.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110005"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145324063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydroclimatic change over the last 2000 years in arid Xinjiang of northwest China and its role in human societies along the ancient Silk Road","authors":"Ao Yan ,&nbsp;Haoyu Liu ,&nbsp;Xudong Liu ,&nbsp;Ziyan Yang ,&nbsp;Zhankui Bai ,&nbsp;Qingcao Tian ,&nbsp;Yueqi Min ,&nbsp;Jiangyong Wang ,&nbsp;Yilei Song","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In Xinjiang, the oases hydroclimate represents a pivotal factor in the evolution of human societies. Nevertheless, our understanding of the evolutionary patterns of oases hydroclimate and their mechanisms with human societies remains limited. This study is dedicated to examining the evolution of the oases hydroclimate in Xinjiang, which is crucial for understanding the human-environment interaction and advancing the sustainable conservation of eco-hydrology. Based on the re-analysis of humification degree, grain size, and organic matter data from a previously published high-resolution peat profile, this study reconstructs the hydroclimatic changes and driving mechanisms in the region since 1788 cal yr BP, which are dominated by temperature and glacial-snow meltwater. By employing archaeological ¹⁴C data summed probability distributions and site kernel density analyses along the Silk Road, the history and spatial alterations in human activities can be inferred. Ultimately, this paper explores the influence of oases hydroclimate on socio-cultural exchanges and human-environment interaction, grounded in the context of extant archaeological evidence. The study demonstrates that the hydroclimate of the oases in Xinjiang since 1788 cal yr BP has been driven by a combination of factors, including changes in insolation due to the orbital cycle, solar activity, and alterations in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. This has resulted in three transitions, which correspond to the globally climatic events of the Dark Ages Cold Period (DACP), the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), and the Little Ice Age (LIA), respectively. The hydroclimatic aridity of the oases during the DACP resulted in the decline of human civilization and the northward shift of the Silk Road. During the MWP, the hydroclimatic conditions of the oases gradually became more favourable, with an increase in the intensity of human activities. The hydroclimate was more arid during the LIA, however, the population size exhibited an increasing trend, indicating that humans began to deviate from passive adaptation to natural human-environment interaction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110008"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145289614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New insights into the mid-late Holocene environmental history in the E Baltic – multi-proxy data from Aukštumala raised bog, W Lithuania","authors":"Gražyna Kluczynska ,&nbsp;Laura Gedminienė ,&nbsp;Miglė Stančikaitė ,&nbsp;Vladas Žulkus ,&nbsp;Algirdas Girininkas ,&nbsp;Tomas Rimkus ,&nbsp;Linas Daugnora ,&nbsp;Jolita Petkuvienė ,&nbsp;Žana Skuratovič","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109993","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109993","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study reconstructs vegetation and environmental changes in western Lithuania during the Middle and Late Holocene, based on multi-proxy analyses of the Aukštumala raised bog in the Nemunas Delta. Two parallel sediment cores were investigated using pollen, plant macrofossils, radiocarbon dating, loss-on-ignition (LOI), magnetic susceptibility, and geochemical analyses. Seven main stages of environmental development were identified and interpreted in a regional and broader Holocene context. Sedimentation began around 6000 cal yr BP, when coniferous forests dominated in relatively dry conditions. A short-lived presence of aquatic plants at ∼5400 cal yr BP indicates temporary open-water habitats. Between 5000 and 4300 cal yr BP, conifers declined while birch expanded, suggesting a more open landscape and reduced wetland cover. Around 4400 cal yr BP, rising water levels and cooler conditions promoted vegetation typical of raised bogs. From 4300 to 3200 cal yr BP, lowered water tables together with the dominance of peat-forming plants indicate a cooler, wetter phase. Between 3200 and 2700 cal yr BP, one core records the transition from an intermediate-type bog to a raised bog, while the other reflects open-basin conditions with abundant wetland taxa. From 2700 to 2100 cal yr BP, birch forests spread, landscapes became more open, and water levels rose around 2400 cal yr BP. After 2100 cal yr BP, the peatland gradually transformed into a raised bog, with increasing Sphagnum, expansion of ericaceous vegetation, and evidence of local fires, reflecting unstable hydrological conditions. These results provide new insights into long-term ecosystem dynamics and their links to Holocene climate variability in the southeastern Baltic region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 109993"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145364536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Japan sea surface paleoceanography and productivity variations through the Middle Pleistocene Transition","authors":"Bisweswar Sahoo,&nbsp;Sheetal Samal ,&nbsp;Basanti Murmu,&nbsp;Manisha Das ,&nbsp;Sunil K. Das,&nbsp;Suman Datta,&nbsp;Sunita Rath,&nbsp;Nirakara Mahanta,&nbsp;Raj K. Singh","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Japan Sea (JS) paleoceanography was impacted by the fluctuations in Tsushima warm current (TWC) influx through a shallow strait alongside the sea level changes and expansion of sea-ice. These factors might be more pronounced during the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT) when the earth's climate switched from a low amplitude 41 kyr to a high amplitude quasi 100 kyr cycle. This study analysed the planktic foraminifera and clay minerals from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Site U1426 (southeastern JS) for the period ∼1400 - 600 ka, which suggests TWC influx significantly reduced during the MPT. The clay minerals of IODP Site U1423 (northern JS) for the period ∼1200 - 620 ka suggest a consistent East Asian Winter monsoon (EAWM) wind intensity after the onset of the MPT. The dominance of planktic foraminifera species <em>Neogloboquadrina pachyderma</em> during the MPT, along with other productivity indicator proxies from previous studies, suggests moderate surface productivity in the southern JS during the MPT. Increased EAWM intensity would have helped to maintain surface productivity by supplying nutrients through dust flux and driving convective mixing. Post-MPT, there were differential impacts of EAWM between the northern and southern JS, which might be linked to the higher TWC influx into the southern JS. We suggest that permanent sea-ice like conditions developed at the northern JS have played a crucial role in limiting the influence of TWC to the southern JS in the post-MPT scenario.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110032"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145467654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate change 6.2–2.0 cal ka BP in northeastern Africa, based on multi-proxy lake record from the Faiyum Oasis, Egypt","authors":"Leszek Marks ,&nbsp;Fabian Welc ,&nbsp;Jerzy Nitychoruk ,&nbsp;Abdelfattah Zalat","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110023","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110023","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Middle and Late Holocene climate change and the accompanying environmental transformations in northeastern Africa were stimulated by a progressive southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Aridification started at the end of the African Humid Period which is around 7 cal ka BP, considerably retarded in Egypt but it accelerated from about 4.5 cal ka BP. The core FA-1 of lake sediments was collected from the southern shore of the Qarun Lake in the Faiyum Oasis (Egypt). Multi-proxy lithological, palaeontological and geochemical analyses of partly laminated lake sediments supplied with a unique high resolution palaeoclimatic record of the Holocene. Supported by numerous radiocarbon datings, it enabled reconstruction of the lake evolution with several freshwater, brackish and saline phases at 6.2–2.0 cal ka BP. The lake environment was much dependent on temporary inflows of the Nile water during the flood seasons. Since 5.9 cal ka BP, the Nile water input to the Faiyum Oasis has considerably decreased due to a southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone that was reflected by weaker summer monsoon in northeastern Africa. The Faiyum Lake became smaller, shallower and with occasional brackish episodes, partly desiccated, with more and more varied sedimentation and decreasing productivity. The Bond events 4-2 at 5.9, 4.2 and 2.8 ka BP are reflected by unstable environmental conditions with higher sedimentation rate, redeposition and supply of washed-in mineral material caused by regular heavy rainfall in winter. The Bond event 3 (4.2 ka BP) is manifested by a change of silt with diatom laminae to silt with sandy interbeds at 4.3–4.0 cal ka BP in the Faiyum Oasis, but it was exceptionally catastrophic in Egypt, terminating the prosperity of the Old Kingdom. A desertification of northeastern Africa was not a linear process and it occurred 2–3 ka later than in the central Sahara, owing to the eastern Mediterranean circulation bringing winter rainfall and the Nile itself, acting as a permanent source for evaporation, both making the climate milder.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110023"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145418359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reinterpretation of palaeoecological records from Tswaing crater (South Africa) reveals the crucial role of fire in shaping savanna","authors":"Abraham Nqabutho Dabengwa ,&nbsp;Louis Scott ,&nbsp;Marion Bamford","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Debates about the role of fire in shaping open savanna ecosystems influence our understanding of environmental changes, human evolution, and ecosystem conservation. Quaternary palaeoenvironmental studies can provide crucial evidence of climate, vegetation, and fire dynamics, offering valuable insights into their interconnections. While droughts have long been considered the primary driver of openness in African savannas, with fire acting as a secondary response, perspectives about fire have evolved. Accordingly, fire frequency and plant tolerance to fire can drive changes in plant growth-forms, vegetation communities, and openness. Flammability, a key trait enabling plants to thrive in frequently burnt environments, is linked to higher fine C₄ grass fuel loads but constrained by tree cover. This dynamic interplay results in mosaic landscapes with alternative ecosystem patch states (AES) varying in degree of flammability. This new insight about fire prompted us to re-examine the ∼200,000-year (200 Kyr) Tswaing multiple-proxy palaeoenvironmental evidence. We found that vegetation at long timescales was dominated by growth-forms typical of open environments, such as forbs and graminoids (grasses and sedges). Cooler conditions beginning ∼90-18 Kyr—the last glacial period—triggered the expansion of C₄ grasses and savanna at the expense of forest patches. A positive feedback loop between fire, rainfall seasonality, cooler temperatures, and grass fires likely reinforced the subsequent savanna patches. Fire and rainfall amount influenced the main gradient of variation in vegetation from forest to savanna-type patch states. Charcoal production was linked to local-scale Cyperaceae/Poaceae graminoid interactions that affected fire spread and flammability due to differences in seasonality-driven fuel moisture. On the other hand, the association of some <em>Stoebe</em> and <em>Artermisia</em> herbs with Cyperaceae indicates use of disturbance gaps after burning events. The strong climatic forcing signal made it difficult to conclude whether observed forest <em>versus</em> savanna-type patches were fire-driven alternative ecosystem states. However, reinterpreting Tswaing vegetation-fire dynamics was essential for understanding the representation of fire in grassy ecosystems and evaluating climate data, which are invaluable for tracing long-term land use changes and conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110010"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145418358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Site formation and post-sedimentary processes affecting Pleistocene archaeological record: depositional environments and sediment deformation at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Peña Cabra rock shelter (central Spain)","authors":"Luis Luque ,&nbsp;Martin Kehl ,&nbsp;José-Javier Alcolea-González ,&nbsp;María de Andrés-Herrero ,&nbsp;Samuel Castillo-Jiménez ,&nbsp;Felipe Cuartero ,&nbsp;Nicole Klasen ,&nbsp;Ignacio Triguero ,&nbsp;Antonio Alcaina ,&nbsp;Gerd-Christian Weniger ,&nbsp;Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding site formation and post-depositional processes is critical for analysing and interpreting the nature, function and environmental setting of human occupations recorded in Pleistocene archaeological deposits. Here we study the sedimentary and post-depositional processes that operated at the Middle Palaeolithic sequence of the Peña Cabra site and its role in the distribution of archaeological remains. This site is located in central Iberia (Guadalajara province, Spain), in a nowadays almost inaccessible spot placed on a vertical rock face, in the slope of the fluvial valley of the Sorbe River (Tagus basin). The geomorphological, sedimentological and micromorphological studies conducted, combined with the intra-site spatial analyses of the archaeological record and the chronometric dating of the sequence, shows that the formation and post-depositional history of the stratigraphic deposit is related to complex geological overlapped processes. These include (1) fluvial dynamics, (2) catastrophic flood events, (3) slope sediment deposition during the human occupation, (4) the freezing and thawing of soil under periglacial climate and (5) the later sudden sedimentary isolation of the cavity from the sediment source due to a rock wall collapse. Some of these events conditioned the periods of occupation of the site by Neanderthals groups during MIS 5, including the accessibility to the rock shelter. Furthermore, they have been a relevant factor affecting the current distribution of the archaeological record due to sediment bed deformation. Our results illustrate the necessity of conducting interdisciplinary geoarchaeological and taphonomic research in Pleistocene sites as a key prerequisite for interpreting the spatial distribution of archaeological assemblages in behavioural terms. Although this is a well-known necessity in current research, issues such as sediment deformation affecting archaeological layers are not yet widely investigated, even though many Pleistocene sites could have been affected by cryoturbation processes during cold periods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110009"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145324064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climatic and tectonic settings as a driver of late Quaternary landscape in the Southern Espinhaço range lowlands, Minas Gerais (Brazil)","authors":"Mateus F. Cagnin ,&nbsp;Fabiano T. da Conceição ,&nbsp;Claudio E. Lana ,&nbsp;Vinicius B. Moreira","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climatic changes and tectonic events play an important role into the denudational and sedimentation processes. The Southern Espinhaço Range (SER) is an important N-S continental elevate terranes in the state of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. The SER is primarily composed for Paleo-Mesoproterozoic quartzites, with Neoproterozoic pelites and carbonates. At the moment, only one study considered the unconsolidated sediments in the SER highlands (fluvial terraces and alluvial plains) were carried out. Here, four unconsolidated sediment profiles associated to alluvial fan system dominated by gravity flows (D1), fluvial terraces (D2 and D4) and lacustrine environment (D3) in the SER lowlands were studied, using sedimentary facies, chemical weathering indexes, and Single-Aliquot Regenerative Optically Stimulated Luminescence technique (SAR OSL). The main chemical weathering reactions in the fresh rocks were silicate incongruent dissolution (muscovite and biotite) and partial hydrolyses of microcline and albite forming kaolinite and illite, with quartz being unweathered. The unconsolidated sediments have high maturity, being originated under intense weathering conditions, with warm and humid climate. OSL ages in the SER lowlands varying from 47.45 ± 3.68 ka to 1.92 ± 0.15 ka, revealing old ages in relation to samples dated in the SER highlands (from 26.35 ± 4.47 ka to 0.18 ± 0.04 ka). These sedimentary profiles were deposit under a mix of paleoclimatic context, prevailing dry climate between ∼50 and ∼29.5 ka and ∼7 and ∼3 ka, and wet conditions from ∼29.5 to 7 ka and &lt;3.1 ka. Fluvial incision at D2 and D4 and the presence of lacustrine environment elevated 30 m above the current base level, as well as the presence of faults that displace blocks in sedimentary profiles, indicated the importance role of |tectonic in the study area. Thus, climate changes and tectonic events control the landscape evolution in SER.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"750 ","pages":"Article 110006"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145364535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Holocene and Late Pleistocene Flood Events in Central Europe Reconstructed from Eifel Maar Lake Sediments","authors":"Johannes Albert, Frank Sirocko","doi":"10.3390/quat8040069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8040069","url":null,"abstract":"Severe floods such as in the Ahr valley in July 2021 are one of the leading causes of fatalities from natural disaster. Riverine and lacustrine floods are caused by a sudden flux of water masses from heavy rainfall or snowmelts. These surface water runoff events significantly enhance erosion of detrital material in the catchment, which is then deposited in natural sinks such as lakes. We reconstructed flood phases from Eifel maar lakes over the last 60,000 years and compared flood behavior with regional riverine flood data covering the past 1000 years. Multi-centennial flood cycles persisted throughout the Holocene with durations of flood-poor periods significantly decreasing around 3700 years ago due to human activity in the Eifel region. Holocene flood frequency peaked in the 13th and 14th centuries during the medieval agricultural revolution. Late Pleistocene flood phases occurred during the Younger Dryas and Heinrich stadials and represent surface runoff events in cold and dry climates. As flood behavior is strongly affected not only by increased water supply but also by soil stability and erosion processes in the catchment area, flood phases reflect shifts in the prevailing climate conditions and vegetation cover, either through natural steppe formation or human impact.","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"8 4","pages":"69-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/8/4/69/pdf?version=1763459284","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147908607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Holocene salinity changes of Lake Shinji, western Japan, with sea-level fluctuation and delta plain development based on siliceous microfossil analysis","authors":"Iori Miura ,&nbsp;Kota Katsuki ,&nbsp;Toshimichi Nakanishi ,&nbsp;Koji Seto ,&nbsp;Yoshiki Saito","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109994","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109994","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A detailed analysis of siliceous microfossils, including diatoms and silicoflagellates, from core sediments collected from the Izumo Plain near Lake Shinji (in the San'in region of western Japan) reveals significant changes in water salinity and landforms throughout the Holocene. These changes were controlled by relative sea-level fluctuations, delta progradation, and variations in regional precipitation. Sediment accumulation, beginning around 10,100 cal BP, marking the formation of a stratified estuary connected to the Japan Sea via a tidal river in an incised valley. Following the Holocene sea-level rise, this estuary evolved into paleo-Shinji Bay by approximately 8200 cal BP, characterized by rapid increase in salinity. Around 7500 cal BP, the salinity of the bay sharply decreased due to semi-enclosed due to semi-enclosure caused by shoaling at the bay entrance, resulting from the decelerating sea-level rise. The Hii and Kando Rivers, the main rivers flowing into the bay from the south, eventually reached the Shimane Peninsula, and the progradation of their delta divided the bay into two coastal lakes by around 4000 cal BP. The exchange of seawater with the eastern lake, Lake Shinji, was limited by the narrow river at the eastern end, which connected with Lake Nakaumi. The salinity of Lake Shinji significantly decreased, resulting in the disappearance of silicoflagellates. Between 1100 and 750 cal BP, the course of the Hii River shifted from westward (discharging into the western lake) to eastward (discharging into the eastern lake), which caused rapid infilling and freshening of Lake Shinji. This process was further intensified over the last 500 years due to human activities related to iron production, which led to the influx of large volumes of decomposed granite soil into the Hii River. In addition to morphologic and sea-level influences, global and regional climate fluctuations also influenced the aqueous environments of the region. The sediments of the semi-enclosed bay record millennial-scale eutrophication events driven by intense rainfall associated with El Niño events and shifts in the westerly jet stream.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":"749 ","pages":"Article 109994"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145321567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}