Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland

Wüthrich, Lorenz Andreas; Bliedtner, Marcel; Schäfer, Imke Kathrin; Zech, Jana; Shajari, Fatemeh; Gaar, Dorian; Preusser, Frank; Salazar Quintero, Gary Abdiel; Szidat, Sönke; Zech, Roland (2017). Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart E&G / E&G Quaternary science journal, 66(2), pp. 91-100. 10.5194/egqsj-66-91-2017

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We present the results of leaf wax analyses (long-chain n-alkanes) from the 6.8 m deep loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland, spanning the last  ∼  70 kyr. Leaf waxes are well preserved and occur in sufficient amounts only down to 0.4 m and below 1.8 m depth, so no paleoenvironmental reconstructions can be done for marine isotope stage (MIS) 2.

Compound-specific δ2Hwax analyses yielded similar values for late MIS 3 compared to the uppermost samples, indicating that various effects (e.g., more negative values due to lower temperatures, more positive values due to an enriched moisture source) cancel each other out. A pronounced  ∼  30 ‰ shift towards more negative values probably reflects more humid conditions before  ∼  32 ka. Radiocarbon dating of the n-alkanes corroborates the stratigraphic integrity of leaf waxes and their potential for dating loess–paleosol sequences (LPS) back to  ∼  30 ka.

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