Logs of high-resolution magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence were used as paleoclimatic proxies to define the environmental transition from the last glacial loess to the current interglacial soil as reflected in nine loess-paleosol sequences across the northern hemisphere, from the Chinese Loess Plateau, the southeastern European loess belt and the central Great Plains, USA. Detailed chronological assessment of such regional proxy records around the climatic transitions allow a better understanding of how regional records react to major global climatic transitions such as the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition. Their paleoclimatic significance is often explored by quantifying their mineral magnetic properties due to their sensitivity to local/regional hydroclimate variability. Loess deposits intercalated by paleosols are detailed terrestrial archives of Quaternary climate variability providing information on the global dust cycle and landscape dynamics. Contrasts between Great Plains and Eurasian loess records reflect differences in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene climatic evolution and other factors influencing the loess system. This study demonstrates the potential for developing high-resolution, well-dated paleoclimatic records from the loess of the central Great Plains. The high-resolution grain size profile from Enders shares many features with similar data from the previously studied Wauneta site, including three peaks of fine-grained material just above and within the Brady Soil, likely representing response to millennial-scale climatic changes during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The loess-paleosol stratigraphy since the Late Pleistocene at the Enders site is very similar to that at other sites in western Nebraska, and the newly developed OSL chronology (based on three grain size classes) adds new confidence to earlier dating. The Holocene Bignell Loess then buried the Brady Soil and accumulated episodically throughout the Holocene. Rapid accumulation of Late Pleistocene Peoria Loess was replaced around 13-14 ka by formation of the Brady Soil until 9.5 ± 0.6 ka. The section records multiple episodes of rapid loess deposition alternating with soil formation. Here we present a detailed optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) chronology as well as multi-proxy analysis obtained for the first time on the Enders section, located in southwestern Nebraska, central Great Plains. Loess deposits of the central Great Plains, USA, and their intercalated soils provide a detailed record of climatically driven changes within the aeolian system during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and the Holocene.
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