Quantifying quaternary climate variability in the Southern Caucasus using land snail shell isotope transfer functions and climatic niche modeling
Christiane Richter·Dominik Faust·Hayk Hovakimyan·Daniel Wolf·Michael Schneider·Bernhard Hausdorf·Markus Fuchs·Lilit Sahakyan·Frank Walther
Late Quaternary loess-paleosol sequences in the Armenian highlands represent key terrestrial archives for reconstructing past climate variability. Related proxy data are essential both for understanding the environmental and cultural history of the Caucasus area - a global biodiversity hotspot and archaeological key region - and for benchmarking Earth system models. However, robust quantitative paleoclimate records remain scarce for this climatically and topographically complex area. Here, we pr