Palaeoenvironmental Analysis of the Southern Part of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve (Hungary): The Northern Loess Wall of Katymár and the Hay Meadows and Loess Banks of Hajós

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the southern part of the Danube–Tisza interfluve in the Carpathian Basin from the Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, addressing the region’s response to global climate forcings and local environmental factors based on multi-proxy analyses of two key protected areas: the Katymár brickyard and the hay meadows and loess banks of Hajós. By integrating radiocarbon-dated malacological, macrobotanical, pollen, phytolith, geochemical, and sedimentological analyses, it was possible to provide a picture of past climate–ecosystem interactions. The Katymár North sequence provides an extended chronology from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3, ca. 36,000 cal BP) through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and into the Early Holocene, while the Hajós sequence offers high-resolution data for the LGM–Holocene transition. By the late Ice Age, humidity and surface moisture superseded temperature as primary palaeoecological limiting factors, promoting ecotone-like forest–steppe environments during cooling periods.

Keywords

• loess–palaeosol
• wetland
• multi-proxy analysis
• climate change
• malaco-thermometer