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Incoming research project: Abrupt climate changes – Evidence from Quaternary sedimentological sequences in Croatia (ACCENT)

Quaternary climate change research within Earth science is mainly focused on polar ice core, deep-sea sediments and loess-palaeosoil sequences all around the world, reporting in detail climate and, consequently, environmental extremes in time. A fundamental and interdisciplinary approach to investigate abrupt climate change enables us to obtain valuable data and interpret the dynamics of these changes. This data and their interpretation can form the basis, both for comparing palaeoclimate changes with modern ones and for predicting the dynamics of these changes in the future. These insights can make it easier for humankind to adapt to changes that will affect all aspects of life on Earth. Because of fast and unquestionable climate change and threats that have emerged, geologists are trying, based on records in Quaternary sediments, to identify the process of change. The exploration of Quaternary sediments (CSF project SAPIQ) has resulted in significant findings in loess/palaeosoil sequences and the Đurđevac Sands in the Pannonian area (continental climate) and fluvioglacial sediments in the foothills of the Velebit Mt. and in the Vrgorac Lake in the Dinaric area (Mediterranean climate). Explorations of loess-palaeosoil sequences revealed the existence of 16 cumulic horizons, which evolved just above well-developed palaeosoils. They represent paleoclimate archives of dynamics of 16 climate changes. The proposed research will be focused on analysing cumulic horizons in NE Croatia, providing detailed descriptions of transitions from the warm to the glacial period in the Upper Pleistocene. Besides, the investigation of palaeosoils and geomorphological/sedimentological features in the dunes of the Đurđevac Sands may help to determine the nature of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in this area, as well as potential Holocene climate-related palaeoenvironmental changes. Those terrestrial archives in the south of the Carpathian Basin will provide insight into the magnitude, timing and spatial variability of climate changes. Since fluvioglacial sediment successions in a foothill of the Velebit Mt. is crucial for describing abrupt climate change during the Upper Pleistocene, it is within this proposed project plan to constrain the magnitude, timing, and spatial variability and correlate this event with the dynamics of climate change transitions in a continental climate as based on the other archives outlined above. The depositional environments and sediment facies found in the Vrgoračko polje are considered to represent a typical Quaternary lacustrine sedimentation pattern for other Dinaric karst poljes in a Mediterranean climate. The proposed project will explore in detail the dynamics of all mentioned facies transitions in all proposed sections, as a consequence of the climate change transitions and correlate. The specific geological and pedological diversity, geographical position, geomorphology and climate diversity of Croatia enables the parallel high- resolution study of the development of abrupt climate changes at locations only 300 km apart. This research will improve our understanding of the spatial extent and differences in appearing of palaeoclimatic events in the Pannonian and Dinaric areas. This will yield insight into aeolian- fluvioglacial-lacustrine teleconnections in southeastern Europe. In turn, these form the basis for supraregional correlations with the European Sand Belt (northwestern Europe) and the Adriatic Sea.

Abrupt climate changes, Quaternary ; loess ; dune ; fluvioglacial sediment ; karst lake ; Croatia

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