Comparing a new paleomap of European loess landscapes to an atmospheric dust circulation model

Loess is an important archive of environmental change covering approximately 10% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface. Numerous studies have analyzed loess deposits and in particular loess-paleosol sequences. To analyze these sequences, it is important to know the spatial distribution of aeolian sediments, their location relative to potential source areas, and the geomorphology of the sink area. We investigated these aspects by compiling a new map of aeolian sediments in Europe using highly resolved geodata from 27 countries (Lehmkuhl et al., 2021). To determine the most relevant factors for the European loess distribution, we further mapped potential source areas and divided the map into different facies domains. We analyzed the geomorphological and paleoenvironmental effects on the deposition and preservation of Late Pleistocene loess. Finally, the geodata-based results were compared with results obtained from high-resolved regional numerical climate-dust experiments for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Europe, which were performed with the LGM-adapted Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem-LGM; Schaffernicht et al., 2020). Complementing the mapping-based findings with the WRF-Chem-LGM experiments results in an improved understanding of the Late Pleistocene loess landscape in Europe. References Lehmkuhl, F., Nett, J.J., Pötter, S., Schulte, P., Sprafke, T., Jary, Z., Antoine, P., Wacha, L., Wolf, D., Zerboni, A., Hošek, J., Marković, S.B., Obreht, I., Sümegi, P., Veres, D., Zeeden, C., Boemke, B., Schaubert, V., Viehweger, J., Hambach, U. 2021). Loess landscapes of Europe – Mapping, geomorphology, and zonal differentiation. Earth-Science Reviews. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103496 Schaffernicht, E.J., Ludwig, P., Shao, Y., 2020. Linkage between dust cycle and loess of the last Glacial Maximum in Europe. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 20, 4969–4986. https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/4969/2020/, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4969-2020