Excursions to C4 vegetation in Surduk loess

This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Climate of the Past (CP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in CP if available. Abstract Loess sequences have been intensively studied to characterize past glacial climates of the 40–50 • North and South latitude zones. Combining different approaches of sed-imentology, magnetism, geochemistry, geochronology and malacology allows the general pattern of the climate and environment of the last interglacial-glacial cycle in Eura-5 sia and America to be characterized. Previous studies performed in Europe have highlighted the predominance (if not the sole occurrence) of C 3 vegetation. The presence of C 3 plants suggests a regular distribution of precipitation along the year. Therefore, even if the mean annual precipitation remained very low during the most extensive glacial times, free water was available for more than 2 months per year. Contrarily, the δ 13 C 10 record of Surduk (Serbia) clearly shows the occurrence and dominance of C 4 plants during at least 4 episodes of the last glacial times at [26. The C 4 plant development is interpreted as a specific atmospheric circulation pattern that induces short and dry summer conditions. As possible explanation, we propose that during " C 4 episodes " , the Mediterranean Sea 15 would have been under the combined influence of the following: (i) a strong meridional circulation unfavorable to water evaporation that reduced the Mediterranean precipitation on the Balkans; and (ii) a high positive North Atlantic Western Russian (NAWR)-like atmospheric pattern that favored northerlies over westerlies and reduced Atlantic precipitation over the Balkans. This configuration would imply very dry summers that did 20 not allow C 3 plants to grow, thus supporting C 4 development. The intra " C 4 episode " periods would have occurred under less drastic oceanic and atmospheric patterns that made the influence of westerlies on the Balkans possible.